Didn’t know where else to put this, but I felt the urge to share it when I saw it, and thought you slrpnk folks might get a kick out of it!
EDIT: Since there’s some skepticism over the panel, the source I got it from:
https://outofedenwalk.nationalgeographic.org/2013-04-trail-notes-solar-camel/
“The only uncomplaining one is Madoita, the lead camel. He is both warmed and shaded by a $600 blanket of photovoltaic silicon cells. He is a belching, furry, ambulatory wall plug for my satellite phone. We take turns cleaning the dust from these cells with a cloth. A new chore on an ancient caravan trail: Wiping down your solar camel.”
No, it’s not. Yes, it’s a camel, and possibly, that’s where it is… But that’s definitely not a solar cell.
The original source says it is a solarpanel and that they carefully avoided crossing the photovoltaic elements with the string that holds it down would support that fact. It does look quite unusual though, but expensive flexible hiking solar panels like that might exist.
Huh…I stand corrected! I have never seen the like before, but I trust NatGeo did it’s homework. Thanks for the source!
It’s a rubber backed carpet, likely used for daily prayers.
https://outofedenwalk.nationalgeographic.org/2013-04-trail-notes-solar-camel/
“The only uncomplaining one is Madoita, the lead camel. He is both warmed and shaded by a $600 blanket of photovoltaic silicon cells. He is a belching, furry, ambulatory wall plug for my satellite phone. We take turns cleaning the dust from these cells with a cloth. A new chore on an ancient caravan trail: Wiping down your solar camel.”
Oh yeah it totally is
I always thought they were powered by food
Food is just solar power stored in organic compounds, made from the CO2 in the air.
Yes! (And combined with earths nutrients)
and always has been, which means that carbon and petroleum are also a form of solar power storage. Almost all the energy we use come from the sun. The problem is that it took millions of years to accumulate, and we are releasing all that energy in a brief period.
It’s the future!
If you were going to do this, wouldn’t it make more sense to have the solar panels draping down like chain mail?
In looking up historical examples of camel barding, I actually did not find much, but this is similar towhat I had envisioned.

Considering the dearth of actual examples, though, perhaps such raiment was not actually used.
I just realized “dearth” is one of those words I’ve heard but never seen written down.
Usually it’s the other way around.
Now I’m tripping that it looks perfect and wrong at the same time
to be fair it was quite hard to take and develop photos back then
This goes hard.
Oh my god ive been saying slurpnik.net in my head everytime, for years at this point
Hahaha lovely! 🫀💚 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
🤣
Very obviously just a rubber floor mat upside down.
https://outofedenwalk.nationalgeographic.org/2013-04-trail-notes-solar-camel/
“The only uncomplaining one is Madoita, the lead camel. He is both warmed and shaded by a $600 blanket of photovoltaic silicon cells. He is a belching, furry, ambulatory wall plug for my satellite phone. We take turns cleaning the dust from these cells with a cloth. A new chore on an ancient caravan trail: Wiping down your solar camel.”
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