OK
For all the things that Australia is famous for and in the interest of education, I am going to tell you a couple of facts.
1) Australia has the most camels of any country in the world.
2) Australia has the only wild camels in the world.
Consider yourself educated !!
The home of camel racing in the world has got to be Boulia in far NW Queensland.
I was there for the 2007 Boulia camel races where an outsider (7/2) won the 2007 Camel Cup over the fav (1.1/1). As you can see from the photos camels are difficult to ride and there is no steering to speak of. This leads to camels going the wrong way around the track, off the track or simply sitting down before or during the race.
To add to this the camel tagging event this year was a load of fun to watch. Camels can kick forward, sidewards. and backwards, so getting in a pen with a camel is not for the faint hearted or for the very drunk. The aim of camel tagging is simple. Stick a piece of gaffer tape on a camel. Run and touch the fence, and than take the tape off the camel. Easy. Most of the competitors managed to stick the tape on without much difficulty, but getting it off proved to be a little more tricky. People and camels were falling all over the place, and the people really came off worse. The photos don't do it justice, but I also have some video footage which I will show when I get home.
