Sand & stars

We travelled onwards toward Jaisalmer – a town on the edge of the Thar Desert near Pakistan, most famous for it’s fort which stands high on a ridge like a giant sand castle.  It’s also a well known jump off point for camel safaris.

We had driven for a long time that day and we were hot and dusty when Singh pushed the car through the cows and bristly, black pigs that were running across the road near our hotel.  The kids got a big kick out of the half grown bull that wondered up the stairs into the hotel lobby while we were checking in.  Apparently they feed him there and he was hungry!

We wandered through the streets of the fort – which is basically a walled city – dodging the cows that were lying across or standing in the middle of the narrow lanes.  We happened across a man sitting outside his house, who invited us in.  He said that his 4 x great-grandfather was the secretary to the maharaja and that he had built this amazing haveli to entertain important guests.

The amazing thing was that the man was quite happy to show us through his home but he wanted no payment.  He was selling anything of any importance he could take from the house, as naturally the upkeep was expensive.  I was so impressed I gave him some money anyway.

Next day we drove out into the desert to the camel “resort” areas for our camel safari.  There’s a whole community here which survives purely on tourists taking safaris. 

We went out to the dunes on the camels to watch the sunset and then back to the resort for dinner and some traditional music and dancing.  The camels were then hitched to wagons loaded up with bedding and we headed back out to the dunes to spend the night under the stars.

Most people I think, struggled to sleep because of the silence – except for the sounds of camels chewing!  It really is a privilege to sleep under the stars and I love it.  The kids, particularly Michael, were a bit scared of the blackness and silence but I think we all enjoyed it.