We started student-directed travel with a bang! Sarah and Tully (who are writing you now) headed the first leg of this massive operation. We decided to go to Bikaner and explore the massive state of Rajastan which includes the Thar desert. Pray tell, what is the best method of desert exploration? CAMELS! That’s right, we did indeed decided to do a camel safari to kick off our last leg of the trip. Getting to Bikaner was breezy from Mcleodganj. It was incredibly sad to leave our amazing host families, but we all packed into a jeep to the city of Patankot where we got on the coldest train of our trip (and the emptiest!) and arrived in Bikaner at a crisp 5 am.
Our lovely Camelman sent a driver to get us at the station, saving us loads of groggy haggling. We rested for a few hours in the luxurious guesthouse before awaking to have a fantastic masala-omelette-filled breakfast.We drove to a more remote village outside of Bikaner to begin the journey. Here is where we first connected with our camels. I, Tully, saw a lone dark Camel on the far edge and knew I wanted him. We drifted or were directed towards our camels and saddled up. Our camel assignments seemed quite suited to each of our personalities.
I’ll break them down for you:
Angelee, Sarah’s camel, was a princess. She was the most docile and let us pet her all the time! We all got to even touch her belly foot (the callus they form on the chest from lying down)
Kaila’s camel was called Buti, but Kaila refers to her as Ms. New Booty (bring it back to me). They connected on a vocal level, as Buti spoke a lot.
Tully’s camel was called Saru (like say-roo). He was the oldest along with Greta’s and acted like it. He fit me well. We are both idiosyncratic with some strange and expressive faces!
Greta’s camel we never learned the name of, but she called it Momo. She was a stomper and I think was Saru’s sister.
Sterling rode Raja (meaning king) who was elegant and royal, he fit Sterling to a Tee. Sadly, Raj was so great he became our cart camel and Sterling got Raza who was small and still nice, but not quite as regal.
Alice has Rahni who was delicate and dainty. This girl loved to eat. stopping at every bush to munchmunchmunch.
The Goddess of destruction stopped by to hang out in the form of Ellen’s camel. She didn’t live up to her name, though she was a little more ornery than some.
Finally, we come to Dan’s camel. He dubbed it Bada**. He was indeed the most expressive and had the strangest noises come out of him consistently and frequently. He added a lot of flavor to our exploration.
Our time in the desert followed a simple schedule. We woke up lazily after the sun, usually around 7. We had chai as we chatted with our camels resting in the desert around us. The amazing camel men prepared us delicious breakfasts with fruit, toast and omelettes. We then would set out on on first leg which was two hours. It is as comfortable as horseback-riding, but as the days went on the metaphors turned to sitting on cacti (it was worth it). We rode (some even tried trotting!) through villages where children would run out of the house to see the sights of us, which must have looked a bit odd. They would yell “Dada!” which means goodbye. It was adorable. Mid-morning, we would stop for water which is a sight to see. It is a bit like parallel parking except your car decides it wants to eat the car next to it’s saddle. Or roll around in the plants.
We would stop for lunch in a shady area and picnic it out. Lunch was a traditional Indian meal, the chipati was even cooked in collected leftover Camel dung! Delicious. We rested, as did our camels, for the hottest part of the days until they were ready to saddle back up and continue forward. We saw many animals during our few days in the desert. We saw grazing and prancing antelope, desert foxes, wild camels, wild peacock, many many cows (and cow carcasses), Indian long-billed vultures, and the scariest to Sarah- the Nilgai or Blue Bull which just stood and stared and creeped us out.
We camped out in the brush. We had freetime to play frisbee with each-other and some of the camel men. At sunset we had chai and biscuits and we would have dinner by candlelight. It got chilly-willy at night, thank goodness we had cozy blankies! Though some of us still ran a bit cold (surprising, right? It’s supposed to be hot in the desert!)
Our camel experience was amazing! We are so happy to have done it and hope you all enjoy the silly and beautiful pictures we can share with you when we return. After finishing our safari, we returned to the guesthouse to shower off the days of sand and prepare for the next leg of the journey. The next time you hear from us will be from the exciting city of Jaipur!
-Sarah & Tully