When 83-year-old Salem Saud Al-Otaibi moved to the desert of Hafr Al-Baten at the age of seven to spend the rest of his life there breeding camels, little did he know that one day he would become one of the wealthiest bedouins on the Peninsula.

Just last week, prior to having his name registered for the 26-day King Abdulaziz Annual Camel Festival at Umm Ruquaiba, 350 km north of Riyadh, Otaibi sold one of his 31 prized camels for SR400,000.

“Since the age of seven, when I first came across camels, I have been infatuated by them,” said Al-Otaibi, adding that he quit the city and adopted a nomadic life - and he’s never regretting his decision.

“I myself pulled water for camels from the well, and slept in the pen with them at night to ensure their safety from poachers,” he reminisced, and disclosed that he had taken part in every camel pageant since its start 10 years ago.

The festival, held under the patronage of Prince Mishaal bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, head of the Royal Committee and founder of the event, also has camels coming from Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE.

In total, there were around 20,000 “desert ships” vying for places in different categories of beauty. The prince, who had himself reached his desert tent a week earlier, handed over the prizes to the winners. These enthusiasts take the competition fairly seriously.

Participants enter based on how many camels they own: Herds of at least 100, at least 50 or at least 30. And there’s no room for small-time camel collectors; to be qualified for the competition, participants have to sign an oath that all the camels they submit to the competition belonged to them and weren’t borrowed.

Furthermore, each herd required five different kinds of camel: Wadah (white), majaheem (black), hamar (red) shaal (sable), safar (brown). The stakes are high. By the end of this year’s competition on Friday, 125 camels ended up fetching prizes worth around SR50 million.

The desert at Umm Ruquaiba had already become a sprawling city with make-shift tent dwellings and hamlets bustling with activity. The unique event brought a lot of opportunities for the Saudis to deal in their prized stock.

“A week before the award ceremony, one camel was sold for SR5 million. The previous year, the highest bid was $10 million,” said Al-Otaibi.

The first time this fair was organized, only a few hundred of the local breeds had managed to reach. With time, however, the place and the event have assumed greater significance. The participation of camels from the surrounding Gulf states has also lent the occasion a wider cultural flair.

The camel has been present on the Arabian Peninsula since 1100 B.C. However, it is different from the double-humped Central Asian species in that the desert-dweller has adjusted to the harsh extremes of an arid climate.

It can live without water for long spells sometimes stretching two months in the summer and six months in the winter. It has a tremendous quality of adjusting its body temperature between six and 41 degrees Celsius, a capacity absent in other animals.