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Thursday, September 16, 2010

Camelspotting in the Desert


While travelling through the desert last weekend, we saw cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys, people, camels and even a dog who chased our vehicle. (His owners were walking across the plains towards the tracks and he was brooking no nonsense from us ! )

At one point we spotted a camel grazinga little way in the bush. He had his head hidden in the bush so while focussing on him, I whistled loudly. He looked up and I clicked!
Camel number one spotted !
A little further along we spotted a few more camels

I got out of the vehicle and played around with colour settings while snapping these camels

Now what does this women with a camera want?

Not too long after this, Grant pointed out a camel and her baby. She had last year's youngster with her (grazing behind her) and a brand new baby at her side. The babies always go to the other [off] side of the mother so I was blessed to get this photo


Immediately the baby melted behind mum. See the skin texture of the baby camel

Just you stay this side of me, lad  - F - A - R away from that lady!
We'll ignore her. Perhaps she'll disappear. Nope, she's still here.

I just love the way the baby peeks cheekily from behind mum!
OK Kid, we're outta here



And then Grant and I were off across the desert again, towards the highway

After lunch (which I posted about yesterday) we headed for home. It was the Eid weekend and the highway was buzzing with people travelling in every mode of transport, walking along the side of the road; in every village along the way there were large groups of people chatting and relaxing together while the children played in the wide open sandy veld; there were cars parked just off the road under a shady thorn tree, with the tailgate open and families were enjoying a picnic. This woman above must have been visiting her family for Eid and would wait on the side of the road for transport to take her back to her village.

 
On the outskirts of Khartoum, we saw many people walking in and away from the city. Relationships are very important to the Arab people and they spent the Eid weekend visiting families and friends

 
The Arabic for cow is Bqrh (Buggarah!)
The Arabic for goat is Māʻz (Maaz - although in the Sudan they are called Ganamarah)

Thanks again to all who visited my desert posts and commented. I have another desert post on Friday and the last one on Saturday. Then we're off to the desert again on Sunday! Whoo-hoo!

14 comments:

  1. Just lovely Jo! I love the fluid shapes of camels. We have a great many camels in the Simpson desert in Australia and I just adore going camel spotting although we have mainly done so from the air flying out of Birdsville.
    Great shots of that cheeky little boy and his mum. I loved the more sepia toned shot of the herd. The sort of picture I could see plastered over a whole wall.

    Great post.

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  2. A very interesting visit to the desert once again. Hugs xx

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  3. I'm loving these trips into the desert. Yipee, we get to go again. The young camels are SO cute! Great captures.

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  4. Your desert pictures have been amazing. How exciting to be photographing camels! I have to make do with cows, LOL! The baby camel is soooo cute!
    Thank you for sharing your part of the world :)
    ☼ Sunny

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  5. Love the desert and the camels (I have to wait 1 months and six days,to see them, lol) Camels have such a funny face and these big brown eyes with long eyelashes !
    Beautiful pictures !!!

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  6. I enjoyed the desert pictures and stories. How do you find your way around the desert where there aren't any roads.

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  7. Thanks Arija;) I enjoyed playing with the colour while snapping that herd of camels. I've never thought of camels in Australia. Now I've learnt something too.

    Hi Joyful;) glad you liked it

    Hi Gaelyn;) you're always welcome. Off again this weekend. Whoo-hoo

    Hi Gattina;) I bet you cant wait for your trip to Sunny Africa. I also LOVE the funny faces on the camels.

    Sunny;) your cow picture today was BRILLIANT. Thanks for visiting here. Yes, baby animals are sweet.

    Hi diane;) we use a GPS in the desert. We could meander around without one but that would waste time because we'd probably get lost!

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  8. So interesting, Jo... It's hard to imagine that you are in a place where you can see camels roaming around freely... WOW!!! Love seeing the baby camel... His texture/skin/fur ??? certainly is different from Mama... But--he's such a Cutie!!!!

    Thanks so much for sharing.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  9. Love the camel photos! Thanks for all your kind words and visits.

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  10. Great post. Of yes, Jo, we do have lots of camels here in Oz. Have a look at one of my earlier posts:
    http://wilbo43.blogspot.com/2009/09/strange-characters-you-meet-in-outback.html

    Cheers,

    Bill

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  11. Wow! Better than the zoo I say! Beautiful shots! Thanks for making us feel we're on a tour! God bless and take care!

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  12. The camels look healthy and don't seem too afraid of people. Great photos of mom and baby camel.

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  13. That baby can only be a day or two old as I see it still has it umbilical cord. It usually drops off after 3-4 days. At the moment I see they have enough to eat but I think it must be tough to survive there.

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  14. Fantastic close-up camel shots, Jo. The pattern on the skin of the baby camel reminds me of the patterning on a giraffes's skin. I like the sepia-toned photo--looks like a very old photo, maybe from the 1920s.

    You have a very exciting and interesting life!

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Thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate your feedback. Jo