what I now know about camel husbandry

The weekend here starts on Friday and people go back to work on Sundays.

This past weekend, I had been planning to stay in Amman - after only being here 3 days - and settle in a bit, get my bearings, check out the downtown and a few neighbourhoods.

That plan went awry when another Canadian colleague, a truly intrepid global traveller, asked me if I wanted to go camping under the stars in Wadi Rum, a protected desert area sparsely populated by traditional bedouin communities. My guidebook describes it thus: "rugged and majestic, simply one of the world's

most alluring desert destinations. Think towering cliffs, red dunes and sleeping under the stars."

The opportunity was too good to refuse. We headed out early Friday afternoon, arriving at the Wadi Rum visitor's centre as the sky was getting dark (night falls at 4:15pm here!). Soon we were in the protected area and off to find a spot on the vast desert floor to call our own.

It became clear, quite quickly, that the desert is a big place and, fortunately for us, help came in the person of Raad, a young bedouin man. He assisted us in finding a camping site that night and served as our guide the next day. Raad was simply fascinating on the topic of camels.

I learned that the camels you see wandering about in the desert in herds - who look like they might be wild - are actually domesticated

animals who provide milk. These camels wander out into the desert unaccompanied for 2 or 3 or 4 days at a time, eat whatever sparse vegetation is to be had, and eventually wander back to their homestead or to a nearby spring to have some water. When a camel doesn't show up for more than 4 days or so, then the owner goes out looking for her to make sure everything is ok. The desert floor is covered with millions of camel hoof prints. Raad said that when looking for a lost camel, his father (but not himself) could identify all of his own animals just based on their shape of their individual hoof prints and track their trajectory in that way.

I also learned that racing camels are another category altogether. Raad is an avid camel racer and in a show of great hospitality took us to his encampment to meet his winning camel Wolf - along with the rest of his 'stable'. Though still a young man - age 22 - Raad had a going concern with these racing camels and even had a hired hand to tend them. (The hired hand was a young teenager from Sudan. I couldn't help but wonder how he had found his way to this remote community in Jordan's desert and what his personal journey must have been.)

These camels are smaller and sleeker than the

milk camels. And they don't get to wander. They are tethered and covered to ward off sun stroke, and muzzled to prevent them from eating any junky desert food. They are fed special diets, watered daily - not every four days - and are taken out for exercise frequently and for a fast run on Fridays. Raad showed us an awesome cell phone video of Wolf winning a race - which he had set to music. It would be a youtube sensation. He also bemoaned the fact that in Saudi Arabia, they substantially subsidize camel food which puts

Jordanian camel racers at a permanent disadvantage.

Unfortunately I didn't learn anything about the camels that are used for daily transportation - but did see a lot in action. One vivid memory is from shortly after sunrise seeing a woman in a black hijab and flowing black gown riding on a white camel across the desert expanse. I didn't get a picture. She had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.