Desert Sandstorm

The brochure noted it as a highlight - a two and half day camel safari into the Thar Desert in the Indian state of Rajasthan, once a collection of princely kingdoms.  Deserts are so quiet, peaceful; I was hoping this one would be living - full of flowers, plants, animals and colourful people and I signed up immediately. My previous camel riding experience was a five minute ride in Petra, Jordan,  and a half-hour lope into the Sahara in Tunisia.  So how hard could sitting on a camel for a few days be?  The Bedouins of the Middle East have been using camels as a means of transportation for centuries so I reasoned it couldn’t be too uncomfortable.

Lunch was prepared and we were served a camel milk concoction - said to relieve all desert heat problems; hallucinations, dizziness, headaches, blurry vision, you name it, it cured it.  I watched as my fellow travellers took gulps and grimaced;  one brave sole drank it down in one.   I took a sip, but immediately spat it out - I’d chance getting sick.

We were told to put on sunscreen or long sleeves.  Get a hat, scarf, sunglasses and loose pants, since your legs will chafe, rubbing against the camel.  The youngsters, had sleeveless shirts on, but big scarves they could wrap around their bodies and heads.   One senior (Margie, not her real name), with translucent skin, forgot her sunscreen, and had a sleeveless shirt on. The other senior (Jacob, not his real name), had skin tight jeans on, either to show off his youthful figure or incase he met someone?  He kept running into the bushes while lunch was on!?

At 4pm and we were off our group now swollen to 12.  The leader (Joe, not his real name) of the camel drivers, was sporting a jeep with the tents, baggage, cold drinks and cooking gear.  The camel drivers each brought two camels from home; one for themselves to ride, control and care for, and one for the tourist.  The drivers live in the nearby villages and hire out themselves and their camels to the local tour companies.   We hadn’t been on the move for more than half an hour when Margie got dizzy, stumbled off her camel and lay on the ground with a blazing headache.  The jeep was radioed and Joe was back to collect her.

As we plodded along the wind began to pick up and before we knew it we were in a full blown sand storm.  We watched it roll across the horizon, just like in the movies, until we were surrounded by raging sand.  We all wrapped our scarves around our faces, tied our hats down and put on sunglasses.  Luckily I had long sleeves.  The sand was in our ears, mouths, socks…..even in my camera which was inside a zippered bag. Those with the sunscreen had sand stuck all over their arms. 

Whenever someone had to go to the bathroom, we let the camel drivers know and then they found a spot and said the magic word, “Jet” which the camels knew to be the instruction for ‘sit’.  When a camel drops, he lurches forward (you lean back), and then the back drops.  My saddle had a big horn, like a horse saddle and I didn’t lean back when he went down and ended up with saddle horn jammed into my middle.  I sported a real nice 6” diameter black and blue mark for weeks. 

Finally, some three hours later, though it felt much longer, we came over a hill and there was our camp  all set up.  There was a smell of food cooking and our mouths watered in anticipation.  The tents were beautiful and hand made with patterns that looked like American quilts.  We each had our own and were brought, towels, water and soap to clean up.  The camel drivers went off to care for the camels and set up their own tent area.  In the tents were our small bags, pillows and sleeping bags with sheets.  We were fed a delicious Indian meal with sand, compliments of the wind, which was still blowing .  At least I think it was good as I was too exhausted to remember!  It is pitch black at night in the middle of the desert, and only a few of us had flashlights to help us find the way to a bush toilet.  Others stumbled and cursed their way in the dark.  Maggie had gone by jeep all the way to the camp.  She was walking around and feeling rested.  We slept well.

Day 2 dawned bright and calm.  Absolutely no breeze, and the sky was a magnificent shade of blue.  The desert was alive with flowering bushes and plants, some 6’-8’ tall.  There were all different kinds of grasses and plants that I had not seen before.  I was told the local people eat all the grasses.  We were fed a sand-free breakfast and then mounted up.  Maggie was riding again in the jeep.  Jacob was complaining about his back side and inside legs but mounted up anyway

We made a bathroom stop and were shown tracks and homes of snakes and various desert lizards and animals.  Our beautiful morning was interrupted by Jacob moaning and deciding he would walk, instead of ride.  I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed but camels have very long legs, and for every step the camels took, Jacob took 5 and  Within 3 minutes he was jogging to keep up.  The jeep was radioed and Jacob succumbed to a lift. 

With the seniors gone, the camel drivers decided it was time to run the camels.  Unlike horses, where you can kind of stand in the stirrups to cushion the bounce with the gallop of the horse, on the camel you bounce: boing, boing, boing boing.  My brains were being rattled.  My head was jerking on my neck.  I felt I would disconnect from my spine.  I was trying to stiffen up my neck muscles so my head wouldn’t move, but I could feel a headache coming on and asked to go back to walking. 

We came upon villages and the camel drivers stopped to water the camels, and use the wells to collect water for lunch and dinner.  .  (See Photo) The local children ran out to greet us and were eager to practice their limited English.  We were shown inside the local homes and they were really quite clean for being made of mud and dirt.

The camels were mostly male and de to the time of the year some more were ornery than others.   I tried to steer my beast, but he would just stop and eat plants.  In the late afternoon some wild female camels came loping up to us and then ran off closely followed by our transport!    The two youngsters and a riderless camel took off at top speed, (the wrong way)  while the rest of us stopped to watch  as they ran off into the sunset hotly pursued by their owners, who soon brought them back.  I went nowhere since I was tied to a camel driver’s camel and didn’t have the chance to run off with a fine female. 

As the sun was setting small deer, foxes, and jerboa, (similar to kangaroo rats) come out to play, just as we crested a hill again to see our next camp.  We were told we were in for a treat.  A desert dance troupe would be coming out to perform for us this evening. 

A group of 6 musicians and 2 female dancers came into camp in a jeep.  The musicians played long into the night while the females performed various dances with fire and pots on their heads.  As the drinking continued the females were joined by the tourists.  I did notice that one female was really weird looking.  Most Indian women are extremely beautiful, and this one was definitely strange.  I couldn’t exactly say what was strange, I figured due to the alcohol I had just consumed. I found out later he was a eunuch. This was our last night in the desert and we all were looking forward to showers and a bed tomorrow night. We all fell into bed exhausted and drunk.

Day 3 was another beautiful day, but we all had sore backsides.  Jacob rode in the jeep, Maggie went on camel back.  We plodded on until noontime when we finally arrived at the walled medieval city of Jaisalmer which lies in the middle of the Great Indian Thar desert.  The sudden emergence of the 76 metre high yellow coloured rock in the flat, flat desert, crowned by the most awe inspiring fort, makes the first sight of this ancient city a majestic one.  Founded by Rawar Jaisal in 1156 AD, its remote location kept the city almost unaffected by outside influences, even during the Raj, and this is still apparent in the architecture and the local arts and crafts of today.  As we went through the outskirts, children and villagers came out to greet us.  We dismounted, after our 30 kilometre journey,  and crossed the road to the air conditioned van that was to take us to our next location.  The camel drivers would be going back to Devikot, there by evening, galloping like the wind no doubt! 
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