Camel Puzzle

Posted: 16 May 2011 06:49 AM PDT

How to cross the desert?

Today, you are facing a unique problem. You have to cross a large desert covering a total distance of 1,000 km. You have a camel and 3,000 bananas. The camel can carry a maximum of 1,000 bananas at any time. For every kilometer that the camel needs to travel, it eats one banana before it can start moving. What is the maximum number of uneaten bananas that the camel can transport to the other end of the desert?

On the face of it, it seems that you can't transport even a single banana uneaten to the other end of the desert. However, if that would have been the case, I wouldn't have posted it on www.QuickerMaths.com and wasted yours and my time. That means you can solve this but you have to use a little lateral thinking. So go ahead and use your grey cells. Please provide detailed explanations with your answer.