Saddle-sore into the Sunset

India’s Thar Desert: hundreds of square miles of blistering wasteland. Two newlywed American tourists with milky complexions. Two fleet but feeble-minded camels afflicted with dystentery. The stage was set for an epic battle of man vs. beast.

Our trek on camelback through the Thar began in the ancient fortress city of Jaislmer. Over the next three days, we rode our smelly steeds over towering dunes, through thickets of six-foot cactus, and into isolated desert villages of straw and adobe. Along the way, we saw antelope, eagles, a plethora of superbly ambitious dung beatles, and a three foot monitor lizard, lurking in a village well.

The journey took to within a stone’s throw of the Pakistan border, and to the outer limits of the human groin’s endurance.

Sand-swept but triumphant, we returned to Jaisalmer, southbound to Gujerat.