February 26, 2019 -
“....I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name”
- David Cobb ‘Tales from the Road’ The Uncredited Fourth Member of the band ‘America’ *
I know, I know, we look glorious. Go ahead and take a few minutes to gaze longer at the picture. Enjoy, I’ll wait.
Finished? Your welcome.
We are in Jaisalmer near the Pakistan border. This is a small city that is next to the Thar Desert which extends from here into the border with Pakistan. It is a classic looking desert with the sand dunes and in the summer can reach temperatures greater than 120 degrees with dry hot winds.
Jaisalmer is a small town that in ancient times was a thriving trade center with Asia. Those days are gone. Now it is dominated by a large military base, and a small palace which we will visit later today.
The thing to do here are ‘Camel Safari’s’. So yesterday afternoon we embarked on a noble expedition. The desert’s edge is about 30km west of here. We were driven by Jeep to a barren roadside where our majestic beasts awaited.
On the way, as you cleared the military base you began to see numerous wind turbines and power lines. There were some flat areas in between and here you found yet another classic Indian adventure opportunity- Parasailing. They offered to drive you at high speed while you were attached to a parachute so you could float in the air....and apparently into the nearby Wind Turbines and power lines. Sounds like fun. We declined the opportunity.
So off we trekked with about 12 other travelers to the desert. It was austere and beautiful. The weather was mild. We arrived at camp where we could watch the sunset and have a campfire meal made for us. It was unique and quite lovely. We were adventurers!
Actually, after riding the bedsore inducing beasts for about 90 minutes we ended up no more than 200 yards from the main road and civilization. But hey, it was still a moment! It was a little like declaring you have been to France after only landing briefly at the airport.
We returned to our Air BNB satisfied the Lord Shackleton would have been proud. Then, we took a lot of Motrin.
*Dewey Bunnell, the lead singer of ‘America’ would later write, “We all liked David Cobb, but his cowbell playing was not up to standard and we had to let him go.”
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