Camel Safari

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20.7.06 - Camel Safari - Emilia

The day before we left for our safari we visited the huge swimming pool once more and tried to absorb some of its coolness and wetness before hitting the desert. As I got out of the pool for the last time I had this overwhelming sense of foreboding as the Jaisalmer heat rapidly made the pool seem a distant memory.

We turned up at Adventure Travel at 6.15am sharp as instructed and were driven by jeep to an opening in the desert about 90km away. I was completely catatonic this particular morning not having had any coffee yet, and when we arrived I just fell on the nearest blanket and fell asleep and groaned. I think the four guides sitting around their fire must have thought that I didn’t stand a chance. However, after two enormous and super sweet cups (just like the Indians like it, lots of sugar) I was able to keep my eyes open.

There was not a camel in sight so I wasn’t prepared when 15 minutes later, Rob said ‘come on, you must get on now’. I lifted my head from a particularly interesting patch of sand to see what was to be ‘MY CAMEL’ for the next three days. He was very sweet, with a big smiling mouth and sleepy eyes and was well, camel coloured. I liked him immediately and very appropriately MY CAMEL had some pretty pink wool in his nose.

I got on with some rather inelegant shunting from the guide and off we went. Within 10 minutes I was bored, my thighs hurt, my camel was too slow and all in all felt I had done the camel thing. But because Rob had said that I would be complaining within the hour of setting off, I kept tight lipped and swayed and rocked with purpose as we rode along.

The first day not a lot happened. Fortunately we had a relatively cool day, (that’s very hot as opposed to unbearably wretchedly hot), and after trekking along for a few hours in silence just absorbing the silence and wonder of the Thar desert we stopped under a tree for lunch. The same routine followed for each of the three days. We would stop, our two guides would light a fire, they would look at us and say ‘coffee?’ Rob and I would say ‘oh God, yes, coffee, strong’ and then we would lie down on one of the deliciously fragrant camel saddle blankets and slurp coffee. After the coffee lunch was made. A veritable feast was produced for all our lunches and suppers, well the food seemed feast like when you’re in the middle of the desert with nothing much else going on. The guys would cook up a vegetable curry or dhal which they gave us with rice and as many chapattis as we could manage. Life in the desert is very slow, the camels are slow and the heat is long and lingering. Thus after stopping at about 11 or 12 we didn’t move off again until about 3.30 or 4pm.

As the sun reluctantly sank a fraction lower, we would trundle off. I never really knew where we were headed or how the guides knew where we were going as there were no landmarks to speak of, just acres of sand with bushes scattered around. However, on both nights enormous sand dunes would appear in front of us at about 6pm and we would dismount. The evenings followed much the same pattern as lunch, coffee or chai (when we’d drunk all the coffee), food and then sleep.

The first night offered the excitement of a hand held shower. In the pitch darkness of the desert night under the stars, I stood naked while Rob tipped cold water from a gallon can over me, I soaped and then had more water tipped on me. I then did the same for him. It was the most awesome feeling standing under those few splashes of water as the desert breeze blew against me. The water felt amazing and a very precious commodity.

On our first night, shortly after nightfall we got the very clear impression that our guides wanted to go to sleep. (They had started passing out on the sand). Taking the hint we suggested putting the beds out. That done I lay on my bed roll, fighting with my duvet which was clearly designed for cold winter nights and trying to find a non-lumpy bit of my pillow and couldn’t understand why I felt so awake, it was so dark. It was then that Rob told me the shocking news that it was 9.20pm. What were we going to do for the next three hours until bed time? We couldn’t read as turning on the torch saw us assaulted by every kind of bug in the desert and there wasn’t a lot else going on. And so, for both nights we played endless games of 20 questions, what star am I looking at?, and making up stories a phrase each at a time. Thrilling stuff. I might add that it did not escape me that there was something very wonderful and profound about lying in the silence on the sand in the dark with a sky full of stars overhead.

Our second and third days became positively hectic by comparison to day one as we started to visit desert villages. This really was a memorable experience. It is hard to write about what I found there without sounding patronising. However, they were all fascinated by us, the tourists, who they had not really seen the like of much before. The joy they had at our digital camera and excitement they showed at having their photos taken and then seeing them on the back of the camera was wonderful for my jaded Western eyes. Likewise, the small children, (dozens and dozens in every village), were almost driven demented when Rob and I bought bags of sweets to hand out to them. They crowded round us pushing and jostling with sweet dusty faces and were so thrilled by this small gesture. I felt like Willy Wonka with hundreds of Charlies. I couldn’t help comparing them to some of the junk food eating, game boy guzzling-type western children I have come to be familiar with.

We were very lucky in that the safari route we took was very un touristy and so we had the pleasure of the villager’s reactions to us. No doubt in a few years they will be jaded and ignore the likes of me and Rob. One thing that stands out for me apart from the life of the villages, the simplicity, sense of community and innocence, was the fabulous moment when after a long day trekking and safari-ing we came across a broken pipe line to the well in the nearby village. We had been told about it by the guides but it truly seemed like an oasis in the Sahara when we got to it. Among the dry desert landscape a jet of cold water was bursting through the earth. Rob and I positively leapt from our camels and as soon as the guides were out of sight, stripped off and danced and jumped around in it like small children in a garden sprinkler. The novelty did not wear off fast and we repeated the same performance after night fall, standing a metre or so back from the jet so that the cold air formed around the spray of water blew onto us like nature’s own air conditioning. It was really memorable and I don’t know when I’ll next if ever find myself naked in the desert washing in a pipe fountain in the dark.

We are now back in Jaisalmer and after some annoying shenanigans about our hotel room which we had reserved but the havelli owner had kindly given to someone else, we are settled in another hotel. We have air con, a flushing loo, a cold shower and access to all modern amenities. (I won’t go so far as to tell you our beds and pillows are soft because they’re not and I would be lying). Strangely enough as I woke up this morning, the one thing that struck me was that I missed MY CAMEL. It seemed odd even after three days not to have his placid furry face looking at me and waiting for me to get on board. Even after our showers Rob says he can still smell camel (think rotting vegetables with methane gas as a guide to their breath alone). I had a massage today to soothe my camel battered limbs and even managed to get Rob in the hands of a masseur (a very unsure massage virgin). We have two more days in Jaisalmer and then it’s off to Mount Abu.

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