Not so very different today, for most of the time anyway. We were awoken with scalding mugs of tea, too hot to lift, + in easy time we were given breakfast + prepared to set off. This time the first session was the longest, taking us to some sand dunes, a la Sahara. If we had taken the 4-day trek, we would have visited some more extensive ones, what one thinks of as real desert. As we were contenting ourselves with 3, these would have to do. Not that they were unimpressive, but they were just 3, + of no great size, + surrounded by the usual scrub. But we played around, + took some photographs, + then were entirely happy to move on a little way for lunch + siesta.
By now, I had come out of my shell sufficiently to establish myself as the group clown, + one of the drivers in particular was delighted by my trick of answering him in mock-Hindi, complete with gestures etc. It delighted him so much that it became rather tedious, for he would engage me in such conversations at every opportunity – I do get myself into such things.
Later in the afternoon, we were taken to a water-hole, where we were told we could swim, but the water was thick green + scummy, at least round the edges, so none of us ventured in. And certainly none of our camel drivers had any intention of getting themselves wet.
We arrived at our camp for the night, in the shadows of the ruins of an old deserted city, just minutes before the sun sank below the horizon, so immediately we had scrambled off our camels, we urged our stiff + aching limbs into a run up the slope to gain a vantage point to take a photograph or 2 of the sight. I regretted the loss of our zoom lens for almost the first time, when I wasn’t able to catch a good picture of a vast orange sun resting on top of an ancient monument.
A bottle of desert whisky had been obtained during the afternoon for our benefit, + we settled down to drink. It was a revolting substance, + not really made more palatable by the addition of lime juice. But fortunately it was also fiercely strong, + it wasn’t long before we were all pretty drunk. We weren’t fed tonight until very late, but apart from a slight anxiety that we might not get fed at all, I didn’t mind very much. For a change, the drivers came to sit with us tonight, but I can’t make much comment on the conversation. It wasn’t at a high level, my own level of comprehension was even lower. I thought at one point that Val was being left out of things, but when I went round to talk to her I could see why, for she was out of it, completely drunker than I’ve seen her for a very long time. When we finally expressed our desire to go to bed, our camel drivers made all the necessary arrangements, laid out the blankets, + tucked us in.
And yet another splendid day, with aches and pains for sure, but also temples, singing, whisky… And camels, of course.
