We were staying at Camping Aain Nakhla. The site only had space for 15 vehicles and was really too small for our truck. Salah, our host, had worked in Germany for many years and spoke the language fluently – the majority of his guests were German. We also met a couple from Lithuania and another young couple that had driven all the way from South Korea. There were a few English people on the site including a family travelling in two vehicles; the grandparents were in a motor home while the mum and dad were in a camper van with their two little boys, age 4 and 15 months. The four year old was having a great time socialising with the other campers, armed with a (sponge) light sabre his grandparents had bought from the local supermarket.
Salah managed to create a friendly community amongst his guests, he would light a bonfire some evenings for guests to sit around and chat. The atmosphere was warm and friendly and we always lingered at Aain Nakhla longer than we planned.
I had developed a painful knee, perhaps I strained it walking over rough ground. Salah noticed I was limping and recommended a “cream made from the fat of the camel’s hump” – really? Salah was insistent and next day he went to the pharmacy and brought me tube of the cream plus an elastic knee support. I was pretty sceptical but after 36 hours I realised that the cream was providing genuine pain relief. It could have been pure coincidence but Camel Hump Cream would now became an essential part of my first aid kit. It did smell slightly camelly.
