There are generally 3 staff plus one of the managers Chris Hill who does as much of the work as anyone else during our work time and shit loads more behind the scenes. The workforce is mostly travellers and with the exclusion of the two managers and myself it is almost exclusively female, there are a couple of other guys that do help out occasionally. It seems in the past that the guys they have had work for them have struggled with taking orders from Jade who is Chris’s girlfriend. I don’t understand that, if you work for someone who has been doing the job for years and knows what to do then you do as they instruct even if it was a 14yr old girl, which Jade certainly isn’t. It seems a shame that there are still far too many people that have closed minds.
Your mind is a bit like a door, if it isn’t open, it’s just a wall.
I have found that my many years of owning horses certainly makes a big difference because I am used to working with big animals and understanding how to handle them and deal with their moods. I did however discover on my first morning when trying to catch an unwilling camel that they are indeed not horses and yet have the advantage of being trained to lie down on command, assuming compliance with the command when they are obviously in a less than compliant mood. On my first morning shift I spent probably 7 or 8 minutes helping one of the others trying to catch this camel by cornering it in the pen, and for a few minutes there were 3 of us and still no success. I suddenly had a brain wave and just walked straight at the camel and commanded it to “hoosh” and she lay down. So on only my second shift I was pretty chuffed with that effort.
I have two teams of 16 camel to learn and be able to recognise. I have the names and order in the team of all the camels memorised, and have all but 3 camels in one team pretty much figured out that I can walk up to a camel and know who it is, the 3 unknowns just look too bloody similar. The other team I have not worked with as much and can probably only figure out about half of them without assistance. There have also been a few fill in camels which are rotated in to give a sick injured or older camel a rest day, so I have actually had to try and learn 37 camels. After only just over a week I think I am doing well as I have also given the introduction talk which also consists of demonstrating how to get on a camel and the safety rules etc, and the thank you and dismounting talk at the end of the ride, something which a few of the girls who have been there a bit longer than me haven’t done yet. Though I mean a bit longer as in maybe 3-4 days.
I have to add how I got the job as it is a pretty funny story.
I had been told by some friends we’d met in Karajini weeks earlier that there was a notice in a café window about workers needed for camel tours. When I called however they had already put on a bunch of people and weren’t prepared to take on any more new people but some of them didn’t look to be right for the job and I should call back in a week or so. When I called back they said they had just been discussing that morning they needed someone else and I should come in to their shop the following morning, the address of which could be found on their brochure in any resort or touristy place. I went in to the shop that day just so I knew where it was and introduced myself to the ladies behind the counter not knowing one was the bosses wife (John not Chris). As I left I made a flippant remark that I would see them tomorrow morning and then no doubt quite frequently after that when John gave me the job, with an aside that ‘hey, I’m an optimist’.
Apparently calling back in the first place and then the visit to the shop had impressed them so much that by the time I had a meeting with the Managers Chris and John the next morning they had already decided to hire me, they had already put me on the following weeks roster and I started that afternoon.
Some times being a bit of a smart ass has got people off side, but sometimes it can land you the job too.
Anyway with Rupert and Alja working at Willie Creek Pearl farm and myself on the camel tours we look to be in Broome for a number of weeks to come.
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