Camel

Special thanks to Sapna, New Media Czar here at COACISSW, for the link. While it is spectacularly informative (particularly the bit about putting your finger over the end of the knife to avoid puncturing the guts) it must be noted that Bear does not actually crawl inside the camel to survive a storm in the wild. It is merely a demonstration. Who knows the high-pitched noises and bowel movements Bear would emit were the sands truly raging outside that cozy carcass. However, he does provide a valuable lead: the berbers. Known for their wandering ways and quick tempers (don't believe me? Try saying something to notable berber Zinedine Zidane about his mother,) they have a long tradition of cutting open camels and crawling inside to survive sand storms. The time may be nigh to track down this ancient people and learn from them what I can.

COACISSW friend Jacob is already planning a trip by camel from Mongolia to England and has generously extended an invitation. To give me the chance to be, in his eloquent words, "the actor in (my) favorite literature." Knowing Jacob, this journey is sure to be rife with disaster, and will more than likely involve getting stranded in the wild in a storm. Has the time already come to, as the saying goes, put up or shut up? To leave the comfortable confines of the blogosphere and venture into the desert? To travel astride a beast which I may, at any moment, have to cut open and crawl inside to survive a storm in the wild? Perhaps. More to come.