Supposed monster
Temperature - Day (maximum):
approx. 30 degrees
Anna Plains Station – 13.05.2001 – 15.05.2001
Tanja has managed to pack all the food bags, which are now neatly lined up in one of the rooms Tanja calls her workroom. I work on the new route and try to find out where the water holes that are essential for survival are on this stretch.
On some days we now only train with the camels once and not in the morning and afternoon as before. Edgar sometimes still has diarrhea and his whole body trembles with excitement. One of the daily training lessons is to touch and stroke her on the bridge of her nose. Edgar acts like a monster and still tries to bite me, but progress is visible and he is becoming calmer. Soon we will get her used to the nose leashes and be able to attach them to the nose peg without getting her hand bitten off. The nose leash is important for walking in the caravan. If one of our boys gets lazy, he lets his foreman pull him. This must not happen because otherwise the camel in front of him will tire and lose its reserves of strength. In this case, the nose leash is effective. Shortly before the neck rope tightens, the lazybones are pulled by the nose line. To avoid the unpleasant pull, he has to run faster. This method has worked well over the last 2238 kilometers and is and has been used by the caravans of this world.
Slowly we also start to get them used to a saddle. Only the sight of a saddle is so terrifying for Edgar and Jasper that they once again act crazy. “Smell it first. It’s just a saddle,” I say to Edgar and put the frame down in front of him. In the meantime, Tanja and I sit down on the grass and watch him. He cautiously sniffs the supposed monster until he loses his initial fear. Then we carefully and slowly lift the saddle from the ground and touch his coat with it. Edgar wants to jump up again, but the leg ropes hold him in the coughing position. “I think we can go for it now,” I say and very carefully put the saddle on his back. Edgar leaves me to it. We pass the neck strap of the saddle around his neck and close the buckle. Then we take the string, which is also called a crupper here, at the end of the saddle and want to place it under his tail. The crupper is responsible for ensuring that the saddle does not fall on the camel’s neck when it stands up. When I gently touch Edgar’s tail, he is so startled that he throws himself on his side without warning and pulls a huge, fast and dangerous super swing with both hind legs simultaneously close to the ground. At the last second, I jump to the side and only feel the breeze of this terrible scythe blow. “He really has all the tricks a camel can have,” I say with a trembling voice. I would never have thought it possible that Edgar, with his front feet tied together, would be able to throw himself on his side so quickly and use his hind feet as a weapon. Nevertheless, I have to try to lift his tail again, as this will be one of the store’s daily routines in the future. We can’t afford to risk breaking a bone in the middle of the bush just because we’re not working properly here and now. When I touch his cock, he flinches again and wants to repeat his swinging action. “No! No! No! Edgar!” I shout from deep inside. Edgar is startled by my angry voice and remains seated. Tanja and I agree to take the safer route and tie his hind legs together with a 16 millimeter rope. Now he may still be able to throw himself onto his side, but he is no longer able to swing his hind legs towards us.
I carefully stroke his backside. My hand gets closer and closer to his cock. Frightened, he clamps it between his ass cheeks. Then I am able to grab him and lift him up. It’s remarkable how much muscle power it contains, because it’s not easy to move. Suddenly he comes out of me, wags up and down several times and squirts his liquid excrement all over my face and upper body. After several attempts, we manage to pull the crupper line under his tail. Now we fasten the two belly straps and Edgar is saddled. We leave him alone for a while so that he can get used to the new feeling. It looks as if he takes no notice of the thing on his back. We let him stand up and stay next to the post. When that goes well too, I untie him and he is allowed to spend the afternoon with the saddle on his back.
