camel safari

One of the things I dreamed about doing while in India was to ride on a camel. When we were planning our trip, though, we had to narrow our initial, expansive itinerary down to something that we could actually accomplish, and that meant cutting out a potential foray into places in northern Rajasthan state like Jaisalmer or Bikener, where such safaris are prevalent.

So I was quite happy that, after we got to Pushkar, I spotted a sign at our Seventh Heaven hotel offering a short camel safari out to the dunes outside of town. It turns out that Pushkar hosts the biggest annual camel fair each November, with more than 150,000 camels, not to mention elephants and more, so camels here are more prevalent than I realized.

So, in the late afternoon, Raul and Raj, our camel “drivers” arrived with Baba and Krishna, we climbed aboard.  Myand my camel’s name was Baba and Lee’s was Krishna. Getting on a camel involves positioning yourself on a makeshift saddle after the camel has knelt down, putting your feet in rope stirrups holding on to a short metal post on the saddle and leaning back as the camel begins to stand up, first with its hind legs. Once that’s accomplished, you then lean forward as the camel stand up on its front legs. Sounds complicated, but it wasn’t hard and – viola -- we were up about eight feet off the ground and riding off to the dunes.

It was a great experience. At first, the boys walked the camels out of the city, but they climbed up on the camel and rode piggy back, Raul on Baba with me an Raj on Krishna with Lee. Raul said he was 15, and in a sweet high voice would occasionally ask “You happy?” We started to cantering, and Raul broke into what I’m guessing was a pop Indian song, sometimes patting me on the back and telling me I was his “big boss.” He told me he quit school years ago, and now works for a man as a camel safari boy, escorting tourists like me on short, medium and long camel safaris. He said the longest one he’s been on was four weeks.

We got to the dunes, just behind six other camels carrying folks like us from elsewhere around the world. They gotten off their camels  and so did we after Baba and Krishna lowered themselves down to the ground. We took in the scenery and I snapped off some photos as, nearby, a goat herder climbed up  a tree to shake loose some green branches for his flock.

 We had been joined at some point by Vera, from Australia, who told us she was on an long-term,  worldwide traveling adventure. She was aboard a camel by the name of Michael Jackson. She told us stories about being in Burma, Thailand, Egypt and South America and became our companion for the rest of the day.

Soon enough, the sun began sinking below the small mounds of mountains that overlook Pushkar.  We got back on our camels and headed back toward town as Raul again broke into song. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.  Sam