Edgar attacks me
Temperature - Day (maximum):
approx. 28-30 degrees
Anna Plains Station – 27.05.2001
In order to finish our work on time, we now get up at five in the morning. It’s still pitch dark at this hour and it’s not easy for us, but it doesn’t hurt to get used to a different daily rhythm for our departure.
When the sun rises at around six o’clock, we are already in the camel enclosures. Like every morning, I prepare the food for them. They are in a different enclosure so that I can work in peace and not be constantly disturbed by the hungry mouths. First I fill the six meter long feeding tube with meadow hay, then I mix in some of the good, rich hay and finally I tip two buckets of delicious horse cubes (concentrated feed) on top. After half an hour I’m finished and call the camels to breakfast with Tanja: “Come on! Come on! (Camis, tuckertime! Tuckertime!” (Australian for feeding time) They jump back and forth like wild animals. Istan performs a veritable dance of joy, dangling his head with his huge jumps and lifting off the ground with all four feet at the same time. They snort, race up and down the training enclosure, bang their heavy bodies into each other and are so excited about their camel ways that it has a really infectious effect on us. Even though we soon watch this spectacle every day, we enjoy it every time and have to laugh heartily. Tanja finally opens the gate and an avalanche of camels bursts into the enclosure. Just before they reach the feeding trough, they slow down their frenzy and as soon as they get there, their long necks move downwards abruptly in order to sink their teeth into the delicacy. “What’s wrong with Edgar, doesn’t he want to eat?” Tanja asks, because he’s standing on the other side of the fence and can’t seem to find his way in. “I’ll get him,” I reply and climb over the wooden beams into the small paddock.
Two horses have been living in the former leisure and feeding enclosure for a few days now. John Stoat would like to use horses to round up cattle again in the future. For this reason, one of the jackeroos has already brought in two of the twenty-strong herd of horses that run around the farm semi-wild. As it is not good to leave horses and camels in the same fence, I had to drag the feeding trough to another paddock. It looks like Edgar hasn’t yet understood that the food is now served in a different place. He stays in a 10 x 10 meter small kraal, which has a connecting gate to the training enclosure, but is located directly next to the new feeding area. Excited, he sticks his head over the fence and wants to join his mates, but doesn’t get the idea to walk around the outside. I carefully walk towards him and reach for the neck rope lying on the floor. As soon as I have it in my hand and pull on it to lead Edgar out, he pulls his head up and races towards me without warning. Scared to death, I raise my hands in the air to shock him, but even though it has always worked before, this time it fails to have the desired effect. “Uhh! Edgar!” I manage to get out and throw the neck rope up at the last second. It hits him on the head, whereupon he hesitates for a fraction of a second. At the same moment I run backwards to escape the danger zone, but before I am safe Edgar continues his attack. Horrified, I swerve to the side and, still walking backwards, fall into the sandpit where our animals take a dust bath every day. I lie on my back like a little worm and look with panicked eyes at the huge animal that now wants to finish me off, lifting its front feet to hurl them at me. As if something was going to explode inside me, I roll my body to the side with several turns and thus escape his attack. Edgar storms past me and when he comes back I’m already on my feet and shouting at him with all my might. Out of my mind with adrenaline, panic and fear of death, I grab his neck rope again and drag him out of the small paddock, cursing loudly. As soon as I’m outside with him, he snatches the rope out of my hand and storms off to join his companions. I don’t want to let him get away with it under any circumstances and sprint after him. I grab the neck rope again and order him to get off. Tanja is now next to me and shows Edgar the foot rope she has grabbed. Protesting, roaring, snorting and foaming at the mouth, he sits down. “Epna!” I command him as soon as he sits down, whereupon he immediately jumps up again. “Shoo down!” I command again to show him who’s the boss of the pack. Tanja and I repeat this procedure five more times until we release him. “Do you think this lesson was enough for him?” I ask, completely out of breath. “I could imagine,” Tanja replies, looking at me with concern. With my nerves on edge, we head back to the house. During breakfast I have trouble choking down the first few bites. It takes some time for me to recover from the shock. Later, I realize that I’ve accidentally cornered Edgar. As I approached him, he couldn’t get out of the way because the open gate was at his back. So he only saw the small room in front of him and my person grabbing him by his neck rope. For him, there was only one way forward, and in this case it was to attack the little creature in front of him, which had been forcing him to do things for weeks that had absolutely nothing in common with his original life. Of course Tanja and I are shocked by his massive attack, but we are convinced that Edgar has no evil character. In any case, it has become clear to us that we need to be even more attentive in future than we already were.
