If you were convinced that camels couldn't run fast, you're wrong: they can easily reach 65 km per hour in sprints and run for more than an hour at about 40 km per hour. Tireless, in short, and much more sporty than you might think.
Practically tireless, they are much more athletic than you might imagine!
It is curious to think that, in a land so far from the African desert, you can find not only camels, but even racing camels ready to challenge each other to the last drink...of water, of course!
But there are numerous races during the year and the most popular ones offer the winner a rich prize.
The camel race at a professional level is identical to the horse race in vogue in other continents, here the camels run up to a maximum speed of 65 km/h and for long stretches maintain an average speed of around 40 kilometers per hour.
When Europeans arrived on the continent, they were stranded along the coasts for decades by the extremely arid conditions of the interior desert, until people began to think about dromedaries.
I have read that it was around the mid 1800s that some dromedaries were imported for an exploratory expedition into the interior. It was a success and between 1870 and 1920 at least 20,000 dromedaries (and some camels) were imported from the Arabian Peninsula and India.
The dromedaries therefore belonged to various selected breeds, certainly causing a nice genetic mess in the current animal population.
The dromedaries were used for the pastoral industry, because they carried bales of wool to the coast, but also to transport telegraph poles, railway tracks and any kind of heavy goods, since they can carry heavy loads, walk many kilometers and resist many days without drinking. In short, it is the camels (mostly dromedaries actually, but from now on I will use the word camel as a collective noun for dromedaries and camels) who are responsible for conquering the Australian outback, mapping the Australian interior, establishing outposts, expanding the pastoral industry and westernising Australia.
Unfortunately, the first paved roads, motor vehicles and coast-to-coast railways arrived around 1940, making camels and caravans obsolete after years of relying solely on them for a thriving trade. So if before the animals were exploited to the extreme, suddenly they found themselves useless, and of course the inevitable happened: they were freed, to fend for themselves. The camels slowly began to acclimatize and reproduce.
Camel racing was then introduced around the ‘70s and some of these animals were tamed again.
Such race is not a simple race but a real All Australian event, capable of attracting a large number of tourists given that there are numerous ways to have fun as well as many stalls where you can buy products related to this sport.
My favourite is the camel race in Alice Springs.
In the Outback and in some parts of Western Australia you can also ride these animals, going slowly of course.
Some rides take you to the Outback, others to the beach with these gentle animals.
