Camel Riding In Ramona

Once a month the Oasis Camel Dairy in Ramona has tours of the farm and camel rides. Of course when my friend Linda told me about this I just had to go. Fran, Barb, Fran, and I went on a Sunday in February, and had quite a time. We met Fran's granddaughter and daughter in law and Judy and friend from Upland. Unfortunately, the day we chose to visit the farm was the busiest day they'd ever had. There was a piece on the camels on the news, and everyone decided to check it out. The chairs they had set up for visitors weren't enough, so they had a tractor bring in bales of hay for others to sit on. It was pretty funny.

The tour of the farm was not really a tour. The owners gave us a talk about camels, how they got started, then a bird show. Yes, a bird show. The wife has a bird show that she takes to the county fair, and she gave us a sample of what her birds can do. It was cute, but not what we came for.

In all, there are 22 camels on the farm. They are raised with love and lots of attention, so they are not the nasty biting, spitting camels that we generally think of. We learned a lot about camels, and finally got to ride one. Fortunately they had a set of steps for us to climb to board the camel, so getting on was a piece of cake. It was a fun couple of hours, but nothing I would go to again.

We were starving by the time we finished camel riding, so we stopped at a cute little Mexican restaurant on the main drag of Ramona, La Cocina. It's a few doors down from Subway. The food was delicious and authentic. I ordered rolled taquitos, smothered in guacamole and cheese for $4.99. Barb ordered the enchiladas, which she enjoyed. Fran ordered tacos, and an order of guacamole and chips, which we polished off in no time. If you find yourself in Ramona and hungry, try La Cocina. You probably won't be out that way unless you're going to the Wild Animal Park or Julian. I doubt too many of you are going to make the trip to the camel farm. It was fun, but maybe not worth the drive.