Crazy camel race in Oman on Masirah Island

To see a camel race in Oman, you have to get up early. Very early indeed. Preparations start with the sunrise at 6 o'clock in the morning. When we arrived at the racetrack at half past 6, the owners were already getting ready their animals for the first race. For the race on Masira, people bring their camels from all over the island, because there is either money or a car to be won. And of course, a lot of honor. As you can see, the race camels are young, normally less than one year old. Both male and female camels are used for racing, but they compete in separate gender races. What's the name of it? This name? Shahini. Shahini? When the race starts, the competing camels are brought to the start of the 1,200 meters long racetrack. And also the cars of the crowd line up to get ready. As soon as the wooden gate opens, the camels ascend on the track with a last strong whip and loud shouting. Then they whiz off, and so do the cars. Good racing camels reach a speed of around 40 km an hour. But it's not only the instinct, the beeping horns and the cheering of the crowd makes them run so fast. If you look closely, there is a special instrument fixed on the back of each camel. It's a whip. A long time ago, there were kids sitting backwards on the camels to accelerate them with a whip. But this resulted in a lot of accidents, and soon a new invention replaced the kids. A remote-controlled whip. The whip is either controlled by a special programmed car key or by a walkie-talkie. The higher the sound frequency, the faster the whip turns. So now that we told you everything we know about camel racing in Oman, here's the most exciting race that we saw on that day. By the way, the races are filmed and uploaded on YouTube for rich Emiratis that use them to scout talented camels and buy them for several thousands of dollars. And now back to the race. Keep an eye on the camel with the circle on the neck. It's Hamsa, the Arab symbol for five. And the camel number five was deemed to be the favorite camel of the whole racing day. After camel number five crossed the finish line with a considerable lead, we drove home. Of course not without a stop at the car wash to clean the car from all the dust and sand and to avoid one of the weirdest fines you can receive in Oman. The one for riding a dirty car.