Camel Riding at Ayer's Rock

2012-01-04

Last night was spent in Uluru... or Yuluru or Ayers Rock. I still can't figure out but I think all three are the same. Uluru is basically a group of 5 or so accommodations all owned by the same company relatively close close to Ayers Rock. We stayed at The Lost Camel. I neat little place with a great pool. Thankfully… because it was 37 - 40 degrees and we needed the dip!

Brad and I decided that we were going to do the sunset camel tour. Brad was a little reluctant, but I was hyped. And it turned out to be awesome. A shuttle picked us up around 6PM and took us to where the camels are. We were put in a caravan of camels and went for an hour long ride through the desert with a view of Ayers rock. We were at the "ass end" of the caravan which worked out well. The owner was walking behind us so of course I was asking him tonnes of questions…

Where do the camels come from?

There are 800,000 wild camels in Australia. They catch them and then train them. There are so many wild camels that the government is actually culling the herds.

How long do they live?

They can live up to 60 years. Our camel was in his 20's!

Do people eat camels?

Yep, the place where we rode the camels actually sold camel jerky. I resisted… we know how much I love jerky. Even the main owner guy says that camel meat is pretty good.

Are there any deadly things in the outback?

Not where we were. He will actually go for days long camel rides and sleep under the stars. No deadly snakes, no deadly spiders (those are in Sydney), just wild camels and the occasional wild kangaroo.

Speaking of kangaroos, after we returned from our awesome trip, they brought in a baby kangaroo that was rescued from his mother who had an unfortunate encounter with a car. And yes, cars hit wild camels in Australia too.

This little video is of our camel Murphy. When they brush him his mouth moves to the speed of how fast he is being brushed. He was a good camel.

Murphy. Our Camel. from Steven Ishiwara on Vimeo.

Here are the pictures... some taken by us, some from the photographer that followed us around.