Inside world's largest camel farm in Dubai: Behind the spit myth, spa-like care and the UAE’s most pampered herd

Dubai: Do camels really spit? How do they keep those impossibly long eyelashes looking so perfect? Is there such a thing as a camel spa? And why, in a country where camels have shaped history, culture and survival for centuries, do so few of us know what really goes on behind the scenes of a camel farm?

Those were just some of the questions flooding my mind as I drove down the Al Ain-Dubai Road for the latest edition of our Inside Access series, where we step into places most people never get to see.

This time, it meant spending a morning among more than 7,000 camels, guided by Hesham Abd El Hakim, acting CEO of Camelicious. What started as a modest farm with just 23 camels has quietly grown into the world's largest camel dairy farm—a remarkable transformation that mirrors the UAE's own journey from desert outpost to global powerhouse.

I expected our conversation to revolve around milk production, exports and business growth. Instead, before we had even taken a few steps into the farm, Hesham looked across the herd with unmistakable affection and said, "They are our precious gemstones and they are simply amazing."

That one sentence echoed the sentiments of those who grew up here.

Long before oil transformed the UAE, camels were the country's lifeline. They carried Bedouin tribes across vast deserts, provided milk when food was scarce and became enduring symbols of resilience and survival. Today, they continue to command respect through racing festivals, beauty contests and cultural celebrations. Yet, despite growing up in the UAE, I realised I knew remarkably little about these gentle giants beyond what I'd seen on desert safaris.

Naturally, I started with the question everyone wants answered.

Do they really spit?

I'll admit, I approached my first camel with a fair amount of caution. Years of hearing stories about flying saliva will do that to you.

Instead, she wandered over with remarkable elegance, accepted a carrot robustly from my hand and walked away without so much as a sideways glance.

"They don't spit ... always," Hesham said with a laugh, clearly amused by my hesitation.

The carrot, he explained, was merely a treat. Their actual diet is surprisingly sophisticated, with carefully balanced feed tailored to each stage of a camel's life. Pregnant camels, nursing mothers and younger animals all receive different nutritional mixes of alfalfa, wheat straw, mustard straw and wheat bran. Some of the alfalfa is even imported from countries such as Spain and Romania.

For an animal so synonymous with surviving harsh deserts, it was unexpectedly scientific.

As we wandered deeper into the farm, another mystery demanded an answer. The eyelashes.

Standing just a few feet away, I couldn't stop staring at them. Thick, long and perfectly curled, they looked almost too beautiful to be real.

"So... do they have a spa?" I asked, only half joking.

Hesham burst into laughter.

"Not a spa," he corrected me. "But we do bathe them and use lotion on them."

Every camel follows a bathing schedule of roughly once a month as part of its health routine. Their coats are carefully maintained, lotion is used to protect their skin and every animal is monitored through an identification system that records everything from its health history to pregnancies and milk production.

If the eyelashes made me smile, it was the mothers and their babies that quietly stole my heart.

Across one section of the farm stood a group of young calves patiently waiting while their mothers finished being milked nearby. I assumed they would be separated soon afterwards, as happens in many commercial dairy operations.

The reality was quite different.

"For the first month after delivery, we don't remove any milk," one of the farm's specialists Orsha explained.

"Everything goes to the calf because that's how they build immunity."

Even after that first month, the bond remains remarkably strong. Mothers and calves continue to recognise each other's scent and calls, and once milking is complete, they are reunited before heading off together across the farm.

Watching those reunions unfold was unexpectedly moving. In an operation of this scale, I had anticipated efficiency. Instead, I found tenderness.

That same sense of care seemed to run through every part of the farm. Each paddock has a designated capacity to prevent overcrowding, every camel carries an identification tag containing its complete medical and production history, and welfare isn't treated as a fashionable buzzword but as part of the daily routine.

"Animal welfare is a huge priority," Hesham told me. "It comes from every perspective — feed, medicine, water, walking and showering."

Another surprise awaited around the next corner.

Many of the people feeding the camels, caring for pregnant animals and looking after newborn calves were women.

"So this is women empowerment, baby?" I joked.

Looking around, I wasn't entirely wrong. The female camels are the backbone of the farm, carefully cared for through every stage—from pregnancy and lactation to motherhood—while the males are few and far between.

It was one of those details that probably wouldn't appear in a brochure but stayed with me long after I left.

Towards the end of the tour, Hesham insisted on introducing me to one final resident.

Standing proudly in his own paddock was the farm's prized breeding male.

"This is our superhero," Hesham said.

There was no arguing with that description. Towering over the fence with an air of complete confidence, he looked every bit the king of the herd. I offered him a carrot, convinced we'd end the morning on friendly terms.

He ignored me entirely.

Perhaps celebrities really are the same everywhere.

As we wrapped up the tour, I realised none of the questions I'd arrived with had prepared me for what I was actually taking home.

Yes, camels are bathed every month. No, they don't spend their days spitting at visitors. Their eyelashes really are every bit as magnificent as they look.

But the biggest discovery had nothing to do with grooming, diets or even camel milk.

It was seeing an animal so deeply woven into the UAE's identity through a completely different lens: not simply as a symbol of the desert, but as an intelligent, gentle creature cared for with extraordinary attention to detail.

Sometimes the best part of our Inside Access series isn't getting through doors that are usually closed.

It's walking back out with an entirely new appreciation for something you thought you already knew.

If you've ever wondered what really goes on behind the scenes at the world's largest camel dairy farm, here's your chance. The farm is open to visitors this summer, and trust me, you'll leave knowing a lot more about the UAE's most iconic animal than whether it spits.