Desert Safari in Jaisalmer Part 4 – Five Days in the Desert

If you want to read up the first few parts of this series then you can click on the following links:

Desert Safari in Jaisalmer Part 1 – A Little Hassle Upon Arrival
Desert Safari in Jaisalmer Part 2 – Scams in Jaisalmer that You Should Know
Desert Safari in Jaisalmer Part 3 – Into the Desert We Go

The first day of the camel safari was full of excitement. I was trying to ignore the pain building up on my lower back and on my thighs not to mention the intense heat. I just focused on marveling at the surrounding and looking closely at some areas to see some desert animals. I’ve never been to any other deserts before but they say that unlike the other deserts, Thar Desert is not completely sand dunes. Lots of parts of this desert have shrubberies and small villages.

We spend three to four hours in the morning walking/running (not us but the camels LOL!) and rest under any nearby trees to avoid being under the hot midday sun and of course to avoid possible dehydration. Sarif usually prepare lunch at this time which consist of chapati, rice, dal and vegetables.

After lunch was usually followed with a short nap and we then proceed to our next destination which usually were sand dunes were we could camp and sleep.

The first night was a bit “scary” for the lack of a better word to describe what I felt. It was my first time to sleep in the desert just with a mattress. No tent or whatsoever. Sometimes my uber imaginative mind thinks of more scary stuff like snakes, scorpions etc. But after surviving the first night, everything was ok.

Sleeping in the desert with no house nor a small room to protect me from the elements and wild animals made me felt so insecure and vulnerable. And yet on that same night I realized that my fears are just all in my head. And if I just let things be then the fear will just fade away. And so it did!

The following morning when the back pain really hits me. I couldn’t move well and I mentioned it with Sarif while we were having breakfast. He asked me if I would rather stay on the same place for another day until the pain goes away. But my friend and I thought that it would be better not to nurture the pain and just continue on.

The next days were better in terms of getting accustom to riding the camels and dealing with the heat and insects (good thing we also brought mosquito repellent lotion).

Visiting Villages

One of the main highlights of this five day camel safari tour is visiting and passing through some of the small villages in the Thar Desert.

We met so many people and children that though we could not verbally understand each other, we communicated through gestures and in broken English. The only drawback though was, when Sarif wasn’t around, the children kept on asking for money which our guide told us on our first day to not to give in to their request as it will just encourage them to ask every tourist that they see.

So instead of giving them money nor anything, we just interacted with them and played a guessing game by drawing images on the sand and letting them guess what the thing was. We also taught them the English words (names of the object) coz they often answer the game in Hindi (which I don’t understand LOL!).

Village Kids

I also taught the other kids in other villages that we went too some silly games that we used to play back home with my brother and sisters like the thumb wrestling which they found amusing and interesting.

Personal Challenges in the Desert Safari

Precious Water!!!

Aside from the heat and over abundance of insects which of course I was expecting prior the trip. I also had a hard time doing routine toilet activities (LOL!). Why is it so hard to write about taking a sh*t. What I did was go somewhere quite far from the camp and hide behind a huge tree and dig up some sand and take care of some business. Hahaha! I find it awkward to discuss it here but it’s a reality when you go to an under-budget camel safari tour. There’re no luxury hotels where you could sit comfortably and clean yourself up with a bidet. Maybe if we have a higher budget we could request for some comfortable stuff like that.

Seeing Wildlife in the Wild

Tiny Watermelon

Ever since I saw rhinos and elephants and other wild animals in Jaldapara and Keoladeo, I got so pumped up whenever there’s an opportunity to see wildlife. Thar desert is known to host a variety of wildlife although I was already afraid that we might not see those since these were very elusive animals. And we weren’t really deep inside the desert (Thar Desert is huge – around 200,000 km2).

But luck was on our side as we saw eagles, vultures and deers (or gazelles) aside from a variety of small desert animals and birds. I wished I had a bigger zoom lens so I could capture some images of these amazing animals. (Note to self: Save up!)

Life of a Camel Safari Tour Guide

Sarif sharing some hilarious stories about his previous camel safari tours

Within the five days of travelling with Sarif, we learned a lot of stuff about him and the camel safari trade. One thing that we learned was that came tour guides only received a small portion of what you paid the travel agencies. Most of them don’t own the camels as well so technically they’re just employees of someone rich who owns tens or hundreds of camels.

They play a lot of roles in a tour like being a tour guide, a cook, a dishwasher, camel trainer, porter, a nanny for brats, a security guard and the list goes on. Just the basic responsibility of unpacking and packing all the stuff that we have (including everything that were strapped on to the camel) every time we stop for a rest (morning and afternoon) is already a tough job.

Sarif was very kind to his camels. Every time we take a stop, he makes sure that the camels get fed, and get some rest as well. He unpacks everything that they were carrying (just to put everything back again later) and let the camel graze. We were also carrying some food for the camels which we bought in one of the villages.

In five days, we also learned some basic commands to make the camel stop, sit, walk and run (cool huh!). And I learned how to hold on to my dear life when my camel had a few seconds tantrums and jumped.

It was one of the most physically challenging tour that I will never forget and I hope that you get to experience this too.

Here are some more pictures of the trip:

Local seller of camel food