The pursuit of an animal, whether for the purpose of hunting it or with more innocent intent, depends for its attractiveness less on the animal itself, or even on the ultimate success of the quest, than on the surroundings into which the pursuit takes you, and the sights, sounds, and experiences incidental to it.
-The Red Sea Ibex, T.R.H. Owen, in Sudan Notes and Records, Vol. 20, No.1, 1937
I guess you can say that driving a dabouka through the Sahara Desert from Sudan to Egypt counts as being in “the pursuit of an animal”. And our intent was certainly innocent, not lethal. That was left to the Cairo butchers they were sold to. It was also true that my primary attraction to the camel was because of their desert surroundings, the subtle sights of dawn coming quickly after a short sleep and dusk dragging its feet after a long ride, the soft sounds of 150 camels crunching sand under foot while driven and chewing their cuds while couched, and the way everybody- Kababish, Kawala, and khawaja alike- laughed together when somebody fell off his mount or tilted a water skin to take a drink and found it dry.