GriffJon's World Tour

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September 23, 2007

Desert Safari

In the middle of our time in Jaisalmer, we went on a 2 day, 1 night camel safari. We never got that far away from civilization, but far enough to see some nice stars and feel far away.

The first day we got up early, jeeped out an hour, and met our safari. We went with a hippy from Germany. Three Indians were with us, Suban the guide, a camel driver, and "the boy" (who was a guide in training/internship). We each had our own camel, plus one camel which was in training (and not very happy about it)

Riding camels is smoother than horses (as long as they're not running!), it's a weird side-to-side, forward and back sway (camels move both feet on each side simultaneously). Getting up and down is a bit difficult, as they have a multi-step sitting process. As long as you're ready for it and holding on, it's no problem. Up on top, you realize that camels are TALL.

We cameled it from just past dawn until lunchtime, going through a few villages along the way. The desert was mostly scrublands, where some villagers were raising crops (mustard, millet, melon) and/or goats and sheep. They lived in thatch and adobe-style huts mostly, and many of them are Hindu refugees from Pakistan from the Partition.

From noon until almost 5 we just camped in the shade of a tree. We started with chaye and lunch, then chilled out for a while. A hunter came by and we made more chaye to share with him and the guides chatted with him for a while. Suban and Audrey played with their cell phones, though were still unable to download any free Indian ringtones to her phone :(. In a word, it was hot, with very little breeze. We drank lots of water and waited, then got back up and went another hour to camp.

Camp

We camped on a set of dunes, free of insect problems (except for lots of dung beetles) and grass burrs. After the sun set, it cooled down until it got a slight bit chilly late at night. I tried to take some star pictures, but my camera doesn't seem to allow for more than a 15 second shutter time.

We arrived just in time to catch sunset

We had dinner, and I played around with my new Indian jews harp, and taught "the boy" a bit of it, but Suban was more interested (and skilled at) playing midi tunes on his cell phone.

Day 2

Really, more of the same; walking around on camelback, exploring villages, waiting for the sun to cool, then at dusk we jeeped back into Jaisalmer and returned to our hotel for a much-needed shower.

All in all it was very pleasant. Sleeping under the stars (though, BFE Texas locales still win for stargazing) was nice, riding a camel was certainly an interesting experience, and our guides were great (And great cooks)

Camel Videos

The view of the scrub from the back of the camel - the bells are on goats, the grunting noises are from the camel driver, "Uh!" seems to be the way to say "Hey, pay attention, keep going". Other noises were a cicada-sounding chirp and a lop-lop-lop sound, which I think both were speed-up-a-bit sounds. There was a sound to tell the camel to get up/down (jhyu jhyu) and to drink (sounds like a camel/horse drinking sound, verbalized).

Also, here's a video of a camel walking. They're odd creatures. In heavy sand, their back feet step in the same place their front feet just left (they walk lopsided, both legs on one side moving in unison).

Camel noises while getting saddled:

Posted by griffjon at September 23, 2007 11:28 PM

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