We were invited to drive in the innner circle

I don't know if any woman has driven the inner circle before but Terri did. We were told we could drive and take good photos from 4 wheel so of cource do you think we were going to miss out on this. Here Terri is white knuckling it in the start....

The camels were running like crazy, maybe 40klm per hour. With the robots on top and the whips were being remote controled by the men in the SUV's

We let some pass us so we didn't get in the way, this one was even blinking as he was moving over. Lots of honking and yelling at the camels so we did our far share to. We wanted to blend in you know.

This is ahead of us in the race. It wasn't to bad, kind of exilerating. I had my head out the window clicking away. A little sandy, but not bad. The course was the smaller course and it was only 4 klm long and kind of in a roundish type shape.

Hold Them Tight...........

Here they come.............. Notice the flax jacket and helmet???

Run for your lives

Some get run over

I'm sure they are barefoot because they can run faster.

Continued Race Sequiencs

Its run to get your spots ASAP. They jockey for the sides of the start net. You will see why here in a minute.

The jocky holders then stretch out the ropes that are holding the camels in place for about a half a second.

The holders hold them and then the net goes up and they flip the rope so the rope goes out of the loop in the halter.

Are wondering where the holders go?

The Race

This is the holding pen or what I would call the Bull Pen. The camels and camel holders are getting squished

The gate is opened. Complete mayheim.

Run for your lives........................

The next few pictures are amazing.

Just Chilling Out

This appears to be the area to rest and relax before the next race. Lots of activity here.

Sales Yard

It was all pretty obvious what was going on here. Four baby camels for sale. They were on the back of this little Toyota truck all neatly tied in a row. The men with the back to us were the sellers and the older gentlemen and the young man were the buyers. I got a few shots in before they told us no photos. Some of the older gentlemen do not like to have their pictures taken.

This is the goat sales row. Everyone needs a new goat to fatten up for the feast at the end of the 10 days.

The only other women we saw from a distance were these ladies selling we think the harness and ropes that they have made. We would have never gotten a photo of this from close up.

It's Camel Race Time

Today was the first day of the Camel Races in Abu Dhabi. For the next ten days trainers, owners and riders will do everything they have worked for all season long to win as many races as they can for big money and the most bragging rights. My friend and I went to the races today. It was so much fun to watch. We couldn't figure out why there weren't 25 tour buses in the parking lot. We did come to understand that this is a man sport and that women do not frequent this kind of thing. But today there were two American women in attendance and I think EVERYONE knew we were there. I could hardly wait till I got home today to start my blog.
So here is goes.........