…the camels died en masse. Sometimes they did so with grace, sinking to their knees mid-journey and refusing to budge, peering hopefully after the caravan until it became just a dark blot on the horizon.
-Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration, Fergus Fleming
One reason they say that Amundsen beat Scott to the Pole was that the unsentimental Norwegian fed his weaker sled dogs to the stronger. Hajj Bashir would not have liked to learn when our mounts were too weak to walk that we sometimes ate them ourselves, his slender profit margin, but at least he would have understood why we did. Camel meat is very tasty after days of millet paste alone.