Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

The main reason for traveling so far west into Jaisalmer was for the chance to go on a camel safari into the desert. We set out first by jeep early in the morning. We drove out to the desert in the open jeep with our driver blaring Indian dance music.

We met Ali (the camel guide) Johnny and Rocket (the camels) on the side of the road and loaded the camels up with the supplies. Jacob and I climbed aboard our awkward steeds and headed into the desert.

The first day was awesome. Not surprisingly the desert is quite quiet and, well, deserted. It was a really welcome break from the usual chaos in India. We rode for a couple of hours and then stopped to cook some lunch in the shade and give the camels a rest. Ali cooked us up some curry with fresh naan and we relaxed for a bit, happy to escape the noontime sun. After lunch and collecting the camels we climbed back on and rode off in search of some dunes.

We spent the evening sitting in sand dunes while Ali cooked us another meal on the fire. I even got a cooking lesson as I learned to make chapatti. We settled in after dark to sleep in the sand under the stars for the night.

The next morning we were awoken quite early with breakfast in bed. Since we were both freezing we chugged the hot chai first. It gets Really cold at night in the desert. We enjoyed the sunrise and packed up to head back into town. The way back wasn’t quite as romantic.

Ali had to go collect camel food somewhere so we had a new guide to take us back. He was just a young guy, maybe 17 or so, with almost no English skills. We seemed to be in quite a rush to return and he had us running on the camels. Now camels are not the most comfortale things to ride at the best of times but let me assure you that they become significantly more painful the faster they go. After about 20 minutes of being thrown around on the camels looking like morons we asked if we could take a break. We ended up walking for quite some time because it was just too painful to get back on.

When we finally made it to the meeting point we enjoyed our last meal in the desert. Jacob had the added bonus of a post meal walk when he was asked to go round up the camels. Eventually he got all three back to the camp after he found a prodding stick in the bushes.

We were picked up by the same jeep that dropped us off and whisked back to Jaisalmer. The camel safari was a lot of fun but I think I can safely say my camel riding days are done.