We had quite a long way to drive to Qatar, but we had banana business
there to transact. The camel race, the 112th Qatar Sand Flats Classic, was
open to new entries. Of course, first we had to find a camel. We found a
one named Zahir and proceeded to the track.

Ned and I fit pretty well on top of Zahir, though Ned had to hold on to
me for dear life. We wanted Ringo to go along for the ride, but there
was no space. Ringo didn’t take a liking to Zahir anyway, so he was
to watch the race from the sidelines.

We got off to a decent start, but out of the blue, Ringo bolted from
the spectator area and tore out behind us! He started nipping at Zahir’s
elbows, and Zahir slid to an abrupt stop. We didn’t finish the race,
and needless to say, we gave Ringo the cold shoulder for a couple
of days. Too bad we had bet on ourselves and lost quite a bit of
riyal (Qatar $$$). We would have to double down on our banana
transactions to recoup our losses.