The day was like most here. Hot, sunny sandy. I know, sandy? A day that is sandy? What does that mean? Living in a place where the sands of the desert are part of your surroundings and you can’t go anywhere without encountering it…I’d call that sandy. It’s so much a part of this part of the earth that even the animals are adapted to it. Did you know that a camel can close its nostrils to keep sand out or that they can travel a steady 25 miles an hour for long periods of time across the sandy desert floor and can reach speeds of 40 miles an hour in short bursts? I didn’t. Their feet are large and soft bottomed so they can move across the sand without injury. There are two species of camels, one hump and two hump. The common one hump camel here is the Arabian Dromedary. The other is the two hump or Bactrian camel.
So back to the day. I had just left work and had made the U turn on the freeway to go home. Don’t worry, standard operation. These people are a bit behind when it comes to freeway engineering. I’m now turned around and I see a herd of camels out along the freeway behind a fence. I thought I would get a picture for my collection so i made another U turn to go back and get closer. By the time I got back, about 20 or 30 of them had found a break in the fence and had wandered out near the freeway.
This is what I saw
Not what you’d expect to see on a “normal” day back home but here? You never know what you might encounter.
These animals are highly prized by the locals. They are viewed much the same way that the sacred cows of India are without the religious aspect. Common knowledge here is if you hit one while driving and you survive…get out of the country as fast as you can. You will not want to bear the cost of restitution. What’s that? It’s a camel you say? Can’t be that expensive? Think again. It’s said that the owners will try to recover from you, the value of the camel and if it’s a female…the value of the 10 generations of offspring it would have borne if you hadn’t killed it. You really don’t want to toy with your future by hitting one. This brings me to the next part of my story.
I don’t really know much about these animals but I know that camels intrigue me. I think it’s because they are indigenous to this area and where I live…well let’s just say that they aren’t common. On a side note I have found that the rhinoceros commonly found in Africa don’t frequent my flower beds at home but I think that’s a matter of the rhino repellent cube I have in there. You can get it here.
So I am watching these Camels and they clearly haven’t lived in a neighborhood and no experience with cars like most dogs that live in such places. They are wandering out into the freeway and if you can imagine hitting one, it’s gonna be messy at best. I decided to try to help these beasts to safety by herding them back to the other side of the fence from which they came. I was not really sure how I was going to do that because I figured if I drop down in to the sandy “road” by the fence they would just haul ass back up over the guard rail only to meet their maker. Fortunately, another helpful camel “herder” in an SUV stopped and I could see that the way they were situated, I just had to drop down to the sandy road and “push them along” whilst the other driver stayed up on the black top.
Now when I drove down there into the sand, it was a bit risky but I believe that certain actions go unpunished…helping God’s creatures are one of those things. So now I am down nearer the fence and the camels have wandered down there too because of the SUV up on the high road. They looked at me in my car before they started moving in the right direction and I think they too were intrigued…by looking at me. Here’s a guy in a white Toyota Camry. It’s about as plain of a sedan as you can get. I’m wearing my Outback hat ( I think they would have ignored me if it was flipped up on one side…it wasn’t) and I have my sunglasses around my neck and my regular specs on. The little car I’m in makes me look like a visually impaired circus bear wearing a cowboy hat in a go-cart and I am in a showdown with about 30,000 pounds of camel, or about 25-30 of them. Suddenly they turn and start walking away in the direction that I am hoping they would….towards the opening in the fence. Turns out this opening was the wrong one and the ended up having to go farther down the road. Much farther. At this point I’m thinking that I/we, Mr. SUV are getting the job done. A few of them look back at me in the Circus car and turn back and start running….in the right direction! Awesome!
One thing about camels is that they have a larger lower lip than the top one…just why I don’t know but when they get to running, it flaps under the weight and bounces in time with their step. At this point it’s starting to look like they just might be laughing at me with this flapping lip thing going on as they run away from me in my little car. I think they were really running to go tell their camel friends about the circus bear in the sedan with the goofy hat and glasses. Anyway we herded them for about 1 mile or so and they made their way back to safety.
Rowland Ramble - 