Going for a hike? - Let a camel, a goat or even a llama accompany you

By Patrizia Schlosser Jul 19, 2011, 4:06 GMT

Mangfalltal, Germany - Camels? In Bavaria? Two hikers stop dead in their tracks, mouths agape.

A small caravan of camels is slowly passing them on their trail in the middle of the idyllic Mangfalltal valley, a hiking area about 20 kilometres south-east of Munich.

Comfortably seated atop the animals, the riders sway back and forth as they go through the forest, pass by farmers in their fields and cows out in the pastures. A touch of the exotic in a local setting.

'This is a lot better than normal hiking,' says Anna. The 12-year-old is hugging the long neck of her camel and enthusiastically ruffling the woolly pelt, making herself comfortable on the lady's chair atop the camel's back.

The female Gina calmly accepts all this attention. Her head held aloft, she strides along with Anna atop her, past a herd of cows which stop their grazing to stare in amazement.

The lack of a lawn mower and a lot of land - this was the starting point for the idea for camel tours in Mangfalltall, says camel guide Konstantin Klages. 'In order to keep the grass short, my father one day brought three circus camels home with him,' the 24-year-old says.

After his high school graduation, Konstantin decided to expand on the family's small farm instead of going to university. Today, the self-described 'nature boy' owns 11 camels.

But it's not only Konstantin who keeps camels in southern Germany. In the Allgaeu mountain region south-west of Munich hikers might also suddenly turn a corner of a trail and run into camel riders.

In Seeg - just a few kilometres distant from the landmark fairytale Neuschwanstein Castle - Christine Sieber has her farm.

Sieber's claim to fame is that she is so far the only woman, when she was just 26-years-old, to have taken part in a camel race in the United Arab Emirates. And she won. 'This boosted my resolve, one day to operate a camel farm,' says Sieber, who is now 38.

But it's not just camels making their mark on family vacation activities in Bavaria these days. There's a trekking tour using goats to carry hikers' equipment organized by Joerg Jacobi near Lake Constance.

Like well-trained dogs, the goats obediently trot alongside the hikers. No leashes are necessary. 'Each goat has its own personality, and it accordingly wants to choose its human hiking companion,' Jacobi says.

Children brimming with energy will run out ahead alongside the lead goats, while those who like to daydream and dally a bit will hang around with the slower goats which like to stop and graze in the grass here and there.

Altogether, the trained farmer and recreational therapist owns 40 goats. In the natural preservation area near Lake Constance he offers his tours - not only to families, but also to office workers showing signs of burnout. Jacobi says there is an easy explanation.

'At some point, when everyone has found his place within the group and calm has set in, hiking with animals becomes a kind of meditation trip,' he says.

Because goats can carry a load weighing up to 40 per cent of their own body weight, they are suitable not only for relaxed family outings, Swiss mountain tour guide Sandra Egil notes.

She offers some pretty demanding alpine hikes, for example through the granite stone landscape of the mighty Gotthard mountain, with the assistance of her goats Lupo ('he's the boss,' says Egil), Nino ('the noble one') and five others. Her goat-assisted mountain tours earned Egil the 'Milestone 2005' prize for innovation in tourism.

Far to the north, on the island of Usedom in Germany's Baltic Sea region, Christine Harloff offers tours with llamas, the animal which served the ancient Incas of Peru so well in the Andes Mountains.

'Llamas are very well-suited to children because they adapt their pace to whoever is in charge of them,' she notes. But in contrast to camels and goats, llamas are very picky.