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Woohoo 47 degrees Celsius!!!! It was just too damn hot here.
The only reason we came here was to go out to the Thar Desert on the borderline to Pakistan and ride some camels, so we didn’t waste any time in booking the trek.
The night before the trek we wondered around and visited the local "Government approved bhang shop". Erik and I sipped strong bhang tea and ate some bhang cookies and chocolate, at first we thought the tea was weak, only to find ourselves totally wasted a couple of hours later. A few of the local Indians thought I was sick as I continuously laughed on the way back to the hotel.
We had quite a rough night.
After only a few hours sleep we got up around 5:30am to take the jeep out to base camp in the middle of the desert. Base camp consisted of our guides, camels and some hard-boiled eggs. For some of the people in our small group getting on their camel was only half the mission as putting on their turban, but Erik and I opted for Arabian style turbans to avoid this problem.
As we set off, it didn’t
Anyone for drinks???
Our guides deliver us some cold drinks after a hard 2nd daytake long to realize that Erik got the feisty camel.
Day 1 went by smoothly except for one of the guys in our group (George) who suffered from a serious hangover and threw up a couple of times, but with some help of my mothers trusted medicine he survived the day. By nightfall we arrived at the first set of sand dunes where we camped out and ate around the fire. The cool desert night was welcoming after a bumpy 7-8 hour ride on the camels in the burning desert heat. Our thighs and bums were killing us.
On
Day 2 Erik's camel had a serious attitude problem, starting off by disobeying Erik's orders, vomiting on his leg and biting a guide in the head. Another guide stepped in by giving Erik a fat bamboo stick to discipline his camel. After a good knock on the head, there was no more arguing about who was in charge and they became the best of friends.
Each day of the trip consisted of breakfast a 7am, a four hour camel ride through the desert and local villages from around 8am-12pm, then a four hour lunch break in the shade
Middle of nowhere
Shakirah and Bubu (camel) lead the way under a random big tree, this was the hottest part of the day. There’s just not much you can do when it feels like you’re sitting under a big hair dryer. Then we set off on the camels again for about 3 hours before reaching the next set of dunes around 7pm and settling down for dinner, activities and sleep. The second night was particularly fun as the guides cooked up some chicken and we got a small party going.
During
day 3 the others left to return to base camp as they had only booked three days, leaving us on our own with two guides for our last day.
We noticed that the desert was far from deserted as every morning when we woke up there were lots of trails from lizards, spiders, scorpions, beetles and who know what else.
Day 4 was hard, the hours seemed long and the sun was fierce so we were very exhausted by the end and a shower never felt more welcoming. The things that kept us going were the beautiful starry desert nights, the seemingly endless desert and the gentle smell of the constant noisy camel farts.
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anonymous
non-member comment
phew!
woah! now thats hot! surprised you didn't melt... ;0) - yes I cannot type anything sensible - TOM - Tom