Thar desert trek Feb 2013

Although Jaisalmer is in the Thar desert, it doesn't feel like a desert. My first experience of the desert was the Sam sand dunes about 40 kms from Jaisalmer. Was there for the camel races, dances and singing that was part of the concluding day fare of the Jaisalmer desert festival. Apart from the dances and the other drama that unfolded that day which was part of another post, the only bit I would like to reiterate is the beautiful moon rise on the dunes. It was beyond beautiful. The moon was the size of a car tyre and effect of the light it cast on everything was sublime.

 

Salty water, a flat expanse of land with shrubs growing intermittently, cool moon lit nights, hot days, beautiful camels, charming sand dunes, lovely forest with bee-eaters, purple sun birds and cacti with gorgeous red flowers, dunes that looked so right that it beckoned you to photograph its every angle, the beautiful black dung beetles running around the dunes (they belong to the insect family called cleoptera) (found beautiful photos of lovely beetles while looking up these beetles online http://www.fotopedia.com/wiki/Beetle) leaving behind a pretty trail on the sand. And huge cream coloured Egyptian vultures with yellow heads and black on the wing edges. They looked so graceful on the wings and so majestic on land. The desert was all these and more.

 

The 8 km odd camel ride was not half as scary as I had worked myself up to believe. For the record the camel sits down thrice. The forelegs half fold at knees first, then the hind legs go down completely and the forelegs fold down completely. One is not to hold the body stiff while the camel sits or get up. The owner kept instructing 'come front, go back', I just held my breath all the time and it was OK, anyways I never understood if the owner was instructing me or the camel.

 

Watching the camels drink water at the water holes was a very satisfying feeling. Villages on the way to someplace in the middle of the desert and the villagers had no hassles sharing the one commodity that was gold there-water, I couldn't help but wonder at the generosity of those people, the magnanimity that lets them have a kind word for the traveller and water for a thirsty beast. We cannot match that kind of generosity ever.

 

The trek post the camel ride when the limbs had completely gone to sleep was good to get the circulation going again. Walking on asphalted road, we passed by more camels (rather the camels passed by us), sheep resting and huddled together under tree shades, wind getting to raise cylinders of dust mercifully far away. After having preserved our water, we got a surprise refill mid way of earthy coloured water, was so good in the heat. so despite dire warnings of the doctor went ahead and filled the bottles. Then leaving the road, we walked through what looked like tilled fields, there was provision for filling water in small indents made on the ground for deers and wild animals, again an act of kindness in the face of deficit which is difficult for us to replicate even in abundance.

 

At the camp site, we first had to face up to the elements of nature, the wind blew high and loaded with dust pulling at the tent edges, we all huddled like the sheep in the tents trying to secure the edges of the tent, it soon passed and it was calm albeit after the storm. This is where we were up close to the vultures. The evening brought a few drops of rain and the rainbow followed suit, though the clouds quickly took over the sky, it was beautiful to see a rainbow in a desert. Evening was spent on the dunes and with the dung beetles, the sunset was mesmerising as usual (if there was just a camel there, the silhouettes of the camel would have been beautiful) the moon rise was lovely as usual. The subsequent walk in the moon light back to the camp site from the dunes was awesome.

 

The morning had us enthralled by the aura on the horizon before the sunrise. We were dropped at a village school in a goods carrier, by the end of the journey all of us were coated with a layer of sand. Spent some time with the school children, not sure if we entertained the children or they entertained us, either ways the school authorities let us. Another 4 km hike from there passing through the graves of the villagers with carved head stones and then the forest with the birds and cacti that I wrote earlier about brought us to the abandoned village of Khaba. The village was entirely deserted about 250 years ago in fear of incurring the local ruler's wrath over a village girl that the ruler had taken fancy to. Most of the houses were roofless but I wouldn't call it a ghost town, it now stands as a tribute to the brave hearts who to protect one girl abandoned everything that they held dear to them. The legend has it that there are 80+ such villages which were vacated overnight.

 

Our time in the desert was timed out too in the village as we boarded a bus to be taken back to civilization away from the shade of kindness and kinship in the midst of the endless sand back to the city where the modern version of the local ruler rule over.