Iran - Our love for the camels

Before I write today: I'm sorry for all the pictures. We both can't help but photograph camels. So if you don't like looking at camels, just read the text!

It began in Tunisia: the love for camels. They are such calm, sublime and beautiful animals. We always see them in groups, usually with their young.

We hadn't realised before that we would see so many of our favourite animals in Iran. We have already encountered them near Quom, but here on the island they are everywhere. Unfortunately, they are also dressed up as circus camels to entertain the people. We don't like that at all. But there's probably nothing we can do about it except not ride camels ourselves. Why should we?

On Qeshm, we often drive for kilometres through empty nothingness. And then they appear, first one, then more and more. They just stand there, nibble on dry bushes and (sometimes) look at us curiously. But then they prefer to keep on nibbling.

At some point, we were overcome with the desire to stroke them. As I also have camel wool in my stash (and it's so cosy and soft), I want to stroke a camel once in my life. I send Gerd ahead to make the first contact. He walks very slowly through the undergrowth, stops carefully at a distance, puts his hand on his chest and bows. I can't hear it from a distance, but I'm pretty sure he even greets the camel with Salām. The camel probably greets him back with Salām. I guess that's how you do it as a camel.

Oh yes, camels and the number of humps:
The number of humps is decisive. When we talk about camels, we actually mean Bactrian camels. They have two humps and live mainly in Asia. They are also called two-humped camels. Dromedaries have only one hump and live mainly in Africa. They are also known as one-humped camels.
So, of course we see dromedaries here, but we say camels. Okay?

After Gerd has greeted "his" camel, he is allowed to stroke it. At least he tries and it doesn't run away. It just looks around in amazement. I could watch this encounter for hours.

These animals are a bit too big for me to let them get that close to me. When one looked through the car window yesterday, I was happy but also a bit scared. I have no idea what a camel's head can do.

But I dare: I find a camel that really doesn't run away and doesn't make any hectic movements. Good for me. Step by step, I get closer and it actually lets me touch it. Wow, what a wonderful experience. It's not tethered anywhere and doesn't have any shackles like we sometimes see in other herds. So it could run away, but it doesn't.

However, the first great joy is followed by a small disappointment: the coat is very shaggy. Our granddog is a mongrel with a lot of terrier parts, and his coat is just as shaggy. So it looks somehow familiar to me. (The colour too, by the way, I notice as I write). I stroke the camel's coat and unfortunately I can't find any soft spots. The fur itself is kind of greasy, like sheep's, but not soft. And I wonder how you can make such fine camel wool from these small bristles. I still have to research that.

But all in all, it will be our saying of the day: "Today we saw camels. Today is a good day!" And we see lots of camels. They walk around everywhere, stand decoratively in the area and let themselves be photographed. Oh, the camels alone made the long journey here worthwhile.

Oh, this poem also describes my first encounter with "my" camel quite aptly:

Splash!

I travelled on the Silk Road
on the edge of a desert,
I saw the oasis from afar,
where a man greeted me.

He proudly brought me his "jewel";
surrounded by a few children
suddenly a camel was standing next to me
with a shaggy bum.

Then I heard a soft "splash!",
and with the hind feet
was a brown, solid sludge.
Is this how camels greet?

Author: Alfons Pillach

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Merci for "travelling with us

We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.

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