CONTENTS
Camels and the Outback
Click here to buy the book
Author: Barker H.M.
Year: 1964
(In the Australian Outback)
Camels differ very much from all other animals in their powers of observation. When travelling either in harness or as a string of pack animals, they watch everything and miss nothing. You can see their heads turning constantly and if one sees anything unusual, all turn their heads and study it...
Once for some reason, I neglected to take the winkers off the camels when I reached a very nice camp on the Tableland, a big waterhole with plenty of their favourite currant bushes about. I had taken off the tucker box and everything that I wanted for the night, when I noticed the camels were uneasy, turning their heads right round to see if anything was there that the winkers prevented them from seeing. I was on the point of going among them to take all the winkers off to satisfy them, when the whole lot sprang to their feet and tore off with the wagon. The brake was screwed hard on, but it did not stop them pulling the loaded wagon about a hundred yards at a fast pace. When they stopped, every camel turned its head and neck right round to look at something. I ran up and saw the cause of the fright. It was a Chinaman carrying a long stick on his shoulder with a swag on one end and a suitcase on the other. His big, cone-shaped, straw hat made him look even more ferocious to the camels, but even so they would not have been frightened if their winkers had been taken off. I had to carry my camp gear along to the new site the camels had chosen, it not being practicable to drive the wagon back with eight tons of wool on it. The Chinaman... made himself at home as if nothing had happened.
It was the camels' first trip along that road, and on every trip after, when we neared the same waterhole, they looked in all directions expecting to see another Chinaman coming through the currant bushes.
Print this article
Email this article