Sweet Lalu

It's camel time! Excitedly, we start bright and early in the morning at breakfast ... meeting our fellow camel mates. We hale from all over the globe ... Spain, Guatemala, Israel, Australia, and Italy! After all the how-do-you-do's, we head outside the Jaisalmer fort, and meet our jeep that will be taking us to the start of the safari.

He drives us into the desert, drops us off with 3 huge bottles of water, fresh provisions, and wishes us well. And my most important introduction ... Lalu! Lalu is a 5 year old camel, stunning curly redhead. He's gentle and strong, with a bit of an attitude. Our camel driver, Mr. Kahn, calls him the super deluxe camel model!

Ah, there is so much to remember from those wonderful 2 nights and three days ... so much to cherish and appreciate from the desert, the companionship. Let me share with you my many memories .........

I've not much experience in riding horses, so I don't know if camel riding is similar. Their gentle walking gait is pretty slow and rhythmic. But don't be fooled, they can trot along pretty fast. You feel like you're way up there (you are), always hoping that everything's snug and tied together. They sit (usually politely, but with much encouragement) while you're getting up onto the seat ... which consists of a saddle and all your bedding, and the water and food provisions are tied down behind both you and their hump. They put their front legs down first to sit ... feels like you're about to be dumped on the ground, until they curl up their back legs.

We ride along for about 4 hours in the morning, then it's time for lunch cooked up by the drivers. There's a nice cool-ish breeze in the morning, but it turns blazing hot well before noon. We stop in the shade of a thorn tree, a lunch of vegetables, dal and chapatti ... and then nap-time for 3 hours or so. Post lunch, we head on out for another couple hours of riding until we find a sand dune to settle down for the evening. The sunsets are to die for!

The moonlight ... I've never seen anything like it. We'd be all snuggled up in our camel bedding, watching the stars, dropping off into a slumber ... and at about 11 pm or so, you'd be awakened by the bright moon rising. So bright, it was almost like sunlight (well, maybe not quite).

Amazing the cuisine they can whip up, with nothing more than one knife and one spoon, two pots, two pans, and some rocks and firewood they collected. OK, there's the occasional sand bit here and there, but so delicious. We started off every meal with a cup of chai, while they cooked the meal. We each get a plate with our food ... lots of it ... and I do mean just a plate (using utensils are not a typical Indian habit). But you always have your chapatti to scoop ... right hand naturally.

Since I'm on the food theme ... yummy breakfasts! Hard boiled eggs (heaven knows how they stayed fresh on the back of the camel for two days), toast, peanut butter and jam. Mr. Kahn would bring around our cups of chai while we were still snuggled in our bedrolls, watching the sunrise. Room service!

After dinner, we'd sit around the campfire talking. The Israeli brother and sister sang beautiful Israeli desert ballads. We had a backgammon board. You'd think that we were so far out in the middle of nowhere that we'd never see anyone ... quite the contrary. As soon as we would settle in, folks from the neighboring villages would wander over, either walking, on camel or donkey to catch up with the camel drivers and look at the tourists (always lots of staring going on). The funniest is that in the evening a young boy would arrive carrying a wet burlap sack of soda and beer ... RS20 for a bottle of soda. Amazing ... it was pretty cold, and there is no electricity anywhere ... all because of the way they keep it stashed in the wet burlap sack. And how on earth do they find us out there?

Another food find! Indian watermelon. It's about the size of between a grapefruit and cantaloupe ... it's all white and tastes a bit like a salty waltermelon, or maybe slightly cucumber-ish. It seems to grow like weeds throughout the desert.

And a small red berry called "boor". It was about 1/2 inch in diameter, had a pit similar to a cherry pit ... and tasted a bit like a dried apricot. I never spotted the bushes they grew on, but they picked them from somewhere for us.

Bathing ... not! Toilets ... not! At each stop, we'd pick our favorite tree for bathroom use. After 3 days, I'm quite sure we are quite aromatic, and strongly suggest no one stand down wind from any of us.

Humorous little camel tidbits. We always stopped each day for the camels to get water. I guess they have a certain water capacity and that's it! When they refuel they dunk their whole snout in the water and slurp. Simultaneously, anything they are replenishing is coming out the back end. I guess that's basic physics ... what goes in, must come out.

Whenever we stopped, the camel drivers would unpack their saddles, hobble their legs and let them feast on the local cuisine. But, even with their front legs tied together they can travel a long ways! They each wear a bell so the drivers can find them, but one night Mr. Kahn was up until 1 am searching for one of the camels. They really liked the "beckah" (that's what it sounds like) and the drivers collected it for them whenever they could find it.

Ouch ... about that riding for 3 days! By the third day, my poor legs. When I dismount, I can only hobble for several minutes. My thighs may never be the same again!

What an experience ... I wouldn't have missed it for the world!