24 Feb 2012 - Saudi Arabia imports sand and camels

I was talking to my Mum the other night and she was telling me about this show that she has been watching called 'QI'. Stephen Fry is the host, and he is one of my favourite British comedians. The show is about random facts, which I love! One of the facts from the show that she had been watching earlier that night, was that Saudi Arabia, a country that is full of sand, actually imports sand from Australia. They also have many camels, yet they also import camels from Australia. Why? Was the first questions that came to mind. It turns out that none of the sand in Saudi Arabia is able to be used for construction, so in order for them to build any structures, they require a different type of sand which they are able to import from Australia.

Additionally, their camels are used for carrying people or goods or for racing, so are not good for eating. This is why they import camels from Australia, because  Australian camels are much fatter and the meat on them is much better to eat. The reasons that they import these goods from Australia make sense, but it seems a little like us importing kangaroos or gum trees from another country. I suppose that could happen, if we say, found that our kangaroos were too wild to take our children to school in their pouches, so we decided to import some tamer kangaroos from say, France, in order to enable this great Australian fable to become truth for all the tourists!