Jaisalmer Fort and Getting Lost in the Desert

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Mike – After a full Christmas Day of buses and trains, we arrived, at dawn, in dusty Jaisalmer. The fort wasn’t as striking and dominating as I’d expected it to be, which was partially because of it’s golden sandstone colour, making it nearly indistinguishable against the desert landscape.

I’ve often read Jaisalmer Fort being described as a large sandcastle, for which, I couldn’t agree more. Built on a hill overlooking the town, it’s surrounded by ninety-nine bastions, which protrude in bulbous, cylindrical fashion from the fort walls. Contained therein are numerous havelis, each intricately decorated by sandstone carvings and belgian glass windows. At the centre and apex of the hill lies the Maharajas Palace, which was interesting to explore, and the audio tour was well worth it.

The top of the Palace offered spectacular views of Jaisalmer and the Thar Desert. The first thing I noticed was the thousands of windmills surrounding the town on all sides. It was really unexpected; renewable energy on such a massive scale. Apparently, according to the audio tour, some of the power generated by the windmills is used by Indian military installations, but most of it powers the floodlights which line the Pakistan border. That left me with mixed feelings.

This was our last stop in Rajahstan, and I’d just like to comment on the havelis before I move onto our experiences in the desert. A haveli, in Rajahstan, is a large manor centered around an open courtyard which was usually gifted to the maharaja’s subjects, and over time, passed down through the family. We were invited into quite a few as the owners were keen to tell us their family’s history. Many had been turned into hotels, which we had the pleasure of staying in. The architecture was exceptionally in tune with the desert environment – frames constructed with teak wood and cow dung (held in moisture, keeping it cool), low doorways (minimize dust, and keep it cool), and Belgian glass (to amplify light as they had no electricity). Many of these features could easily be incorporated into modern households (ex. Southwest USA, Interior Mexico, etc.), albeit a few minor inconveniences which could eventually be overcome. In an environment that requires large outlays for air-conditioning and humidifiers, these havelis provide time-tested solutions which are both practical and cost-saving.

Anyways… The next day we headed into the desert, by camel. Along the way we stopped by several villages, which meant we were immediately flanked by children asking for “school pens” and rupees. We had neither. They were pushy little buggers; feeling our pockets, unzipping our bags – the result of many tourists bearing gifts resulting in a present becoming an expectation, just another example of the territory that goes with being white in India.

The camel trek was awesome though. The landscape was unlike anything Teg or I had ever experienced, and I had a great time learning to manoeuvre my camel. Plus, nothing beats sleeping on a sand dune, nobody else in sight, with the stars as the only anchor in the black, oily darkness of the desert night.

I was given the most flatulent, loud, and obnoxious camel. I think we were destined to be together. You’d hear him a mile away, groaning and whining, fighting with the other camels, and shitting. He was a grumpy ol’ boy, but when he harnessed up, it was all business. He was great.

Besides the extreme groin pain from having never ridden a camel, it was such a fun time. Riding all day, sleeping under the stars, running and tumbling down the sand dunes – definitely one of my fondest memories of India. You can see from the picture how liquid the sand was. The slightest breeze sent dust into your face, forcing you to squint, and there wasn’t a time where your food wasn’t sprinkled with a slight dash of Thar.

The first night we got lost in the dunes coming back from a friend’s camp. Pretty funny story, but Teg can probably tell it better then I can.

Teg- Thanks for leaving me with this tell-tale lol!

Oh man was the camel safari ever fun!! We arranged for a 2-night/3-day camel adventure, annnd that’s all we knew as we set off towards the outskirts of the city to meet our guide and camels. We arrive and there were two men and three camels. Right away I’m thinking, one of these guys must just be here to help saddle them all up and make sure we are good-to-go! Wrong. Minutes later we discover that we are the riders and they are the ‘camel-walkers’; they hold the ‘leashes’ and lead the way! Mike was immediately unhappy with this. Finally, after a couple of hours, they let him get on the ‘experienced camel’ (also the grumpiest) and gave him the reigns. I didn’t feel like pleading so I just stuck to ‘following the leader’.

Just after lunch we are already walking, not riding because our inner-thighs are dead. So so sore from the camels. I’m pretty sure I walked for 6 hours and rode for 2 this first day! By late afternoon, at one of the watering holes we meet this Aussie who is doing a night trip and ‘by chance’, his guide and ours’ get alone nicely so we all walk together till we get to the sand dunes where we’ll set up camp for the night. The Aussie and his guide set up a couple dunes over from us, minutes away, and so the three of us make plans to meet up and hang out after dinner.

After sup, we decide we’ll go over to him instead of him come to us. Our time hanging out with the Aussie was great! A really funny dude, and plus, he had brought his i-pod. Chilling out in the desert under a blanket of stars to some tunes was nothing to complain about! But, as fun as our time with the Aussie was, I regret the choice of going over there lol. By the time we decided to leave and make our way back to our camp to sleep it was pitch black out. Just after eight. We had brought our headlamps, well prepared, or so we thought!hahaha

We got lost pretty quickly en route to our camp. Somehow, ten minutes in, we stumble across the Aussie again! Like reallY!! How did we circle back around to him? OK, we realize this might be tricky but we were happy to be back at the starting point, to know the general direction we needed to go. It wasn’t long before we had gone over a few too many dunes, were actually more or less out of the desert and amongst shrugs and trees that we knew we were in trouble. Forty minutes pass and we are searching for something that will lead us back to where we came. We even tried following stars but found no help. At this point we both had come to the conclusion that we wouldn’t be sleeping at our camp, but instead, on our own in amongst the shrugs. It would be a cold night.

Almost an hour later, we see this faint light far far off and we decide to slowly make our way towards it. Finding anybody seems better than wandering around in the cold by ourselves at this point. Soon enough the light starts to blink, and so Mike does the same with his head lamp, holding it as high as he can. Yes. We finally come close enough to it and see our guides! I hugged them both immediately because I had had little hope that they were even still awake, let alone looking for us!

They lead us back to the camp and right away  we realized just how far off we had gone. Far. How could we have walked right by it?!? The dunes play tricks on you I guess. It was so nice to be back at our camp where we could huddle close to a warm fire.

We were exhausted and didn’t stay up for long, but long enough to hear our guides share their side of the story, maybe 5, 6 times with us. They were pretty proud! Apparently they had gone over to the Aussie looking for us and had to ask him if they could borrow his flashlight so they could search us out. From what they say, they mantracker’d us! They followed our prints in the sand till they could see our lights, off in the distance. We were lucky!

The rest of the safari was great! I figured out how to switch between straddling the camel and sitting ‘female style’ on it mid-ride which made things so much better! I was actually able to ride for most of the day because of this!! We arrived early in the afternoon at what would be our next camp site, and here there were even bigger sand dunes than the day before! Because we knew right away we’d be hanging out close by come night fall – no more late night adventures! – we seized every hour of sunlight possible! Which in turn meant, Mike seized every dune within the vicinity! He was air-born non-stop till sun-down!

The next morning we got up early, quickly had some hard boiled eggs and then jumped on our camels to make our way back to the pick-up point. It was an unreal safari and we both left only wishing to have had more time to extent our stay out in the desert. That and having a warm shower..