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When the camels were finally in line and sitting we would brush them down and put on their saddles. We had to dig underneath the camels to pass their girth straps under their bodies. This was always an interesting process. When your head is under a metal frame attached to a really big animal who has chosen the hardest spinifex infested sand to sit on, and might suddenly need to get comfortable, your life in particular your head seems vulnerable. They were pretty well behaved though and none of us was hurt physically. Some of us were hurt emotionally when camels we thought were nice tried to eat us and then vomit on us. No hard feelings.....NOT, but a pretty smelly experience.

After the camels were all saddled we would load them up. They were very strong creatures, carrying a ton of water, all our swags and kit bags and lots and lots of food in assorted containers. Shah was my favourite camel because he was really placid and well behaved and carried these huge wooden cool boxes with meat and tim tams. He never complained.

I complained a lot, mainly because everything was a bit too heavy for me. I could lift it to my waist but not high enough to actually load onto the saddle. I came to the conclusion that I was unfortunately a winger, just like the camel behind Shah called Morgan. He kept up a running commentary burbling and growling all through the loading and unloading process. I think he was just reminding us that he was there. He never bit anyone.

The first day it took us two hours to load the camels, but we became more efficient and the jerry cans got lighter, especially the ones carrying port. Or so we kept telling ourselves....

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