Wandering through the desert on a camel makes for slow blog posting
Sunset in the Thar desert
Apologies to everyone for posting so little over the last little while. And for visiting your blogs so irregularly.
Poor John and I are in India for two months (and then Bhutan for two weeks) and this trip is proving to be much more remote than our last one in late 2013.
Our days trotting through the Thar desert in Rajasthan were great fun, but not an internet cafe in sight.
Robyn and Gary follow suit with Poor John’s common walking stance
In fact. I felt lucky to survive the trip in one piece. When we stopped at a watering hole so the camels could tank up, my camel tripped backwards over a stray sheep and I, with camera in hand, nearly fell backwards into the trough. Amazingly my left hand took on the properties of a clamp, so even though Baloo (the camel) reared up and stumbled backwards, I managed to hang on and keep my seat.
We rode two days in the desert and camped overnight in the dunes. While it was colder than we expected we all stayed warm enough.
There’s lots more to tell about that expedition and our current foray into the Little Rann of Kutch in Gujurat, but for now a few pics and a promise to be back within a couple of days. We’re off to Gir tomorrow to spend three days in a remote camp searching for leopards and Asiatic lions.
P.S. Of course, my camel was the flashiest, most decorated camel on the desert. Nothing like hanging out with a showpiece.
Baloo looking suitably overdressed. Note my sleepijng bag and backpack hanging off his saddle
Where to next? 
Peggy,
Baloo the Leggy is as intrepid a traveler as it’s name-sake rider, able to regain it’s footing despite baaaaaaaaad obstacles (sorry Peggy, I just couldn’t help myself . . . well, actually I could but I didn’t)
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So glad you didn’t restrain yourself. This blog is all about the ridiculous. 🙂
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Wow, how absolutely cool would it be to ride a camel through the desert!! And you know all about it don’t you my friend. Glad your in good shape so you could hang on when your transport went down as it might have been a short trip if you were injured. Super post! Be safe.
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I had visions of toppling into the trough. Wasn’t particularly worried about me, but scared the camera might suffer.
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You walked through the desert on a camel named Baloo… 😉 I am changing the words to that song. .
Glad you were able to avoid an injury. We’d have to call you, Broken-Leggy-Peggy!
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I was tempted to use the song in the title, so I’m glad you nudged it in there. Thank goodness I didn’t end up being Broken LP.
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What is it like, riding a camel for such long stretches? Is it more/less uncomfortable than riding a horse?
I like Poor John’s walking pose, sort of Prince Philip like, in fact.
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The camel ride wasn’t too bad. Much better than the one across the desert in Mali in 2009. That hurt.
Poor John takes a lot of teasing about his walking pose, but then we all copy it and find it quite comfy. Who knew? 🙂
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You are really an adventurous duo. I have never been to India (or any part of Asia for that matter), but hear that the food is delicious. Is there a reason why you were all walking with your hands behind your backs? Was it just coincidence?
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So glad you stopped by. The food really is delicious here and I never tire of it.
As for the walking with the hands behind the back. My hubby, Poor John, always walks that way and sometimes people copy him. I do too. Try it.
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A Funny “Baloo the Camel” Joke-
Two “mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun” and started to talk about Camelot…. And one man said, it is a castle and court associated with King Arthur and stories locate it somewhere in Great Britain. The second man said I am not sure about that ? I know of two Australians (who are at the present time) walking and riding camels in the Rajasthan dessert in India, perhaps searching for the Camelot Castle. That is, I have a drone, a GPS locating system and a GoPro camera which captured people walking in the dessert. And with their hands behind their backs, my guess is that they are all thinking about where the castle might be. BTW, one photo shows two camels RESTING in the sandy dessert and that why it is called one big CAMEL-LOT!
SyS.
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What a great story. Pity we never found the castle. I guess I’ll have to go back for another look. 🙂
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Ha wow! A close escape on Baloo the camel Peggy! We have a camel story of our pwn from the Thar desert, which I touched on in my first blog. I hope you find Baloo the bear in Madhya Pradesh!
Will from Bandhavgarh, this morning, en route to Calcutta 🙂
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Hi Will, hope you made it to Calcutta safely. Look forward to hearing your camel story. No sloth bears in Madhya Pradesh yet, but two excellent tiger sightings yesterday. Hope to see you in Australia.
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We did find baloo the sloth bear in Chhattisgarh. In fact, we saw three. Posting about them soon. Off to read about your camel story.
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Glad Baloo took such good care of you and no doubt your Nebraska rearing helped you with your riding and hanging on skills!
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Yes, Baloo was pretty good except for that early scare. And Nebraska roots are always a good thing. 🙂
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