Camel Safari

Thar desert and its people

When I ate breakfast in the morning, I had a thought, that our safari would not take place today, because of a thick fog that settled over the entire region. I was afraid that we would see nothing but the noses of our camels. But it turned out that the morning fog gave way quickly, and at 13:30 we set out on our adventurous trip. Just before leaving we decided to have a short walk through Jaisalmer. We were invited on the way to a store where a young boy named Al Pacino praised his "salvar kamizes" and invited us to come next day.

When the time of our departure came, the hotel boy came to guide us from the hotel to the main gate of the city, to our jeep. Along the way all already knew that today we are going on the safari, and wished us a pleasant stay in the desert, and competed in courtesies.

In the jeep Lemon Soda was already waiting for us. Lemon Soda - the best guide around the desert in Rajasthan. He looks a bit like a rebel :). Has wears earrings in both ears, on his head he always wears a hat, like an essential part of his body, plaid shirt, jeans and big boots. He always chews betel leaves in his teeth and laughs from ear to ear!!

Soda bought for us plenty of fruits and we rushed into the desert. On the way the landscape was constantly changing, once it was rocky and overgrown with bushes, trees and sometimes even cactuses, when other times it was more sandy, sometimes like a flat lunar landscape stretching out before us up to the horizon, that suddenly just turned into quite hilly and densely overgrown area. We stopped along the way to take photos and see the wild peacocks running around.

Then Soda drove us to a small lake, the only one that didn't dried up in the area, where we got to know a shepherd with big moustache and a bunch of kids, of which we made pictures. Then on the way Soda showed us houses and settlements of the "desert people". In one of them we stopped and the kids invited us inside their hat. In spite of the great poverty it was very clean and everything was perfectly planned and organized inside. Floors swept perfectly, not even a grain of dirt could be found, oven in the corner shines with cleanness, beds hung on the walls, so they take up no space. The kids talked in surprisingly good English.

Then we went further and finally we arrived at the place where we met our camels. Three thin humpbacks sitting under a tree, and beside them similarly skinny camel-boy. He together with Soda placed us on the camels and so we went into the desert ....

Riding on a camel is an excellent experience, you feel every movement of the animal and you have to move in his rhythm back and forward. They are very skillful animals, they put their feet one in front of the other one, leaving a very narrow set of footprints, fingerprints in fact.

My camel was called Ballu and he led the whole caravan (consisting of a camel-boy and my mom on camels - Soda drove a jeep and took our belongings to the place of our camp). Ballu was clearly bored with walking along the same paths, and he always was turning off the path. He wanted to walk straight into the trees to eat the leaves, causing all the rest to follow him, and if it was not for our camel-boy, all of us would land on top of one another, because the camels were following blindly the leading camel. The camel my mom were riding on was clearly interested in the female camels that walked with the young ones somewhere in the distance.

Driving slowly through the desert, it became evident that it is full of life and inhabitants. Here and there one could see some houses and a lot of different birds and animals.

Finally we arrived at our dunes. There were not so much of them, but they towered over a stony land occasionally covered with bushes.

We left our companions for a while. They begun preparations of the fire, chai and dinner. We went to walk on the dunes and to "catch" the sunset. When we reached the highest dune, after a while, some girls appeared from a nearby house and started to pestering us a bit too much.... but after all they were very cool, they plaited my hair and were surprised with how white I am ...

Then, after sunset and a whole series of experimental photos, of which some came right and others didn't, we returned to our camp, where almost everything was ready. When Soda heard that my grandmother is interested in Indian cuisine, he patiently explained to me the way he cook. He said that there are not many women among them, and that they as a caste of warriors (Soda - warrior) have a great respect for women, and that they have learned to do everything by themselves , so that they do everything around their women. Hi hi!

At that time, a singer came. He pulled out a Tandoor - that is a sitar, and began to sing for us. I set the camera and I tried to shoot video, but it came out a little too dark, I think. Maybe later I will manage to make something of this.

Soda and the singer sang at the top of their lungs, while the camel-boy was finishing the roti - bread, i.e. chapatti. And then came the food: curry, dal, rice and roti, and such crunchy chips, which look like inflated pasta (I’ve forgot how they are called). Everything has been served on silver trays, washed in the sand of the desert.

Our companions did not want to eat with us. They said that they will eat after we finish, that such is their hospitality, but it seems to me that they had not enough plates for everyone. But the camel-boy and the singer could not wait and also ate with relish. Soda was adding food on their plates, because they are skinny as sticks, those Indians.

Then there was singing and we had to sing too, but our singing turned out quite poor in comparison with them, so in an act of desperation I tried Bollywood songs and did a furor with that. I think I became a favorite of Soda, who revealed to us that in truth he is called Chandra Singh Souda, and Lemon Soda is just a funny nickname.

Then I tried to do some pictures of the stars, but not much came out of this, so tired I went to sleep. Camel-boy with Soda brought beds from somewhere and spread the blankets and rugs. It was quite warm under them, but it smelled a bit like camel, and it was chilly when I stuck out the head from under the blanket.

But the greatest spectacle played out before our eyes. In the sky the stars begun to shin and blink. I stared for hours, because I could not sleep, and I watched as the stars revolve around the North Star, as the sky was changing and as the moon rose from under the horizon. Then I finally fell asleep, though for a short time, because as soon as it started to dawn, my mother awoke me to take photos of the sunrise.

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