Mid-tour home visit

Just off on my way shortly. Spending a few days at home which will be very exciting - just alittle bit excited!, really looking forward to it even though it is only a few days; just hope the transport plan all works.

All the King's Camels

Well, apart from my camel friend Sultan who I see on my occasional runs I had been quite disappointed that the old 'ships of the desert' do seem to be rather few and far between. However, all that changed last weekend. Having seen a postcard with the most tenuous lead of a location for where camels could be seen I set out on a hunt. After resolving the small oversight of nearly ending up in Saudi Arabia without a passport I evertually came upon the the King's uncle's camel farm. Noitwithstanding the somewhat unencouraging signs saying 'No Entry' 'Access Forbidden' they are actually quite happy to see visitors though perhaps because of the signs I was the only one there!

Having got chatting to one of the camel keepers he then proceeded to give me a tour of their stables and even took me down to meet the baby camels that were just 3 weeks old which was a lot of fun. They are all very friendly (Both camels and keepers!) but I was quite glad thatthe massively large male ones were chained to avoid them getting too friendly though all were up for a bit of a pat and nose scratch. Baby camel was quite keen to eat my camera which made filming a bit of a challenge but I was able to get quite a few shots and a video will be appearing shortly!

The camels, 400 of them in all, are kept as a hobby (don't feel quite so bad about just the two motorbikes now!) and keep about 27 chaps employed looking after them. All in all a very good visit and all for the price of a tip to the camel keeper.