At the end of October or begining of November arrive tens of thousands camels and horses and cows to dunes just outside Pushkar. It is one of biggest livestock markets in India and in the world. Shepherds groom the camels and auctions and sales and races follows.
Or so the guidebook promises. And really, shepherds do groom the camels. But then just lounge all day around camel-dung campfires, smoking beedis, drinking tea. OK, I admitt I saw one camel being sold, including the teeth check and money exchange. And one race took place at the stadium. Five or six camels got together and then casually run two laps between market stalls, gathered up clouds of dust and to great cheering of the audience two fell down. And it was over.
Camels are fascinating creatures. They do look ancient. As if they timetravelled from jurassic age. Hairy dinosaurs. Tired expression, slow movements, strangely shaped bodies, long necks, whiskers. They seem to know everything, being old and wise. But they are not as inteligent as they pretend to be. One of them started to nibble my colar, planning to eath my shirt.
I saw camels at the ZOO before. I rode them in the Morrocan desert. But I never looked at them properly, I guess. Or there have to be thousands of them around to show they real face.
Desert full of camels.
Very rare three-headed camel.
Camels drink in the morning and in the evening.
Shepperds just hang out all day drinking tea and smoking.
Local claim that camels can dance. They even hold camel dancing competitions. They can't. They just run in circles trying to escape charmer's cracking whip, kneel down and let charmer to walk on them lying on the ground. And they do not like it at all, crying.
Indian punks ride around on horses. Bareback. I would not say they have under control. Now and then the horses go mad and throw down its rider. One of the horses even hit me. Viciously from the back. When they run in the sand you cannot hear them. But really, it was more like glancing and the horse was probably more traumatised then me. Cows just stand and moo.
Of course, something like camel fait could not go on without tourists noticing. In the evening before the sun sets they surround the camels with cameras and huge lenses and just before the sun sets they climb a dune with a makeshift café on top and collectively watch the atomic explosion above the desert.
For those wanting to buy animals:
| Camel | Rs 10 000 to 50 000 (depends on quality) |
| Horse | more than camel |
| Cow | from Rs 500 (not good business, only milk) |
