Desert Adventure

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So we started bright and early gently riding into the countryside, after being surrounded constantly by people it is a blessing to be in the middle of nowhere with nobody in sight for miles around you. There are 4 of us and 3 camels, Me on Murea, Kawena on Rocket and the guys on Hilton. Amin is a 22 year old champion jockey and safari driver and Deu is a 24 year old exceptionally clever young man who has never been given any of the opportunities we take for granted in the UK. If he had been privy to the same standards of education that we have in the west he would be brilliant in whatever field he chose to take.

around 12.30 we stopped under the shade of a tree to cook our chapatti’s, veg curry and chai, lazing around listening to my ipod I decided to go get Murea's favourite food (a type of cactus) whilst this seemed like a great idea at the time it later transpired that I was allergic to it and blew up in a rash on my hand that felt like they were constantly on fire - beginning to learn I cant be as gung ho as I am in the UK! this was reiterated by Amin who asked if we had any medicines on us and then showed us his finger....he had got a cactus spike trapped under his finger and nearly lost his hand because of it, it was alot better now although the rotting flesh on his finger was still very apparent and I think in the UK it would still be amputated.

So at about 14.30 when it was a bit cooler (bout 30c) we continued on with our travels, when Kawena asked what time we would get to K.Dunes (the biggies) it was at this point we realised that the guy in the office had fed us a load of crap and was sending us to the small dunes... well me being me I wasn't about to stand for this so politely insisted that we get to where we had paid to go...

We then galloped and trotted for 4 hours - which was amazing fun especially as although I had mastered the control of left,right,fast and put me down the stopping was a little more challenging to say the least and Murea was FAST... to reach the sand dunes. Typically this 4hour ride we did would be a 2 day ride for most tourists...see I’m hardcore....lol

I helped gather firewood and then sat out underneath the stars by myself... never have I seen the sky look so beautiful, it reminded me of when you see the pictures of the earth taken from space at night.... with so many bright stars it looked like all the cities and where the longer you looked the more you saw it was as though people were turning their lights on, it was possibly the most at peace I have ever felt in my life, just lying there by myself taking in the worlds natural beauty. Not knowing about the constellations I made up my own, funnily enough there were alot of camels! ;-)

So I wandered back over to the camp fire and we sat around talking, Deu speak 7 languages that he has learnt purely through taking people on the safaris over the last 5 years it's amazing, he taught us all about how the caste system and arranged marriages work. It's very sad they do not meet or see their wife until after the vows have been exchanged and the veil is lifted and most parents do not know the girl as she is from another village so it is based on looks a lot of the time so if the man is deep like Deu their worry is that they will be a hollow shell, but if they marry for love they lose their family and possibly their caste as they take on the caste of whoever is the lowest and it is nigh on impossible to then change it....

We then asked if he wanted to know anything and he asked how earthquakes and the tsunami were caused as he's lost alot of friends and where they are all uneducated they believe what they had been told so we explained about that and then about how a day/month/year was made as he had no idea - kinda hard when you're explaining using the fire as the sun and fruit as the planets lol

So we set up beds under the stars and fell asleep.

About 2 hours later (approx 2am) Kawena woke me up to see the storm in the distance, rain at this time of the year is incredibly rare let alone a storm but it soon became apparent it was heading our way and we had nothing waterproof with us. within 15 minutes we were caught in an almighty sandstorm so took shelter in a cactus/bush you could barely see 1meter in front of you and the noise was incredible, the sand, thunder and lightening was all around and when you did have the 30second gaps you could see the wild desert dogs ravaging our camp, eating our food and howling.... even with the chaos around I still found it strangely peaceful - I can easily understand why even when they dont have a safari they still p[refer to live in the desert....

So finally we were able to come out of the cactus and re set up beds, though by now everything was soaking wet - I still slept brilliantly though the others only got another hour or 2 so Kawena thought it was funny to take some pictures when Murea wandered over to check on me

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