Bahrain - Royal Camel Farm

Dave, the kids, and I took a little jaunt out to the Royal Camel Farm in Janabiyah.  A little background, this farm is owned by the Sheikh and is located off the last exit before the bridge to Saudi Arabia.  Saudi Arabia is evidently very hard to get in to (they have strict restrictions on who can get a visa) so if you get on the bridge, it takes approximately three hours total to get back to Bahrain if you miss the exit.  Which explains the cursing and frantic lane shift when Dave realized we were about to go to Saudi Arabia.  Thank god he was paying attention, because I was looking at the scenery and had no idea what was happening.

Max, look at the camera!  These are male camels and they are tethered to the ground... probably so they don't run away since there isn't anything stopping them from leaving, other than a really low wall around the perimeter of the farm.  I wonder if camels jump?

My first impression of the camel farm was it did not smell very pleasant.  Sophie wanted to pet the camels and was pretty disappointed when Dave explained they were wild camels and she couldn't pet them.  After walking around a bit, a man who worked at the farm waved us over to show us their baby camel and then let us pet one of the camels and put the kids on it.

Sophie "riding" the camel. 

Max "riding" the camel.

The camel didn't seem overly impressed with the petting or the riding.  These animals seemed resigned for lack of a better term.  I kept imagining this camel saying to itself, "Oh great, another stupid human.  I have to lay down AGAIN.  Ugh."  The kids were pretty stoked though.

Camels are really big and I preferred the ones behind the fence as opposed to the ones tethered to the ground.

The camels in the pens are female and the ones tethered to the ground are male.

It was a nice little outing, but I don't know that I'll be going back. Unless someone visits me, then I might go back... *hint, hint

Look at us... together... having fun!

 

 

 

Since Princess Crankypants made an appearance at the end of our outing due to the camel not moving while she was riding it; we'll be looking for the other camel farm on the island that allows you to ride a moving camel.  Picky, picky...