Grandstand

Drove out to the Camel Race Track today as I haven't been there for AGES and thought it would be good to blip it.

Got there to find... *shock, horror* the camel races aren't held there anymore!! The grandstand, track and everything else is still there and maintained meticulously, but NO CAMEL RACES! They've moved them to where the Dubai Rugby Sevens are now held. We just have to drive out further now to experience a bit of real local culture.

What was the original Camel Race Track is now asphalted and used as a cycle track! Makes sense I guess.

I used to take tourists to this place and they loved the grounds, architecture and the whole idea of camels racing! Camels are great long distance runners and quite fast too. They can do 5kms in 8 minutes. As you can see, the roof is designed to look like a tent which places it nicely in the Arabian Peninsula. A Camel Hospital (yes, really) is nearby with state of the art facilities to look after these amazing animals which are sometimes better cared for than humans. In days of old, a bedouins wealth was measure by the number of camels he had.

For any of you who follow Jellyfox, she's got more pics and description...