A fun adventure to experience - Camel Cuddles
is a family-owned camel dairy farm on the Sunshine Coast that offers some very unusual experiences to visitors. Visitors have the choice of either
'Camels and Canapes' or perhaps, like me, a
'Camel Cuddles' farm tour would be more to your liking.
The
Camel Cuddles Farm Tour has been on my adventuring radar for a while now, so I was absolutely delighted when we managed to secure ourselves a spot on a recent weekend tour.
Camels are intelligent and gentle creatures
Bookings to the
QCamel Tours can be done online with a very easy process. The actual farm address is only given to tour guests, once the tour/farm visit has been booked and paid for. I can understand the need for privacy with this type of unique camel farming as one would really want to avoid an onslaught of people over the weekend, looking to fill their leisure hours with 'something different' and causing stress and anxiety to the animals. Once the booking has been done, digital tickets and the address are emailed to guests, which should be printed off and taken with on the day of your visit.
The lovely Yasmin is the face of QCamel and also the owners' daughter
dairy was the first dairy to produce premium pasteurised camel milk in Australia and are also the premium supplier of Certified Organic camel milk products.
QCamel's milk is produced through ethical, organic and sustainable farming practices, where the camels are pasture-fed, in a no-cull environment and milk is shared with the calves. When
QCamel dairy started out, they only had two camels and today proudly own more than one hundred camels. The farming practices at
QCamel ensure no cross-breeding happens and only ever have one camel bull on site at a time to keep the 'ladies' happy - you can imagine how content he is … or is that perhaps, exhausted?
Who wouldn't be content with a background view like that ... the mountains, people!!
In 2014
QCamel were accredited as a producer and produced the first pasteurised camel milk in Australia. Today
QCamel proudly boasts a range that includes milk, yoghurt smoothies, powders, bi-powders and even cosmetics.
QCamel products are stocked in more than eighty retailers throughout Australia, including David Jones - pity ours on the Sunshine Coast hasn't opened yet.
QCamel also export internationally to New Zealand and Singapore. To
purchase products (including camel milk chocolate) directly from QCamel on-line or to find
local stockists, please follow the aforementioned highlighted links.
People's first reaction to me when I mention we tried camel milk products is: '
what does it taste like?'. The initial taste - I taste-tested camel milk and the camel milk yoghurt smoothie - is salty; on the second tasting one's palate has become accustomed to the salty taste and by the third sip … it tastes like normal milk!
Camel milk yoghurt smoothie
A lot of research has been and is still being undertaken on the benefits of camels' milk for autism. Some of the benefits of camel's milk are:
it contains probiotics that inhibit pathogenic bacteria and increase immunoglobulin;
it heals the mucosal matrix
it prevents adhesions (as in leaky gut adhesions)
it has three times the amount of vitamin C than cow's milk
it has more minerals than cow's milk and higher protein
it has twice as many antibodies than breast milk with smaller molecules to help cross the gut/brain barrier
(My thanks to
www.naturallyrecoveringautismn.com for this list of camel's milk benefits)
Mommy camel about to be milked ... if you look closely you might spot her offspring's legs - the mommies and babies stay together at milking time!
Our
Camel Cuddles Farm Tour included meeting the camels - who all have individual personalities and names; appreciating the complexity of milking these gigantic and intelligent creatures, culminating in an outdoor picnic under a gazebo, with fresh fruits, camel milk products i.e. muffins to be taste-tested plus light refreshments.
Closest cuddling for me!
The
Camel Cuddles Farm Tours are generally held on the first Saturday of every month. Bookings are absolutely essential for this unique outing and can be booked, via
QCamel, online here.
QCamel love the opportunity to host school groups; birthday parties and corporate events and are very happy to work with and hopefully accommodate visitors' varying dietary needs. Please contact
QCamel's office here for more information.
An assortment of 'camel' products were available for purchase too
have earned the right to be very proud of their achievements in such a short period of time. This family dairy's commitment to providing exceptional camel milk products whilst maintaining ethical, sustainable and organic farming practices and simultaneously showering the camels with love and care, is a true testament to one family's love and dedication to animals. The
Camel Cuddles Farm Tour at
QCamel is a fabulous way to spend a Saturday morning and with spectacular views to the Glasshouse Mountains, is an opportunity not to be missed!
Views to the spectacular Glasshouse Mountains
