Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

WE are bowling along a wide, straight road out of Muscat, Oman, when the conversation turns to camels.

- Pamela Goodman

Beside me is Mohammed Al-Mahri, a distinguished member of the Al-Mahri tribe hailing from Oman's southern Dhofar region and whose full name would run to many lines if I were to include his long lineage of grandfathers stretching back through time to the Prophet Hud.

Mohammed and I have met before on a previous trip of mine to my favourite country in the Middle East, but, somehow, we have never touched on the subject of these hardy, desert beasts. He has 27 camels, he tells me, adding with a flourish that at least three are currently pregnant. He has four daughters, too, whom he professes to love almost as much, although, clearly, the camels aren't quite as naughty as the daughters.