Al Wathba Camel Race Track, located just outside of Abu Dhabi, is where fairies fly and leprechauns leap – or so I imagine…I was too busy watching camels’ race. The camel is a silly looking animal. I love them – they are huge, surprisingly gentle but make unicorns look like an understandable creation. And, boy can they run.
The races take part in the wee hours of the AM before the searing sun rises too far above the horizon. Luckily they run several 8km races, it took me a few to figure out the system. It seems the racer camel and a buddy camel are walked to the harnessing area as a pair from a far off truck. Here they are separated and the racer is fitted with a small robot jockey (invented to replace child jockeys*) dressed to match the colours of the harnesses.
The camels are then walked to a starting area where between 12 and 40 camels will line up – a cloth covered gate preventing them from seeing the course ahead and patiently wait while everyone else gets into position. “Getting into position” for the rest of us means hopping into our large SUV and lining up at the start….and once the signal is given and the gate raised…we’re off! All of us. The camels start tearing down the track while we lay chase in an SUV in the far lane.
Imagine the track being 4 lanes wide…the far left lane is for spectators to drive their SUVs. The next lane, moving to the right, is for the camera crews and royalty. The third lane is the actual path the camels run along while the far right lane is for the camel owners and controllers to drive along. Here they can get an unobstructed view of their animal and control the robot…even talk to the camel through a walkie-talkie.As we round the final curve in the 8km / 5mile track…horns start blaring and people lean out the windows with, what I imagine, are shouts of both joy and anguish as the camels make a beeline across the finish line and to their buddy camel, waiting patiently in the harnessing area.
I spent a lot of time in the harnessing area…taking photos, visiting the buddies or the post-racers before they return to their truck. A language barrier prohibited me from chatting with the handlers – who appeared to primarily be from India and Pakistan. But one of the Arabs did stop his truck while I was snapping some shots of a buddy camel, “don’t take his picture. He’s a loser.” He then gesticulated to the racers entering the area post another lap, “those are the good camels.” He drove off before I could explain that I really just liked their eyelashes, winner or ‘loser’.
I haven’t been to too many horse racetracks back home…but I did note some glaring differences. In addition to driving beside, rather than sitting and watching the track the biggest dissimilarity…no betting (The Quran forbids gambling). There were no vendors selling snacks, no free giveaways for the first 100 people to arrive that day (I still have a towel somewhere from Delmar!) and no one crying over their losses at the track. But there is a helipad – sometimes one of the Sheikhs likes to pop over and watch a race…it’s a bumpy drive from the city.But it was a unique way to spend an early morning….and I for one am thrilled that they don’t allow gambling…I’d easily be down a few hundred dirham!
*Camel racing is extremely dangerous for the jockey and several people are seriously injured or die every year during races. Child jockeys often ended up in this region as the result of trafficking rings. Favoured for their light weight, children (some as young as 2) have been sold from Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh to the wealthy gulf nations - the BBC places current estimates of child camel jockeys to hover somewhere amid 5,000 – 40,000. Sheik Hamdan, the ruler of the Western Region of Abu Dhabi and the Chairman of the Emirates Camel Racing Foundation, banned the use of camel jockeys in 2002 and Qatar followed suit in 2005. Sadly…they are the only countries to have done so…
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