This is what Noah told us.
The most amazing fact about camels is that they have a photographic ('eidetic') memory. Hence they're use as 'trains' in the desert. Once they walked a trail they'll remember it, and they'll walk the same route next time.
Think of it. It's amazing. Picture the middle-East deserts: sandhills as far as you can see. And these camels know how to walk to end up in the next place where they can eat and drink.
Because a camel only gets underway to another place when it knows it can feed itself at the end.
Be it around the next corner or a couple of hundred miles away: as long as they know that food will be at the other end, they'll walk.
And they'll walk exactly the same track. Not a metre to the left, not a metre to the right.
People living in the desert make good use of this quality. They take the camels to the next settlement, give them food, take them to the next settlement, feed them, and so on, till they come back, after 4 or 5 settlements, at the place where they started.
From then on the camels know the route. So if people unknown to the desert arrive and want to get to the next settlement they just go with the camels and arrive safely...
The camels are lined up in consideration with their characters. Leaders and followers, but also 'trusted sisters', since camels form deep bonds and they want to walk behind the 'sister' they trust.
So you can easily walk with camels that are 'loose', they'll form a line, and after they walk behind their preferred other there's no need to worry anymore - you just sit back and relax.
(That is, if you haven't got a camel that sees food somewhere, and you're not able to steer the camel away from it (how can you? They're huge, and they know from the start you can't handle them anyway). So your camel starts eating, sees the rest of her sisters vanishing behind a hill and starts galloping to get back in line. You don't want that).
You've hard the stories about camels being grumpy, unwilling, stubborn and ready to bray and spit? Those are the males.
In the 40 years the camel farm at Eilat exists they've for 30 years been working only with the females - they did try the males in the first 10 years but it simply didn't work. Hence only female camels, now some 30 of them.
They form 'friendship' groups, there are 5 or 6 of them. When they buy a new camel from the Bedouins they sit back and watch the camel being accepted in a group, and with these groups they form the line up for the tours.
We were with them. With Noah and 16 camels (and 16 persons on them, of course) we toured the Negev desert and if you ever want something really special you should book a holiday to Eilat and go with one of the camel tours. Preferably the 4 hrs. tour, because then you get a concise training how to deal with them. Like getting them to sit - so you can dismount - or to get up - scary even if you've done it before - and how to lead them downhill. Or to get them going: Kadima!
After sunset we dismounted, sat in the middle of the desert and were served herbal tea (delicious) and a sort of pitta bread made on the spot, served with soft cheese. This is btw the moment to ask Noah about camels, he lives them and all you want to know about them he's ready to tell. Noah, thanks again!
Since I've written that already I'll show you some photo's.
Kadima!
ps: this is Pieter's story. He's the one in the white t shirt..
The most amazing fact about camels is that they have a photographic ('eidetic') memory. Hence they're use as 'trains' in the desert. Once they walked a trail they'll remember it, and they'll walk the same route next time.
Think of it. It's amazing. Picture the middle-East deserts: sandhills as far as you can see. And these camels know how to walk to end up in the next place where they can eat and drink.
Because a camel only gets underway to another place when it knows it can feed itself at the end.
Be it around the next corner or a couple of hundred miles away: as long as they know that food will be at the other end, they'll walk.
And they'll walk exactly the same track. Not a metre to the left, not a metre to the right.
People living in the desert make good use of this quality. They take the camels to the next settlement, give them food, take them to the next settlement, feed them, and so on, till they come back, after 4 or 5 settlements, at the place where they started.
From then on the camels know the route. So if people unknown to the desert arrive and want to get to the next settlement they just go with the camels and arrive safely...
The camels are lined up in consideration with their characters. Leaders and followers, but also 'trusted sisters', since camels form deep bonds and they want to walk behind the 'sister' they trust.
So you can easily walk with camels that are 'loose', they'll form a line, and after they walk behind their preferred other there's no need to worry anymore - you just sit back and relax.
(That is, if you haven't got a camel that sees food somewhere, and you're not able to steer the camel away from it (how can you? They're huge, and they know from the start you can't handle them anyway). So your camel starts eating, sees the rest of her sisters vanishing behind a hill and starts galloping to get back in line. You don't want that).
You've hard the stories about camels being grumpy, unwilling, stubborn and ready to bray and spit? Those are the males.
In the 40 years the camel farm at Eilat exists they've for 30 years been working only with the females - they did try the males in the first 10 years but it simply didn't work. Hence only female camels, now some 30 of them.
They form 'friendship' groups, there are 5 or 6 of them. When they buy a new camel from the Bedouins they sit back and watch the camel being accepted in a group, and with these groups they form the line up for the tours.
We were with them. With Noah and 16 camels (and 16 persons on them, of course) we toured the Negev desert and if you ever want something really special you should book a holiday to Eilat and go with one of the camel tours. Preferably the 4 hrs. tour, because then you get a concise training how to deal with them. Like getting them to sit - so you can dismount - or to get up - scary even if you've done it before - and how to lead them downhill. Or to get them going: Kadima!
After sunset we dismounted, sat in the middle of the desert and were served herbal tea (delicious) and a sort of pitta bread made on the spot, served with soft cheese. This is btw the moment to ask Noah about camels, he lives them and all you want to know about them he's ready to tell. Noah, thanks again!
Since I've written that already I'll show you some photo's.
Kadima!
ps: this is Pieter's story. He's the one in the white t shirt..
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