We are sorry to say that Mac is not very well, but he is still
e-mailing strong and recently sent the Beetle a collection of
travel reminiscences about Australia, camels which takes us to
India and then back to Australia.
In Alice Springs Australia I stayed in an Anglican (Church) Hostel.
I was pleased but surprised that they sold
beer in this church hostel. Nothing wrong with this especially
since it was Australia but something different. When we arrived in
Alice Springs the bus driver got a broom and swept off the dust
from our suitcases. I guess the Coober Pedy, where the author of
article below stared his safari from was that town, that was mostly
underground as it was so hot. Even the chapel or church was underground where I went to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.
They dug and searched for emeralds underground. You
paid a few dollars and you could dig for same.
I think maybe they planted inferior or cheap emeralds so tourist
could discover them but maybe it was genuine. On our bus going to
the outback there were two drivers, double springs, double air
conditioning and one tub full of ice in aisle way where people put
beer (it was the Holidays). We stopped at one out of the way shack
and it was full of grizzled natives.
We had a British lady with us that was dressed as if she was going
to a party at Buckingham Palace and she carried a dainty parasol.
The grizzled natives decided they would have some fun with this
British lady. They said. You know when Prince Philip was in
Australia he went with a native girl. The lady replied “Good
for him!” It turned out she was a journalist and had been
around and could pass out the repartee too. I used the term Safari
which in Africa means any kind of journey I am told, but don't
know if they call them that in Australia.
I am reminded of camels. One of the reasons I did not enjoy a camel safari in Rajasthan was because we
did not have an entertaining fun group of people and
we did not see much except sand dunes. I am a sightseer and want to
see things. Ha! It was kind of boring but another time I might have
enjoyed it. I really did enjoy the cities with their castles and
their colourful people in colourful garb in Rajasthan and it was
kind of medieval or something. It was just that I was kind of out
of sorts on that day of camel riding. Sometimes on a lengthy trip
you need to stop travelling and just sleep or rest for a day or two
(kind of a vacation within a vacation) and then continue on. I was
trying to see all of India in one trip. I later returned two more
times and by then I was more adjusted to India and really enjoyed
it. I only recommend India though to people that can kind of rough
it and don't get too upset by poverty. Poverty in warm
countries where they have large family support does not bother me
as much as poverty in cold countries. I saw a lady in Nepal sitting
on the ground trying to sell six peanuts. Come to think of it,
tourists were giving her money so maybe she knew what she was
doing.
Back to Australia: there is an article in the January 2001
Smithsonian Magazine titled For Dromedary Trekkers in
Australia's outback its Camelot in the Desert by Derek
Grzelewski, photographs by Mark S Wesler. The Author had seen a
sign earlier on a camel farm “For those of you who have never
ridden a camel we have camels that have never been ridden
before”. Here is a condensation of the rather lengthy but
interesting article.
It was a 150 mile desert trek on two dozen dromedaries from
Archaring Hills north of Coober Pedy toward Witjaira National Park.
The camels go in single file with three weeks of provisions (swags
(sleeping rolls) and 100 gallons of water). The human participants would
ride only an average of two hours a day taking turns sharing the
two camels that were not carrying supplies and equipment. The rest
of the time they walked beside the camels. (Me/Mac speaking now: I
one time took about a two hour safari on camel out of Rajasthan
India. Maybe it was a half day. I had forgotten about it until I
read this article. The camels and their keepers in Australia
originally came from Rajasthan, India or Northern India and
Pakistan. The five seasoned cameleers and eight adventurers in
Australia might have been on camels that were ancestors of the
camel I tried to ride.
The author describes the trip as a gentle rocking motion that one
could read a book while riding. (Me, I remember my ride as mildly
uncomfortable. My camel was smelly and had bad breath worse than
mine. In Egypt outside Pyramids the touts will tell you if you are
an American that your camels name is Coca Cola. If you are Canadian
they will tell you that your camels name is Canadian Club, if
German your name is Heineken. Same camel. I disliked the camel I
rode in Rajasthan so much that I did not ask its name.
All I could think of was I want to get back to civilization and get
a cold beer. We had no beer with us. Perhaps it was forbidden.
Drunken tourists and drunken camels would have been more fun.
Camels can do without water for weeks but I couldn't go a
couple of hours without beer. Camels can travel 600 miles without
drinking if food is succulent (plants) and the air cool. These
camels and handlers (known as Afghans or simply Ghans) brought from
India many years ago were used to haul supplies to remote mines and
sheep stations. Also sleepers for the Transcontinental Railway and
the first piano arrived in Alice Springs lashed to the hump of a
camel. Between 10,000 and 20,000 were released to the desert to
fend for themselves when the Ghans became unemployed and could not feed their camels. The camels
thrived in the desert and doubled their population every six to ten
years.
There are now as many as 40,000 out in the desert. “The once
unsurpassed beast of burden became simply a beast and a
burden.” Now the Australians find camel meat lean and tasty
and the fur and hides are used for crafts and clothing. The author
did not say how much trip cost. Mine out of Rajasthan was
reasonable and I got it from one of their Government sponsored
hotels in Rajasthan. Now for a quiz for my generation: was the Arab
on the package of Camel cigarettes riding the camel, standing
beside the camel or leading the camel? Answer: he was not sitting
on the camel, standing beside the camel or leading the camel. He
was behind the pyramid in the picture taking a sh_t.
Happy Camel Riding. Mac
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