In control of my beast

The night is not too cold but blankets are definitely required. In the morning, sunrise brings the heat early. My morning ablutions are of note, not only because of the fantastic “open” view nor because they are solid for once. No sooner have I laid my turd than a big black “dung” beetle is making a valiant bee-line for it across the sand. He hacks a lump off with his claws and rolls it away like a giant snowball in the sand – proudly taking it back to his family. I’m happy to provide and with automatic waste disposal like this, who needs flushing toilets?
This morning all the camels have got the hump. They chew cud noisily. We get tea, toast, eggs and oranges for breakfast which is fantastic. Then we strike camp and move off again. This time the pace is quicker and Dadya regularly gets the camels to move at a fast trot, which is far more painful on the bottom. In fact it reminds me a lot of the back seats on the buses. Lizzie later admits that the bouncing sensation is quite pleasurable but I don’t agree – it’s painfully bruising – especially when I fall off and have to have my camel re-saddled.

In the middle of the desert

At lunch time we arrive at a small settlement of huts – a real desert village. We are invited in to a very small but incredibly comfortable and tidy mud hut where a woman and her many children is cooking around a fire. Presumably part of Dadya’s extended family, she prepares food for us (in exchange for using the supplies we brought) while we play with the children. I can’t get over how clean and pristine a mud hut can look. Not that I’ve thought much about it before. There are even cupboards and cabinets made out of mud (or more likely, camel dung). There is also a lot of textiles and thick blankets. I don’t know how many people sleep in this hut but it must be cosy. Sharing lunch with these people is possibly the closest I’ll ever come to seeing how people live so differently to me. It is a magical time, away from the tourist trail and away from everything we could call ordinary life.
We snooze in another ‘shed’ outside and at 3pm we’re off again. After a short trek back to the road, we gladly relinquish our camels but reluctantly leave the desert and head back to Jaisalmer with aching muscles and half a ton of hot sand in our pockets.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 31st, 1998 at 1:42 pm and is filed under India. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.