Namaste!

Yesterday, as we rode from Jodphur to Jaisalmer I found myself to be lost in a dreamy landscape. As we travelled further west, the scenery turned from being arid and rocky landscape to that of flat plains covered in sand. The sand was golden, it turned to pink and occasionally would become red whereby it had a rich ore content. When the sand dunes appeared as tall as a small hill I found my self elated further by my surroundings. I looked at the textures of the sand and in it's dryness I imagined it to be water, thus was the affect of the shapes and ripples upon the surface. One moment I would think of a flat calm sea, then the next of a large undulating wave lifting small boats high in it's arms. I have seen desert before but none so freeing as this even though we are not yet in the driest part.

There were shrubs dotting the landscape and trees who's uppermost branches spread out wide and flat like a spanning hand. There were particularly heavy rains experienced in Rajasthan last year - the monsoon, which overstayed it's welcome brought disastrous flooding and kept tourists away for another four months when the season should have already started. Business has been catching up since.

Surprisingly we saw pools of water. There were also herds of long haired goats, sheep and the usual rambling groups of cattle. We also witnessed many small antelope gracefully prancing their way across the brush. Lonesome figures clad in white with bright turbans were picking paths across the sand seeming to be miles from any dwelling. Occasionally there would be a pair of bright saris gliding across the sands too. We even saw hamlets consisting of small round houses built of sandstone slabs of 1' by 6' set upright in the sand, they were crowned with domed thatch. Outside there were cattle, their quantity greater than the number of human inhabitants to be seen.

And camels....

:-) :-) :-)

All of this beauty and we have not yet even headed into the deepest darkest depths of the desert away from the roads and hustle of modern day. Tomorrow we shall go on a camel safari, it is K's gift to me for my birthday, I am looking forward to sleeping out under the stars for two nights. No doubt I shall be lost in a dream world of camels, shifting sand dunes and siestas under the midday sun. I have a slight fear of being eaten alive by creatures of the night (snakes, midges, scorpions and such) but I have been informed that there is nothing to fear. I guess that any demons to be feared will be those in my own imagination - now where is my Edgar Allen Poe? :-)