I was on the tour bus getting myself from the holy city of Makkah to Hudaibiyah in the outskirts to visit some historical places. It was summer at that time and with temperatures rising up to 48 degrees, one could just imagine how it was. The journey moves through a long straight road with the views being an empty and dry looking desert on both sides.

At one point, the bus stopped near a large tent with a Saudi flag by the side of the road. It was actually a camel breeding place merely in the middle of the desert. Due to the hot weather, not everybody in the bus wanted to get down. Probably another reason was that most of the pilgrimage had been to some similar places before during their previous visits.

There were quite a number of camels there ranging from baby camels up to a few year old adults. They were put in an area surrounded by fences. Visitors are allowed to feed the camels though.

a young camel with it’s mum

As I approached the enclosure, I heard the owner giving some instruction to his workers. The two workers then went into the camel’s pen and started milking one of the female camels. After about 5 minutes, one of the workers came out bringing back some fresh camel milk in a steel bowl and offered it to our group.

the workers milking the camel

Ok I drank all of it!

Almost everyone in my group doesn’t dare to try it since they saw the process of milking it in front of their own eyes.  As most people tend to move away, the worker finally came to me. Not wanting to offend the guy, I pushed myself to taste the milk. It eventually tastes slightly salty than the cow’s milk. I did offer to some group members but all are just smiling, whilst waving their hands asking me just to finish up the milk.

I did finished up the milk and guess what, I bought another small bottle of the milk from the guys there.