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I’d walk a mile for a camel
We were almost the proud owners of a million dirham racing camel. It had outstanding pedigree, proven form and was a bargain at the price, or so the young man told us. But the clue that the camel wasn’t his to sell was the realisation that the genuine dealers in the yards were not distracted by the only white tourists in the place and got on with the business of trading with locals. Undeterred, the young man then demanded 50 dirham for showing us a two-day old camel he had guided us too beforehand. Fat chance, we were feeling lucky. Our inbuilt GPS was working and we had found our way without incident to the Al Ain camel and livestock market, the location of which had recently moved from the centre of town to a new purpose-built place in the middle of nowhere and which, according to Google maps, didn’t exist.
The market was a camel-fanciers heaven, dozens of pens of these much revered creatures: big ones, small ones, camel-coloured ones, believe it or not, and black ones too, some for racing, others for breeding and, for unlucky ones, the adjacent abattoir. Also for sale, goats and sheep, the former with long lanky mottled ears and the latter, fluffy little hoggets. They all seemed quite cute.
About an hour and a half drive inland from the coast, Al Ain is an oasis city sitting on the border between Oman and the UAE, unkindly compared to Ashburton in terms of excitement value by our friends the Nicholls who were stationed at the local university for three years. These days it is now very much an historical centre. The find of our day undoubtedly the Al Jahili Fort which has a permanent exhibition of photographs by Wilfred Thesiger, an explorer who wandered what is known as the empty quarter of Arabia for five years, from 1945 to 1950. With the assistance and friendship of the Bedu people, Thesiger traveled and dressed as they did, refusing all modern assistance and, for his efforts, has produced quite exquisite records, both photographic and written. “Only in the desert could a man find freedom,” he wrote. “I would rather be here starving, as I was, than sitting in a chair, replete with food, listening to the wireless and dependent on cars to take me through Arabia.”
Al Ain itself is something of a city of forts and watchtowers originally built mainly to provide protection to the village communities around the oasis. Jahili Fort is the largest mud-brick fort in the area, which has been restored and is currently set up to host the ninth Al Aim classics festival, including outdoor concerts by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic and an original adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III, in Arabic.
On a roll, we took in the Sheik Zayed Palace Museum, the Al Ain National Museum and then a quick trip through the lush palm plantations of the Oasis. We learned too that, between six and eight million years ago, Abu Dhabi had a climate and vegetation similar to the lush pastures of eastern Africa, Kenya in particular. Fossilised remains have been discovered of elephants, hippopotamus, crocodiles and hyena. Incredible but true.