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| Camels and Dunes, near Al Ain, UAE © Doug Hickok All Rights Reserved (Click on image for larger view) The desert is never far away in the United Arab Emirates In fact it is usually just across the street, or even in your own front yard. And what would the desert be without camels? Camels seem synonymous with the landscape. I drove only a short way off the road to capture this trademark scene of the Arabian Peninsula... a loose caravan of dromedaries strolling around the dunes, herded by a cameleer (just out of the frame). Although there are a lot of camels here, the UAE is not a Camelot for camels. Camels are a commodity. They are raised as livestock on farms for meat and milk. They are also raced, and used as beasts of burden to carry tourists like us for rides in the desert. Not surprisingly, the English word camel comes to us from the Arabic word jamala, meaning "to bear". |