They race just about everything around this crazy world of ours, I guess we love a good race. I’ve seen turtle races at O’Briens Irish pub in Marina Del Rey, Ca., Dog races in Brazil, Horse races at Santa Anita, a Formula one race in Monte Carlo, filmed a Cigarette boat race from Malibu to Catalina island and saw a Marathon run in Los Angeles. Now I can add I’ve witnessed Camel Racing in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt.
They have political races and once we had a race to the moon. My buddy Adly, one of the pioneers of Sharm el Sheikh an idyllic city on the Red Sea called me yesterday late afternoon and said “Jump in a taxi and come watch the camel races, it’s a once a year event, Bedouins from all over Egypt come and race their camels.”So I did just that, on the ride there I envisioned men sitting atop Camels like they do with horses. Now that I think of it I think I’ve seen men racing on camels, maybe that’s in Saudi Arabia. I get to the track after going through the police security check where of course I introduced the Be Fantastic philosophy to all of them, the track is in the desert and protected by the government here.
When I arrived at the track I didn’t notice at the time that atop the three camels in the statue at the entrance were small radio transmitters on their humps. One of the races was just finishing and over the loud speaker the announcer was calling the action, I climbed onto a 20 foot platform at the finish line for my first shot of the action. While the race is running people loaded into trucks and cars race along with the camels in tracks inside and outside of the race track, its amazing. I then filmed the beginning of the next race that had about 10 camels, all camels are young, they said one year olds. The camels upon exiting the starting gate ran to the right instead of straight ahead and crashed into the railing, it was hilarious. We positioned ourselves for the final event 100 yards in front of the starting gate, this the final race for Friday the first of three race days, had at least twenty camels. I’m not sure which was more fun to watch, the crazy screaming honking drivers or the camels. It was a great experience and here is the video for your enjoyment.
