Camel Safari, Jaisalmer Desert, India – We woke up as the sun rose not like we were not already up but it was too cold to come out from under the blanket, so we just sat there talking to each other while the driver started the fire to make chai. A half-hour later chai was served to us in our bed followed by a breakfast of toast and eggs. We were on another one of those colonial sahib tours of the dessert where we did not have to lift a finger.
We finally got up, got on our camels and started a morning ride. Now camels do smell and yes they make your inner thighs hurt if you are not used to them. After two hours of riding, we came upon this deserted city that the camel jockeys or drivers told us to go and have a look at while they prepared lunch. We walked around this city, more village in the hot sun and after about 10 minutes, it was too hot to tolerate, so Nikki and I went back to our camp. In the process of walking around the city, we managed to lose Rich but we just figured, he will make his way back to the camp. 20 minutes or so passed when one of the jockeys asked where he was and I jokingly responded that we had lost him in the city.
After another 10 minutes, the driver was a bit concerned, so he told me to go back to the city and try to find him. I grabbed the bottle of water in case he was parched and started walking back towards the city. Upon my arrival at the city, I just started singing every University of California song at the top of my voice thinking he would hear me and find me. After 10 minutes of walking around singing, I spotted him coming towards me from the other side of the city. It turns out no one had told him we would move camp after they dropped us off and we headed to the city.
We walked back to camp and after a short nap in the shade during the heat of the day, we set off on our camels again to our next camp site. A few hours later, we set up a camp between two sand dunes to avoid the wind and after out chapati and vegetable dinner, we laid out under the stars again watching them pass above us slowly. Tonight was nowhere near as cold as the evening previous but we were still sleeping with our jeans and boots on.