TIMEZONE 7 - INDIA

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Camel Trek - Part V

New Years 1998 - 1999

It was getting very near the end. December 31, 1998 was upon us and it seemed like a good time to ponder. Two and a half months have flown by. We had seen things that were beyond the realms of our imaginations. We had been very lucky so far, in that throughout our travels, we had constantly connected with people who had been helpful, caring and friendly. In fact, some of these connections could become life long friends. We had not suffered any argument larger than the time Mike cleaned his feet on Jeff's pillow, or when Jeff made "finis" the milk coffee before Mike had his second cup. Our biggest problem was that time was passing rapidly. We had planned to cover much more in our India tour by the end of the year then we had and we were forced to start eliminating cities from our trip in order to make it south to Goa, Madras, Kerala, Cochin, and, most importantly, Bangalore by the 31st for the Super Bowl!

Be that as it was, the safari had been great and we didn't feel like we had wasted a moment of our precious time. It had definitely been a unique experience to traverse The Great Indian Desert via camel while getting to know four Indian men using rudimentary means of communication.

On our fifth night, we sat by the fire while Moodly, the Brahmin, told an Indian folk tale that captivated the crew, and a local man and his small son who had walked from the nearby village to investigate our motley caravan. Although we couldn't understand the words of the tale, it still kept our attention. We sat silently listening and watching.

On our sixth night, we prepared for our New Year's celebration. The hardest part would be staying awake past 10, which we hadn't done yet. After the crew went to bed around 9:30, we gathered up all the extra wood, put the hot coals from the fire into a metal pan, and carried everything up a large sand dune that overlooked the valley below. Before we had left Bikaner, we purchased a bottle of cheap Indian whiskey for our New Year’s celebration. We sat around the fire, talked, laughed, told tales of glory, and enjoyed the pleasantries while trying to stretch our limited supply of wood until the stroke of midnight. When 1999 rolled in, we sat silently for a moment, and contemplated the year to come. In the distance, we could hear a party, whose clock was a few minutes behind ours, countdown the new year, and set off fireworks. We realized that at home it was only noon on the 31st, and we wondered if next year, the world would come to an end (as the doomsayers predict) and if it did, would it do so on Indian time or Minnesota time? We thought of what all our friends and family back home, and guessed at what they might be doing (we were right about Adam and Rachel!). We wished them the all the best in the new year to come.

The silence was broken by Jeff who said, "Look where we are!!!!"

This insight inspired another round of silent reflection from the group. We could hear what sounded like hundreds of dogs going crazy from the fireworks in the distance, and another sound we recognized as squawking from a flock of Siberian blue cranes that migrate to the Indian desert every winter.

In the morning, (around 7 am), Amar woke us up just in time to see our final sunrise. It was especially delightful, because it was being hosted by thousands of blue cranes taking flight to find their morning meal. Ours, as usual, was bread and tea. After breakfast we said our good-byes, and took some group photos. We left Moodly the Brahmin, who hugged and kissed all of us, and we set off with the three remaining crew members on Jagdeesh's camel cart. We pulled into the town of Phelodi and parted with Jagdeesh and Gopal, to whom we had given the remainder of the cheap whiskey and a lighter (we were pretty sure that when no Brahmins were around these two would serve up some fart flambe'). Jagdeesh, Gopal and Moodly would return to Rashishar in typical camel jockey fashion. They would cover in four days what took us 7 days and 6 nights. This was possible, because they could sleep on the cart while the camels pulled on towards home. Camels not only have excellent memories, but they require only 1 hour of sleep a day!

Amar walked with us to the bus station, and we hopped on a bus headed for Pokhran where we would catch another bus to Jaisalmer. We waved goodbye to our little guide who was awaiting a bus home to Bikaner.