"No hurry, no worry, no chicken, no curry"

"I don't ride the camel, because my bottom ran away to Pakistan, so I will search for it all year and maybe next year I will ride the camel".  The answer our very funny guide told us when I asked him why he walked in front of our camel, instead of riding his own. After two days and one night in the desert our bottoms had also run off to Pakistan and we walked like we were cross country skiing (skating!). 

After 20 minutes of plodding on Peacock (my little camel) and Poko (Matts really huge camel) we were sore and ready to hop off and walk with the guide, but we perservered until lunch time and flopped down under a shady tree. Our guides made chai and whipped up a yummy sabzi (veg), dahl and thick as chapati (that resembled chapati) on a make shift fire. We rested for 2 hours - the saying in the desert goes: No hurry, no worry, no chicken no curry! and we were to hear that line many times more :)

                         

Eventually after many hours of scrub, a few villages, passing sheep herders with jingling bells and the frequent sound and smell of our camels farting keeping us awake, we found some sand dunes and set off to watch the sunset whilst dinner was prepared. Sleeping in the sand dunes, under a full moon, with a little camp fire, some funny hosts on our little mattresses was incredible! Our second attempt to sleep under the stars (the other was in Finland) was much the same sleep wise as the full moon meant it did not really get dark here either. But is was still beautiful.

A welcome lunch break and nap!

One of the local sheep herders who came to say hello

In Rajastan the camel is the symbol of love .

Our camel caravan 

Time out in the sand dunes.