File 756/1917 Pt 2-3 ‘ARAB BULLETIN Nos 66-114’ [‎328v] (665/834)

If? j : ' ' i
wjtb the Howeitat ur Beni Sakhr I found that for long journeys
camels were never permitted to trot, since it interrupts the
chances of grazing on the march. They do a steady walk of
nearly four miles an hour, and keep this up for from sixteen to
twenty hours daily, giving them an average mileage of from 64
to 80 miles. The smaller of these distances can be counted on
as an average for perhaps ten or twelve days. For a month’s
riding day by day, it would be unwise to expect more than 50
miles a day from a camel in good condition. Weak camels
cannot be expected to do more than about 40 miles a day average.
W ith strong camels my experience has been that the man gives
in sooner than the camel. My longest month was 1,400 miles,
and I found it very difficult. A bad or inexperienced rider will
wear out a camel very quickly. Arabs mostly ride light, about
jeight or nine stone, and their clothes and kit are usually less than
we can do with. I carried little, and yet managed to use twice
as many camels as my men.
For a disciplined camel corps, forty miles a day is a fair
march, and that this average was passed for three days on end
by Colonel Buxton’s column of I.C.C. when going north from
Bair speaks very well for the riders and the animals. The latter
(and indeed the former) were all male, were all unaccustomed
to desert conditions, and were carrying heavy loads. A column
marching in the Arab formation of small independent groups of
ten or twelve will make better way than a column that tries to
keep in regular line. An Arab party of 20 men (my servants)
marched once with all their kit from Abu el Lissan to Akaba
(60 miles) in just over five hours, as the last stage of a journey
ol five 50-mile marches. The camels were all fit to start the
next day. Needless to say they were all pushing their camels on
this last occasion. A stripped camel, racing, will do something
like twenty miles an hour for nearly two hours. For a short
hurst I have timed them trotting at 22 and cantering at 26 miles
per hour.
T.E.L.
i
. The performances described by Colonel Lawrence are ex
ceptional ones made on the best camels. During my experience
in the southern Hejaz I found that either the incentive had to
he very strong, or the remuneration most lavish, to induce a
Bedou to cover more than 30 or 40 miles a day. The fastest rate
oi ic Emir s neggabs from Mecca to the Arab camps on the
outskirts of Medina, and from the camps to the coast at Yenbo,
was oO miles a day, but the payment worked out at £2 10s.
Un pids, the rate of progress was generally 15 miles a dav
and never more than 25 This was done at walking pace anil
the Bedomn intensely disliked travelling more than eight hours out
ot the twenty-four, or more than three hours without rest. It was
my experience that for endurance in camel riding thouoh not for