So You Want to Race a Camel? 6 Exciting Ways to Get Your Hump on Around the Globe
And they’re off! (Photo: Mick Potts Photography)
Camels do not top the list of animals that human beings should ride. We just wanted to be clear on that.
Sure, they conjure Arabian Night fantasies and make great photo ops, but camels are temperamental, cranky beasts. The tall and spastic creatures buck and hiss, and riding them could result in an uncomfortable, bumpy, and potentially dangerous experience for you (and for the camel).
So, of course, the Aussies went and made it into a sport.
On July 12 at Blatherskite Park, the 44th annual Lasseters Camel Cup will commence in Alice Springs, a gorgeous outback town in northern Australia. Since 1970 this quirky and oddly prestigious two-day festival has been held to raise money for local charities, drawing more than 5,000 attendees looking to witness an event akin only to a successful hallucination.
A race in the 2013 Lasseters Camel Cup. (Photo: Mick Potts Photography)
For example: at one point during this bizarre event, a newly-married man must race his (unamused) camel beside other freshly-hitched beaus. Midway through, the gentlemen must stop and scoop up his new bride and continue to the finish line — all the while, belly-dancing and rickshaw rides whip the crowd into a frenzy. Last year’s winner walked away with $1,700.
Here’s how to check out all the action in Alice Springs — and if you can’t make it to Oz, five other camel-centric festivals around the world.
Belly dancing interlude at the Lasseters Camel Cup in Alice Springs. (Photo: Courtesy Tourism Northern Territory)
Alice Spring Basics
See: You can’t go to the Australian outback without touring the Uluru / Ayers Rock — that mountain-like sandstone oddity that famously seems to spring out of flat desert — the Kata Tjuta domed rock formations, and the King’s Canyon. You can purchase a travel package at that includes guided tours, hot-air balloon rides, and four-star accommodations.
Stay: Host hotel Lasseters offers a level of luxury at a reasonable price, as well as handsome and spacious rooms.
For a more authentic outback experience, stay at the Glen Helen Resort, surrounded by red rock canyons and wildlife (and camels, of course), this solid no-frills motel is one of the area’s best accommodations.
Eat: Page 27 Café has a breezy ambience and solid breakfast foods, baked goods, and coffee.
If watching the races makes you hungry — in a very literal sense — go full Aussie at Overlander’s Steakhouse, your best bet for some traditional grilled steaks, chops, crocodile, and, yes, even camel.
Hee-yah! A camel race in Pushkar. (Photo: Dan.be/Flickr)
CAMEL RIDING ‘ROUND THE WORLD
Thousands of dromedary fans flock to the Pushkar Lake in Rajasthan, India, for one of the world’s largest camel fairs — a five-day festival of oddball events. Yes, there’s camel racing, but there’s the longest mustache competition, and an event known as Matka Phod. Here, a ball is left in an empty field and men are blindfolded and handed a stick; the goal is to find the ball blind and hit it, but the result is usually watching men wander aimless and humiliated and striking the ground with a stick. This goes on for a long while. October 26–November 4, 2014
At the Pushkar Camel Fair. (Photo: Marina & Enrique/Flickr)
(Photo: Laura Zaino/Flickr)
Al Marmoom Heritage Festival, Dubai
Perhaps the most fascinating of all camel races, the royal-owned camels of the United Arab Emirates race along dirt tracks mounted by robots. Yes, robots. The little five-pound ‘bots with remote-operated whips are controlled by the camels’s (human) owners riding alongside in SUVs. Ahhh, Dubai… Naturally, there’s a lucrative cash prize at the end. April 2015
Virginia City International Camel Races, Nevada
It was a lark that started 55 years ago that’s become a hilarious annual spectacle: novice riders riding untrained camels on a desert racetrack to a score of banjos and harmonicas. There’s also an ostrich race and a zebra race thrown in for good measure, too. The United States’s premier camel racing event takes place in Virginia City, Nevada (just outside Reno) at High Noon. In a glorious spectacle, the camels are led to the racetrack through the city’s old timey Wild West town. September 5–7, 2014
If you can’t hack a camel, how ‘bout a zebra? (Photo: Reno Tahoe/Flickr)
Thousand Camel Festival, Mongolia
In February, the Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia is still capped with snow, and the endangered Bactrian camels show face in their two-humped, thick-woolen-coated finery. Started to support local herders, the festival has become a major annual event of food, music, and dance. Expect some of the world’s biggest camel races, a camel parade, and polo competitions, all amid gorgeous “Flaming Cliffs” scenery. And since it’s birthing season, maybe even a cutesy pootsey newborn to boot. February 2015
How do I look? Camel beauty in Mongolia. (Photo: Evgeni Zotov/Flickr)
Northaw Point to Point
The Arabian desert comes to the English countryside each spring for the Northaw Camel races, held every year to raise money for local charities. This is one of the tamer, more family-friendly of the camel races. The spring festival holds up to six camel races and also includes family-friendly pony and dog races, just an hour north of London. May 4, 2015
Kenny Porpora has been a writer for The New York Times, New York Daily News, Newsday, and has been an editor for The Huffington Post. He joined Man About World as an editor in 2012.
