The closest most of us will get to riding through an Arabian desert on a camel are those rides kids can take for free on a humped friend at the zoo (or if you’re like me, that time I fell asleep in the middle of reading Arabian Nights as a kid and swore I woke up with a sunburn).But at least now we can get a better idea of the experience with Google Street View’s new camel view of the Liwa Desert.

The Google Maps team announced the virtual trip, which allows users to see the soaring dunes of Liwa, “home to early settlers back in the Late Stone Age, making Liwa one of the oldest sites in the United Arab Emirates.”

And like any good ending to the scene where you’re crawling through the sand, dragging your body across millions of bits of scorching hot miniscule rocks, the camel’s trip includes a visit to the Liwa Oasis, the largest in the Arabian peninsula.

More about our trusty steed: He’s a 10-year-old dromedary (one hump) named Raffia, and he carried Google’s Trekker camera while being led by a handler, reports The Verge. I would like to be his friend, reports me.

There’s also a guy far off in the distance in some shots, who may or may not be Obi-Wan Kenobi. I can’t tell, I’m hallucinating with thirst and it’s so hot — oh hang on. I’m on my couch with a club soda. Everything’s fine.

Google put its Street View camera on a camel’s back to tour the Arabian desert [The Verge]

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