CAmel Safari

Camel Safari - 3 days on camel back ow!
our odessy started with watching in awe as the camel dudes spent about an hour sadlling and decorating our beasts - bells, nose rings, ribbons streamers - it was like the Christmas tree we didn't have ( see Jaisalmer entry re Christmas chair!).
Anyway camels were ready, we were ready, guide was running a little late. In retrospect, he probably could have actually stayed home, and spared us 3 days of "yeah, sure , why not"

The camels were fantastic and the herds man also excellent, we had a great time, except for Mike's chafing, and Tom's first 3 hours of agony.
Lunch the first day we stopped at a small village of Bishnoi people, they were lovely and welcomed us to their home, the little kids had been cleaned and scrubbed for the event, and they had a great time watching themselves on Mikes video camera. After a feed and little sleep, it was farwell to the Bishnoi and off to Luni - our stop for night one. On the way I finally ha da chance to get a little "waterpot on the head" action at one of the village wells. The local ladies just cracked up, at my total inadequecy.
Jack and Tom got separate camels after lunch, and the camel driver rode with them, when I asked why they were riding with them, I was told that they needed to be protected because they were boys and precious!
After a good sleep and wash at the beautiful Luni fort we headed back to Khandi camp, via a cricket match with the local kids at Lake .....?????
I think they we happy to see us, not only because of our fine Aussie cricket heritage( not skills), but because they were able to use our chairs as wickets, instead of using the little boy who traditionally seemed to be the wicket.
Again a good sleep and wash before the final push back to Rohet. Khandi camp was a buzz with the upcoming arrival of Madonna who was coming to spend New Years at the camp.
Our final day took us back to Rohet via a bizarre opium ceremony, and yet another magnificent lunch. we met up with lady called Helen who filled us in on the Benezir Bhutto saga, she was part of a British foreign office team in Pakistan to oversee the election, or maybe not.
We finally rocked back in to Rohet Garh, exhausted and dirty, but very happy from our adventure. It was sad saying good bye to the camels and Tom gave Haboo as a momento of their time together, they were a great team by the end of the trip