Pichi Richi Camel Tours with Lisa McAskill in the Outback Flinders region of South Australia
Little Malachi Cannard is a fifth generation camel man - it’s obvious he feels quite at home on top of Comanche under the watchful eye of his father Graham Cannard.
“The reason we took camels on,” explained Graham, “My great grandfather was a German and when the First World War started they took most of the Germans and put them in the camps to look after them or keep an eye on them.
“Instead of him going to a camp he took on some camels so they classed him as an Afghan and left him alone for the period of the war. After the war had finished he thought about getting rid of the camels but he fell in love with them.”
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder but Graham reckons this mass of hump, bad teeth and fluttering eyelashes is one hell of a stunner.
“Her name’s Elle McPherson. They have different faces and she's more attractive. She’s very pretty and she knows it too,” said Graham.
Soon we were off leaving the Devil's Peak Car Park and on our way to Pichi Rich Pass. It's an opening through the Flinders made famous by a tourist railway these day. But before the trains it was a vital thoroughfare for goods carried on camels that strode into and out of this part of Northern South Australia.
They truly are a remarkable animal not only known for their endurance and strength but for their speed. Comanche has been known to do four hundred metres in 26 seconds but thankfully today he’s a bit slower paced.
There's something biblical about a journey like this and the camel convoy certainly looks the part in this timeless land where Devil's Peak rises 700 metres.
The Peak is a rock made of 700 million-year-old weather resistant quartzite but camel convoys have been a much more recent addition to the landscape.
“In the late eighteen hundreds Sir Thomas Elder brought a mob of camels out from Arabia because most of our camels come from Afghanistan or Rajistan,” said Graham. “Most of the ones we brought out were just big pack animals but Sir Thomas Elder wanted to use them as a mail run to get across country quickly So he brought out about thirty five from Arabia and then started breeding his own here in Australia.”
Today Comanche gets a pretty good feed in country where there's not much to eat for less hardy animals. And it's the adaptability of this "ship of the desert" which has seen it cruise through some fairly fearsome droughts.
“Out in the desert where it's just all sand hills, no grass or anything, he’ll go 14 days without water,” said Graham. “After 14 days they'll go another seven days drinking each other’s urine. So it's actually twenty-one days but at the end of seven days of the urine they must find water or the acid that's in the urine will end up poisoning them.
“It’s the same with food. They'll go through an era in a drought where there's nothing. They'll eat dead sticks leaves bark anything that'll just get them by.”
By the early nineteen century the leisurely pace of the camel was no match for mechanised transport and the old Afghan cameleer knew he and his faithful mates days were numbered.
“In 1925 when they brought one of the first trucks up to this country that's when the Afghans knew the camel's life was over. When the Afghan was going across from Port Augusta to Kalgoolie and the same truck had passed him three times - that’s when he knew.”
But today you can still lope back in time on one of Graham Cannard's Pichi Richi Camel Tours. For bookings contact 8648 6640.
Pichi Richi Camel Tours
Contact Graham Cannard Ph (08) 8648 6640
