They call me Mrs. Exhausteraterey Pants. Well, they might. I have finally gotten to a real bed in a hotel after the overnight camel safari and the overnight sleeper train, and I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a while. If it wasn’t for the 6am start, I think I would sleep until midday. But considering it’s only 8:30pm now, hopefully I’ll still get a decent night’s sleep!
The train was a bit of an experience, but nothing exciting to report – we were pretty much all together and we slept as best as we could, though I kept waking to check on my bag. Paddy DID wake us up an hour too early though – the train was running late. This was all quickly forgotten when I had a HOT shower and washed my hair – the hot water even lasted until I was washing out the conditioner!
After a great home-cooked breakfast we were off on our camel safari. We took jeeps to the village to jump onto the camels, and I am pleased to say I found them rather comfortable! It’s a little scary when they stand up, but much scarier when they sit down! They don’t smell or spit (not these ones at least) and if you can put up with a dreadful burbling sound accompanied by a lolling tongue (either a sign of regurgitation or a call of mating, not sure which. Ah, to be a camel), then you might enjoy it!
I quickly got used to the rolling gait of these ungainly elegant creatures and settled in with my young male named Raja (I think). I was lucky enough to be either awesome or have a lazy guide, because I was given the ‘reins’ and was able to steer and control the camel myself (I clearly choose awesome). He was a bit naughty though. He really liked to stop and eat whatever he could find, to sniff others’ butts and invade everybody’s personal space – more than once somebody turned around just as he was advancing and got a fright.
We walked very, very slowly (or at least it felt like it) through the desert. We passed a couple of small villages, the kids running out to yell ‘TATA!’ and ‘Pencil?’ as we lurched by. We passed a small game of local cricket and many friendly military men in training. Two camels were lucky enough to score the job of pulling the carts and the others lugged us across the desert on a beautifully warm day. Occasionally we would pass a shepherd (always a woman [usually carrying an axe]) ushering along pottering sheep and goats, the tinkle of their bells echoing long after they had vanished on the horizon. None of my photos include me on my camel, but I will hopefully score a few of these photos from the others on my tour sometime soon.
Soon enough we stopped and our camel guides all pitched in and cooked us an amazing lunch. Back on the camels and feeling a little more sore, we trekked on for another hour or so until we reached the point where we made camp. Everything was set up fairly quickly and the temperature dropped dramatically as soon as the sun went down. We rugged up and watched the men play with fire (with nothing but crappy quick-burning twigs and the occasional scoop of dung. Needless to say it was a high-maintenance fire) and ate a very filling dinner. We admired the stars for the first time with a clear view and conversed for a little before going to bed and my goodness it was cold. Most of me was okay, but I kept waking up because my toes were freezing. That and my hand went numb because I was lying on it. Can’t say the mattress or the pillow were any good either. Ah well, I’m on a camel safari in the middle of bf nowhere in India. What do you expect?
Up in the morning and after breakfast we took a camel cart back (our camels had all gone back to their own beds the previous afternoon). It was an absolutely lovely day and I snoozed in the sun on the back of the camel cart, though our poor camel had eaten something that didn’t quite agree with him and he was having a bit of bowel trouble. Poor guy. Poor us!!
Soon enough we were back in the village where our jeeps awaited us to take us back to Bikaner….
Camel safari photos.
