I have friends in town visiting this week, which is AWESOME! S was my roommate my first year in Morocco and we've been friends for the 12+ years since. She married C almost a year ago and they are currently living back in Morocco while C does research for his dissertation (Mr. Smarty-for real).
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| S and C waiting for their camel ride. |
I decided I needed to stuff my "Qatar" isn't my favorite place" attitude and have an adventure or two while they are here. A had mentioned the possibility of watching some camel races a while back and my initial response was not favorable. I think it was more the timing that the actual event, but I decided to research it a bit and take S and C (along with P and M - home school field trip!). I found out that the camels train and race daily starting around 9:30 am during their season, which started around the middle of October (it's too hot before this). We packed up some snacks and water and set off. I didn't have directions and GPS had no idea, but we made it without a problem... Apparently camel racing is a BIG deal and there were plenty of signs to get us there.
When we arrived we saw several groups of camels either walking or trotting around with their trainers, but there weren't really any spectators. Being the middle of the week, I wasn't really sure if there would be a crowd... Um no.. no one..
We drove around a bit and then stopped at a building that actually had a few Qataris and Saudis going in and out (you can tell by their thobes - outfits and headpieces). I wasn't going to get out and chat it up with a bunch of men, but C hopped out and within seconds was shaking hands with a Qatari gentleman, who informed him that there were no camel races today (booo), but that if we waited 15 minutes, he show us around (score!). We agreed to wait.
While we were waiting, we got to see several groups of camels who were walking and/or training. The camels used to be ridden by young children in races (some as young as 4), but this practice was outlawed a few years ago, and now they are jockeyed by mechanical monkeys who are controlled via remote control. (A was in school today, but is VERY much looking forward to seeing this!)
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| Training the camels. |
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| There's a trainer on the adult and then two babies (in blue blankets) being trained for each adult. |
After about 10 minutes he arrived back and told us to follow him in his SUV. We weaved in and out of buildings for a while and ended up and his camel station (small house, some fencing and sheltered areas for the camels). This is only the winter place for the camels and they don't race during the hot parts of the year. He led us around the back of the house where we were met by several men on his training staff and a handful of camels. There were no women, but all the men were actually really kind to us, probably because we had C leading the adventure. The camel owner (H) immediately wanted to get us all up on the camels, but P and M were having NONE of it and were terrified. C and S were hoisted up onto the camels and led around a bit.
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| H's front camel corral. |
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| Love this picture with the mosque in the background. |
It was so fun to see all of his camels, and to see C and S up on them (I haven't seen camels up close or ridden them since my time in the Sarah Desert when I lived in Morocco..). I decided not to get up on them because P and M were pretty scared; camels are a lot taller than you might think.
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| H posed them like this for a picture. |
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| This is how the camels allow the rider to dismount, front first is a little scary. |
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| H loved S and put her back up for a second ride. |
After the camel riding was done, H grabbed us all and the picture taking began. The staff guys, H, S, C, and I all took ample pictures, which seemed to thrill H.. He was so hospitable. Some of the helpers pulled out a large carpet, brought it into a smaller pen with two baby camels and put it down for us in the shade. We all took our shoes off and rested in the shade while C and H chatted in Arabic. C did a GREAT job of translating! One of the staff brought us tea and water, which was great, because though it's late November, it was pretty hot.
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| Picture time. |
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| H and the ladies.. (and M) |
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| Two of the babies. |
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| Tea time. |
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| P on the carpet - camels in the background. |
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| Tired and hot babies. |
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| M with his tea. The kid loves tea. |
Their noon day routine needed to get underway, so we made our way back to the SUV and back to Doha. It was a great adventure and we got to experience some Qatari hospitality and learn about camels and camel racing, which is HUGE in this area of the world. Here are some fun facts about camels:
-Racing camels are mainly from Oman
-Camels are VERY expensive - Omani thoroughbreds can command from $155,000 to $260,000
-Camels have REALLY cool legs.. (see the dismount picture)
-There are two kinds of camels: Dromedary - has one hump and Bactrian - has two humps and is endangered.
-Camels have a third eye lid to protect they eyes from sand, it covers the eye ball and is nearly transparent so the camel can see through it. I wish I had that.
-The hump(s) does not store water, it is actually filled with fat allowing the camel to go without food for a month.
-Camels are born without a hump and only develop it when their diet changes from milk to food.
-When running, camels can reach bursts of 40 mph, but can sustain speeds of 25 mph!
It was a very unique adventure indeed!
