Jaisalmer & our New Years Camel Safari (27th Dec 07 - 1st Jan 08)

The Indian Thar Desert was quite a mission to get to, as it is situated in the NW near the Pakistan border, but it was well worth it. The landscape was like no other we have seen in India and it reminded us of our time in Mongolia.

We spent a few days in the town of Jaisalmer, wandering around the beautiful sandstone buildings and the fort. There was so much stunning architecture here and also fantastic shopping. So as we only have a week left in India we spent up large with Indian handicrafts to decorate our house back in NZ.

Beautiful handmade bedspreads on sale in Jaisalmer


We were still with Tahlia in Jaisalmer so it was great exploring with her, and eating the most we can of the set Indian meals called Thali. We are now counting down our time so we are trying to get as much of our favourites as we can.

We did a day trip in a Jeep out to some beautiful temples and royal graveyards, and then watched a stunning sunset across the sand dunes. Despite the other thousand or so Indian tourists there, there is nothing quite like a sunset behind undulating sand dunes.

Nick, Tahlia & Nat (dressed like a desert woman)


Jaisalmer is one of the popular starting points to do a Camel Safari. There are many long tours organised but we only had time for a 2 day and 1 night tour. So we signed up with the infamous Mr Desert safari and set on our way for the trip. We timed the Safari so that we slept in the desert for New Years Eve. We thought this would be an unforgetable way to see the turn of the year. And it was beautiful.

After spending a few hours in the morning riding the hard camel seat, we stopped under some shady trees for lunch to be cooked. Then we had a few more hours in the afternoon riding through the desert on the camel. The scenery was stunning, and it was great to be out enjoying the Indian landscape. Then we stopped and watch the last sun set of 2007 before we set up camp on some isolated dunes. There were about 10 people in our group, so it was nice to have some people around to chat to on New Years.

Nat on the camel safari


Then we slept on mattresses and tonnes of blankets under a sky full of stars. It was suprisingly cold out in the desert, so we had pretty much all our clothing on during the night. But it was a fantastic experience, and highly recommended to anyone who comes to India.

Nat & Nick setting off the next morning