So on Saturday we did something new. We went to the camel races. It was quite a different experience than the horse race we went to last year. But totally worth going. The weather has turned nice, finally, and the day happened to be cloudy for the first time in a very long time. It felt so nice.
Behind us is the starting line.
The first major difference is that there aren't any stands for spectators to watch from. You drive along the inside of the track and follow the camels. It's a bit hard for the driver to watch and drive, but you don't go very fast.
The white suv on the right of the picture is waiting to follow the camels. He's probably one of the ones who owns a camel that is racing as there is a barrier between that car and were we could drive. In the center of the picture is the tv camera that is broadcasting the races. They get the start, and then guys sitting on top of suvs with cameras get the rest.
On the far left you can see a camera guy.
Another big difference is that camels don't run very fast. As we jumped in our car to follow, the fastest we drove was about 35 km/h (about 20 mph) and that kept us at the same speed as the camels.
The third major difference is that the camels don't have a rider. There is a robot that has a whip on it. The robot is controlled by someone in a car who probably owns the camel. The whip goes in a circle and whips the camel.
As we waited for a race to start, one of the people with us asked the guy in the ambulance about the races. He said that one camel costs 1.5-5 million qatari riyals ($412,000-$1,373,400). There was a lot of money at the races. We saw so many camels. Not all of them were racing. There were young camels, probably in training, as well as racing ones.
Here are some camels that weren't racing that crossed the street right after we finished a race.
One funny tidbit, a camels bottom lip flaps as it runs. It looks rather odd.
Big E fell asleep on the way there and when we woke him up to see the camels, his eyes lit up. I wish I had a camera on to capture his expression. Miss A also loved seeing the camels. Neither of them minded being in their car seats to watch the races. And both were sorely disappointed when it was time for us to go.
Behind us is the starting line.
The first major difference is that there aren't any stands for spectators to watch from. You drive along the inside of the track and follow the camels. It's a bit hard for the driver to watch and drive, but you don't go very fast.
The white suv on the right of the picture is waiting to follow the camels. He's probably one of the ones who owns a camel that is racing as there is a barrier between that car and were we could drive. In the center of the picture is the tv camera that is broadcasting the races. They get the start, and then guys sitting on top of suvs with cameras get the rest.
On the far left you can see a camera guy.
Another big difference is that camels don't run very fast. As we jumped in our car to follow, the fastest we drove was about 35 km/h (about 20 mph) and that kept us at the same speed as the camels.
The third major difference is that the camels don't have a rider. There is a robot that has a whip on it. The robot is controlled by someone in a car who probably owns the camel. The whip goes in a circle and whips the camel.
As we waited for a race to start, one of the people with us asked the guy in the ambulance about the races. He said that one camel costs 1.5-5 million qatari riyals ($412,000-$1,373,400). There was a lot of money at the races. We saw so many camels. Not all of them were racing. There were young camels, probably in training, as well as racing ones.
Here are some camels that weren't racing that crossed the street right after we finished a race.
One funny tidbit, a camels bottom lip flaps as it runs. It looks rather odd.
Big E fell asleep on the way there and when we woke him up to see the camels, his eyes lit up. I wish I had a camera on to capture his expression. Miss A also loved seeing the camels. Neither of them minded being in their car seats to watch the races. And both were sorely disappointed when it was time for us to go.
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