Camel jumping

Among the members of the Zaraniq tribe on the west coast of Yemen are, apparently, the world’s only professional camel jumpers. “This is what we do,” says Bhayder Mohammed Yusef Qubaisi, a champion bounder.

The Zaraniq live in the Tihama-al-Yemen, a desert plain on the Red Sea. One American observer remarked that they leap the camels with skill and grace, and he then expressed wonder that no Olympian broad jumpers come from Yemen.

Well, there you have it. Seems a bit safer than the bull jumping depicted in frescoes from ancient Crete.