With a sense of adventure, David and I went up to Birmingham at the beginning of the week, to attend a talk by Christina Adams, author of Camel Crazy. She is a hero of mine in the camel world and I couldn't wait to get there to hear her talking about camel milk and camels in general.
The talk itself was in the Muslim Student and Community Centre, right next door to the flat we stayed in overnight. We were made very welcome by everyone there and it was great to meet so many people from diverse cultures. Christina herself is an American lady who was on a quest to find something, anything, that would help her son's severe autism. She is absolutely convinced that camel milk made an enormous difference to his life.
I eventually got to talk to her directly, and she had that sparkle in her eye that comes when two camel people meet each other and know just how it feels to get into the soul of a camel. I told her about Tulip and Shilingi, and the Loisaba Conservancy. Of course I asked her to sign my book too.
She told me I wasn't weird, just early, with my view about the value of camels, but the fact is we are all too late since these animals have sustained nomadic pastoralists for years and in times of climate change and drought they will become more and more essential.
Anyone wanting to source camel milk, can contact The Hump Group who have a Facebook page.
