Camel Cup hits Alice Springs

By KAREN MICHELMORE*

Step right up for the greatest race in town!

The countdown is on for the 2003 Camel Cup - a race of skill, speed and unpredictability, which attracts thousands to Alice Springs each year.

On July 12, up to 15 gangly, furry beasts will be pitted against each other in eight battles over 400m, in a chaotic display of camel craziness.

Last year, frazzled handlers and jockeys endured wailing camels who refused to budge or, worse still, galloped off in the wrong direction - much to the delight of the 4500-odd spectators.

A camel named Bazza eventually took the Camel Cup crown, his second win in as many years.

"It's crazy," said Camel Cup president Helen Noonan.

"Some will go back to the start and some will decide they don't want to race.

"But when they decide to race they go neck and neck, they go really fast.

Noonan said police had clocked the bewildered beasts bolting at up to 22km/h. "Some [camels] from Central Australia have been sold to the Arab Emirates for competition, for racing there," she added.

A charity fundraiser for the Lions Club, the 2003 Camel Cup will be the 33rd such running.

The Cup was founded in 1970, after pub banter led to a bet between two would-be camel racers over whose beast was better.

The first race was run in the dry Todd River bed in Alice Springs, but proved such a spectacle the Lions Club moved to hold it on an annual basis.

Today the event has grown into a full-day extravaganza, with around 30 camels starring. (Officially there's no betting on the camel races).

The carnival also includes an array of everything from belly dancers (to add Middle Eastern authenticity) to souvenir, food and drink stalls, and even rickshaw races. The Honeymoon Handicap is another highlight: the "grooms" race camels then stop and pick up the "brides" before clambering to the finish line.

This year will see the inaugural Lost Cameleers Car Rally staged by sponsor Voyages Hotels and Resorts.

Cars - by invitation only this year - will rally from Voyages' Alice Springs Resort along dusty roads and through an ancient landscape to Glen Helen, on to Voyages' hotels in Kings Canyon and ultimately its Lost Camel Hotel at Ayers Rock Resort near Uluru.

The Camel Cup carnival last year raised around A$20,000 ($22,600), which the Lions Club disseminated to children and senior citizen charities.

But as well as being a fundraiser, the event is also an opportunity for the region's major cameleers to tussle for glory. There is an intense, and cheeky, rivalry between the local camel owners from two main camel farms and some smaller individual operators, Noonan said.

Lining up in the blue corner this year, there'll be Frontier Camel Farm with Nick and Margaret Smail - proud owners of Bazza, the Camel Cup victor in 2001 and last year.

They say they're gearing up for another win, handpicking their racers from their family of 50 camels.

In the red corner, there'll be Camels Australia owners Neil and Jayne Waters - who have 60 of the animals and are eager to snatch the Camel Cup mantle back.

Both groups claim to have a secret weapon that will push them over the finish line first this year.

"It's a good-natured rivalry," Noonan said. "Anything is possible."

Camels have become a thriving business in central Australia - both for meat exports and tourist safaris.

They have a long historical association with the desert and Australia. Camels were first shipped to the continent in 1840, later helping out in the ill-fated Bourke and Wills expedition and then also moving equipment for the Overland Telegraph Line.

Most were released into the bush in the 1920s, and more than 200,000 feral camels are now thought to be roaming the country.

Any one could be a future Camel Cup champion, or maybe simply the talk of the town for speed, skill or just plain stubbornness.AAP

* The writer travelled to Central Australia as a guest of Voyages Hotels and Resorts.

www.camelcup.com.au