This day we weren't in any hurry. We walked our camels to a village. I can't remember much about the village except that I think the houses may have been made of dung, or perhaps the houses were heated by briquettes of dung. Dung was in there somewhere, for sure. I also remember that Imogen needed to go for a pee and couldn't make the urgency clear to our guides. When she couldn't wait any longer they motioned that she could go anywhere and so she made for some cover and did what she had to. Unfortunately she must have chosen somewhere inappropriate because it caused a small incident with some village women shouting at her and us. It was a bit of a shame that we should have come such a long way from our western culture and to have spent two days trekking in the desert to get to this village only for Imogen to then have put her foot in it. I think the problem was that someone else might have put their foot in whatever she had done.
So, rather shamefacedly, we left the village and our camels walked on to a place near some water wells where we stopped for lunch.
I took the above picture probably rather hurriedly. I didn't really like to point the camera at the women carrying large water pots on their heads. It seemed rude. The very arid terrain is shown quite well in the picture and the fact that these women have clearly collected water and are walking off somewhere but exactly where cannot be seen in the frame so it is clearly quite a long way off.
After pausing at this spot for a while we headed for some shade and this very relaxed day proceeded to an extended lunch in the shade of a tree. I think that sitting beneath that tree was one of the best times of my whole trip. A good lunch was eaten and I had a good smoke, lay back and took a picture of the only thing I could see: the tree.
While we sat beneath this tree and relaxed another camel safari came by. The drivers from that safari came over to join Hookmah and Cooba and everyone sat around talking. I took a couple of pictures of these interlopers.
During this time in the shade of the tree Grace, Imogen and I chatted and discussed what we might do when our time "on the road" had to come to an end. Imogen said that she had decided that she was definitely not going back to accountancy. She expressed a love for what she had experienced in India and hinted that some of the locals (e.g. the one above sporting impressive ear jewelry with a large stud that couldn't possibly have been a diamond) were one of the attractions that could detain her.
Our next stop was at an oasis. A oasis is the sort of thing that has a much more romantic sound to it than the reality. All the same this body of brackish water was something unexpected. If I had arrived at it almost dying of thirst I suppose I might have fallen face first into the shallow water. As you approach the water the edges come alive with countless tiny frogs or toads that jump out of the way into the water. Apart from the brackish nature of the water, the other thing that could put you off drinking it was the way the camels stood in the shallows and simultaneously drank while urinating.
Incidentally, if the above picture is not the worst photograph I have ever taken then it certainly one of the worst. It is best viewed as it appears above this text. If you click on it to enlarge it you will find that nothing in it is in focus at all. It exemplifies the problem with those pre-digital camera days. Wanting to conserve the Fuji Velvia or Kodachrome 64 meant that if the only photograph you took was rubbish then the only photograph you took was rubbish and that's the end of it.
From the oasis we wandered onwards arriving at a deserted settlement as the light faded. I have no idea exactly where we were and the picture I took is not very good. The light was very poor and I probably forgot to take the polarising filter off. There are two possibilities as to where we were. We were either at Luderwa 16 kms. Northwest from Jaisalmer, the old capital of Jaisalmer. Now a silent city, the only witness to its former splendour are said to be the Jain temple, a toran (ornate arch) and an artificial divine tree (Kalptaru). Ruins of the deserted capital and the remains of an apartment of Princess Moomal still recall the famous love legend of Moomal-Mahendra.
I see no arch nor any artificial divine tree in my picture. I'm not sure what the structure pictured is. It could be a Jain temple. The other possibility is that this was not the deserted city but one of the many deserted medieval villages to the South West of Jaisalmer.
A short distance from the deserted place we struck up camp for our last night under the stars.
To add to the magic of our last night, after dinner our party was joined by a flautist who played traditional music by the light of the fire. Grace and I took our sleeping bags a few meters away from the fire and watched another stellar fireworks show as the constellations rose and slid over our heads.
