Day 12 - 12th Feb - Bikaner

Started the day with more soggy toast and synthetic jam and the good news that there were other fellow camel riders to-be: some very nice Germans called Philip, Lena and Joanna.

Hussain and our broken tuk tuk

We had to go on the longest drive yet in tuk tuks, just to get to where we were meeting the camels. Unfortunately, the tuk tuk that Matt,myself and the guide, Hussain seemed to be labouring a little and, a few km down the road, started to smell a bit funny. Pretty soon, smoke was pouring out from the engine under the drivers bum and we all had to evacuate. Matt considered trying to save the day with gaffer tape but, for the first time, he'd forgotten to pack it.

After back-up arrived, we continued the rest of the 35km to meet the camel men and camels. I took the first shift. The camels weren't as stinky as the ones I'd seen in Israel so I was feeling positive but I hadn't realised how much they tip up when they stand up or sit down and I nearly went flying in my first 10 seconds. After that though I made myself comfortable, or as comfortable as you can be when you can only assume one position and we lumbered off to try and catch up the German group. Matt, the guide, the camel men and the bags all travelled by a cart which was being pulled by another camel.

2 hours later we stopped for lunch. We took in view from a sand dune - something that's much harder to do than I imagined since it's pretty much a case of one step forward and two steps back when the sand dune is so steep - and then sat on a blanket and watched the camel men cook dinner from scratch. It was really impressive to see what they could do with a pile of sticks and a few pots; they even made a big bunch of chappatis from scratch.

The German group were really interesting to talk to because they were all on a year out volunteering. The German government fund the placements, accomodation and living costs and all students get a chance to do it before university. Its such a good idea and something that really changes lives. They also had a hookah pipe (just with fruit tobacco) and the camel men were fascinated to watch them setting it up and using it.

Not enjoying this

After dinner, Matt had his turn on the camel, which was hilarious! As I sat on the cart, I keptlooking back to check on him. After the first ten minutes he had a determined and grimace-like smile; after half an hour he looked like he was uncomfortable but enduring; after an hour he was sweating; shortly after he was green and for about the last hour he looked like he was about to faint. Of course, watching him suffer wasn't funny but watching him suffer because he was too macho to let on that it was agony amused me greatly. And when I asked him to describe it for the purposes of this blog, he simply said it was 'invasive' .

To make it all worse, Matt had been given a male camel that so strongly desired the female pulling the cart, that it was foaming very heavily at the mouth and inflating his freaky tongue. It looked like he had a pink ballon covered in shaving foam hanging from his mouth and the bubbly,mucusy spit hung in big globules from the truck, our bags and even the scarf I was using to protect myself from the sun.

It was about 3 hours later that Matt got a reprieve. After a quick visit to a desert village for more blankets, we arrived at our sleeping place.  The pots came out again and we had  more food. I'm not sure our energy needs were such as to merit the triple-carb meal of potato curry with rice and chapatti but it was tasty, if not rather hot.

We had a quick post-dinner wander and sat together to enjoy a beautiful sunset. The peace did not last much after dark when Lena thought she'd lost her wallet. We all spent quite a lot of time looking for it and she was really panicked but, despite Matt pulling out all of his 4 torches, we still couldnt find it.

After trying to calm Lena by saying we'd look in the morning, we chatted much more about the volunteer work the German group were doing and some of the horrors they'd encountered working with the street kids and with some of the seriously disadvantaged people they'd met. There were so many fascinating stories but none that we'd want to recall too much at this moment.

Anji by candlelight

The stars however, were beautiful. Neither of us could remember when we'd last seen so many and it was really very powerful to lay under them and be lost in our own thoughts. It's a good job they were pretty though 'cos the ground was very uncomfortable. I felt like I was waking so many times each hour but couldn't bring myself to get up and smooth out the lumpy ground. Nevertheless,  each time I opened my eyes, it was such a joy to see the stars  that I was almost grateful not to sleep very well. The path of the moon was also captivating as it spent the whole night moving in an arc through the sky.