Travel Stories

February 11, the Great Thar Desert, India, by Xerxes Marduk

Part 1

What did I find out in the Great Thar Desert? Not the secret to happiness, I found that on an island in Thailand; and not love per say, I find that everywhere I go; and not God, I found Him in Iceland; and not myself, I didn't really discover anything new about myself - except maybe that I am still capable of innocence. So what did I find in the Thar Desert? Maybe nothing at all. Maybe only a sore back and a beautiful mountain of sand. Maybe that's enough. Keep it simple.

We drove 40km out of Jaisalmer by jeep to our rendezvous with our camels and guides in the Thar Desert. Jumping down from the jeep we found ourselves in a mist so think it limited visibility to less than ten meters. Somewhere in the mist I heard a camel fart, breaking the eerie silence. Out of the mist walked five camel men, ranging in age from a young teen to middle aged men. They were dressed in ankle length grey and brown robes and wore sneakers. They led us solemnly to our camels, choosing - seemingly at random - the animal which we would spend the next two days sitting on. This proved to be a crucial decision because some camels, like mine, were mild tempered and had almost no hump at all, while others had too much testosterone and a mighty shark find of a hump. One poor Englishman was stuck on a camel, which our group named Razorback, on account of its huge and uncomfortable hump.

Once we were all firmly ensconced on our chosen mounts our party of thirteen set off in silence into the shifting sands one plodding step at a time. We traveled thusly for two hours, each of us in our own little capsule, insulated from each other by the thick fog and by our sense of being in an unknown place and riding an unfamiliar beast. When the sun burned through the fog we stopped for lunch under the shade of a long tree in a vast space of sand and rocks. While our camel drivers prepared us a basic meal they also had to shoo away goats from a heard that had wandered into our camp and were trying to eat everything from our camel's bags of food to our sleeping bags.

I took a wander to stretch my legs, and found over a little rise a lone hut in a desolate valley. Who would live here, some lone shepherd tending his flock perhaps? Would living here suit me? I was unable to give myself a definite answer to this. Poking around the outside of the hut I found a little piece of wood, the shape and size would indicate that it had been used as a peg in a fence. Though long years bleached by the sun and stars had turned it white, the color of bone. I picked it up with no clear intention as to why.

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