JEDDAH: When the race started, camel number 104 was leading the flock in full gear, but in a rare move, she suddenly turned back to a 4x4 pickup truck on the side.
The matter became clear when the head of a newborn camel looked out from the back of the pickup truck while the mother camel was competing for position among the competitors.
Abdul Aziz Ayyad Al-Qahbani, the chairman of the Receiving and Delivery Committee at the King Abdul Aziz Camel Festival, said that the committee received the mother camel with its newborn from the owner, Saleh Mohammed Al-Ajmi. The newborn was put in a 4x4 pickup truck to accompany his mother to the Sayaheed.
In a humanitarian gesture that takes into account the state of the mother and her newborn, Al-Qahbani said that the festival management was keen to move it from one place to another so as not to distance it from his mother and enable her to take part in the race.
Pointing out that “dealing with the situation required us to secure the newborn against any harm that might be triggered by other camels and to avoid the possibility of danger as some camels try to hurt and harm the young.”
The newborn appeared engrossed, while his mother competed all the individual laps. She came in the third place in the individual category “Gel – Wadah.”
The newborn achieved his first appearance in the Gel category, within three days of his birth, loaded on a luxury vehicle with utmost care and safety.