I went back to the camel races Friday to actually watch the races - we toured the stables and grounds the last time - and what a bizarre phenomenon! I went with friends (american, she originally from Greece, he from Egypt) and their two kids. As Saleh said - it isn't an arabian but Gulf tradition: camels with robots race along a basically straight 1200 m track. SUVs and pick-up trucks race beside them, separated by thin red horizontal poles on each side. After the race, the vehicles then turn and go back for the next race, while a fresh load of camels is brought in. The Arab in the car parked beside us used a stop watch, to what end? In any event, the vehicles race at the same pace of the camels, perhaps their way of determining how fast. More likely this is another opportunity to exercise the cars. The images posted here show camels racing, cars and drivers, cars with antennae, and one fellow in the flat bed of his truck controlling his remote. There are images as well of gaggles of camels and the robot on the ground, approximately 18" x 12". At one point the robot on the ground started flailing its whip and making noise and the nearby camels went into a panic. My camera and skills could not get the flavor of the event; nonetheless I offer what there is.
A friend suggested that the pictures weren’t required, writing, after my initial description to him:
Love your description of the camel races. The word picture is just fine, vehicles "racing" alongside camels, little robots whipping away. Mercy! Couple of q's occur: is there gambling on the outcomes? Or is it just a "my camel beat your camel" kind of thing? And who controls the robots? And from where? Would it be people in the racing vehicles? What does it all smell like? C'mon, Babe, you've brought me there, now gimme ALL of it. Just kidding but also very curious about this strangeness. I can imagine something like our football would be all the more strange to these folks. Let alone baseball--imagine trying to explain baseball to someone who had never seen it! ("They wear what? And bats? And it lasts three hours? You gotta be kidding me!!")
To which I reply, there is no smell in the arid desert. Gambling, if there is any, quite underground. And baseball is an excellent comparator highlighting the lack of adrenalin rush there that these races provoke and helping define some essential differences in our past-times.
