Seperated at birth, two hearts divided between two continents. Born of the same mother, but thrown into obscurity – these two creatures led very similar lives in very distant lands. They battle against the odds to find a place they can call home, and perhaps one day meet again, or at the hope, get a message passed against all odds to tell the tale of their lost brotherhood.

There should be no doubt in your mind that I am of course talking about Clive. And there should also be no doubt that you cannot talk about Clive without the thought of his twin brother Colin in your deepest thoughts.

This is Colin’s story…

He’s a camel, we don’t know if he’s related to Clive, but he does look extremely similar in a way that only camels can. And today, we took a camel ride across the dunes, or rather, around them. And it was great! 🙂 It’s difficult to describe the sensation even with hand movements, as I tried to do earlier. “Do you remember earlier, when we on the camel going like this?” I asked Ali, rolling my hand in a circular motion. “Yeah, and we were like this”, Ali replied, flailing her arms in the air and rolling side to side.

So, riding a camel is a lot like being on the set of thunderbirds, while journeying 10,000 leagues under the sea. Amazing what early afternoon Sunday television can teach you.

We called our Camel, Collin, as you might have guessed and he led the way in the group of three camels on our small trekking party around the dunes. I presumed that meant he was one of the coolest of all the camels. Which was evident because; everyone followed him; when he stopped to see what some plants smelt like, we all stopped; if he wanted to send Ali into the bushes, well he just had to move a bit to the right; and if at the end, he wanted to sit down and not wait for the other camels or the humans to say “you can sit now” – well he was damn well going to sit down.

The camel safari is proudly stated as “The most hilarious excursion in Gran Canaria”. And they’re not wrong, even if I do suspect they just have crap translators. “Uhhhh, Dave, did you send those leaflets out to the printers yet? I think we have a typo”. And it was without a doubt hilarious, and a definate plus on the things to do front.

We left the camel place and argued over what was better. The lizards that live in the Barranco de Maspalomas, or the camels. I still say the camels are better, as I left the camel place quickly forgetting the glee I had at staring at the lizards earlier on in the day. “No, we should love Gran Canaria as a whole, not forget the old toys because a new one has come along”, says Ali. I agreed – but silently, and between you and me….the camels ARE better 🙂

So tonight we’re going to go and visit Terry Bull at the bar. He’s the guy who was singing to himself in the empty bar on our first night. Well, it’s only fair that since we laughed at him every day – we go and laugh in his face. Which reminds me, that bar has a job opening at the moment. Ladies wanted, Must be Flexible. If you’re interested 🙂

And then tomorrow, it’s off to Palmitos Park, so we can go and laugh at some more animals – including their new Komodo Dragon. I’m also on the lookout for Conejo, or Rabbit. Because the wildlife reserve says they have them – but all I saw were birds and lizards. So maybe the park will also give a big check mark there too 🙂

Tags: travel