A Walk On an Odd Creature

One thing that Broome is known for is its pearling industry. All the businesses have names like "Pearl Coast Pools" or some such thing. This is the industry that grew Broome and to some extent sustains it today.

Another thing the town is know for is camels. There are several companies that run tours up to four times a day with trains of camels walking up and down the beautiful Cable Beach. We were not going to leave Broome without having done one of these tours, and eventually about two days before we left we finally booked one.

First off I am going to say this: camels are big. Really surprisingly big. Like much bigger than horse big. They are also really weird looking in a kinda ugly cute way. We went together on a camel named Ghannam.

The way it works is they walk them down to the beach then get all the camels to lie down. They then get everybody checked in and sorted into who is going to ride each camel. Then you mount them while they are sitting, and when everyone is on, they stand them up.

Camels stand up back legs first then front legs, and it is quite a weird sensation I must say!

We did a 30 min walk - the cheap and short option that we both agreed was just the right length of time - up the beach and back to the starting point. Then front legs down first back legs second, dismount and we had now ridden camels.

They are not uncomfortable to ride. They do have a bit of a weird gait, kinda like a giraffe, They have amazing soft pad feet for walking on sand.

Anyhow, there are hundreds of thousands of feral camels in Australia, some are bred for working, and yet others are bred for racing. Yes racing. In Australia there is the yearly Camel Cup, but it is a big sport in some of the wealthy countries of the middle east.

Fun times!!