This spring, Micke and Julia traveled around with their camper van in Tunisia. There they got to know Ahmed Belhaj who took them out into the Sahara desert for six days. There they got to ride on dromedaries. The dromedary is closely related to the camel but has only one hump.
- Ahmed talked about competitions held during the winter and thought we would come back and participate, Julia says.
They decided to return to the city of Douz in the fall. For two months they are now in place to take part in a camel race.
- This was not something we were going to do, it was nothing on our bucking list exactly, says Julia.
"A little shaky at first"Ahmed is now the coach of Mike who spends several hours each day preparing for the competitions. They have borrowed the dromedary Lahjal.
- I've never ridden horses or dromedaries before. It was a bit shaky at first but after a few days you got into it. It is important to become one with the dromedary when you sit up, says Micke.
The competitions take place during a four-day festival and about 50,000 people are expected to visit it. The shortest is a 1.7 kilometer race and the longest is a marathon.
- To the best of my knowledge, I am the only European member. The locals were a bit skeptical at first, they know that I haven't ridden dromedaries before, says Mike.
They share their journey in social media and call themselves "The Swedish camel rider". They say they only received good response from loved ones who follow them.
- Otherwise we tend to be very private of us, but we felt that this is a very special thing and very fun. And in some way we want to show that Tunisia is a wonderful country to be in, says Julia.