We walked down to the office at 6:00 am the next morning, locked our packs in a cabinet, and were driven about 20 km west of Jaisalmer (only 40 km from Pakistan!) with another couple where we ate a quick breakfast of coffee, boiled eggs, toast, jam, bananas and oranges cooked over small campfire on some dunes. The couple had booked a private tour so took off. Apparently one of our the camels had run away the previous night chasing some female camel, so our guide was out looking for it. We met him in the jeep and as he still hadn’t found the runaway (appropriately named Rambo), he led us on foot for the first few hours before we took a break for lunch and a siesta. They hobble the camels at night by tying their front legs together, but I guess they can still cover some serious ground when determined.
Riding a camel quickly gets tiring pretty fast, especially for those of us with no riding experience. Camels are quite tall, so we were sitting about 7’ up. The saddles are wide and without stirrups, which really works your inner thighs, trying to remain steady during their rocking gait. Hold tight! After two hours of riding in the morning we were ready for a long break, and we wiled away about 4 hours of the mid-day heat eating lunch, drinking chai, and reading in the shade. Our guide’s buddy found Rambo the camel and brought him round. Our guide cooked lunch over a small fire, making chapati, veg curry, rice, and chai. Late afternoon we headed off through the scrub desert, eventually making it to the nearby Bigi Dunes for a pleasant dinner and evening at the Trotter’s camp. Tim drank an ice cold beer brought up by a local from a nearby village and we watched some dung beetles and local puppies as the sun set. We slept under the stars and a nearly full moon with a few thick blankets to keep us warm. Another quick breakfast the next morning and we rode back to the road where we met back up with a jeep to take us back to Jaisalmer, stopping at Khaba Fort on the way back, which was underwhelming.
We showered and repacked at a hostel associated with Trotters, then ate lunch and relaxed on the fort wall drinking a milkshake. We enjoyed the camel safari, but our favorite part was sleeping under the stars on the sand dunes; the actual camel riding was a bit rough and monotonous, much more tiring than horse rides. At least we weren’t spat on!
Our adventures in Jaisalmer almost complete, we went to our bus stop to check on our overnight bus to Delhi only to learn that the bus had been canceled. WTF! We had booked it a few weeks back and the travel agency never bothered to tell us that they’d canceled the bus due to Holi. We weren’t sure whether to trust the guy outside the bus stop telling us all this, but he seemed to have the right business card and he didn’t want anything or offer any services, so after reviewing our options we decided on an overnight 18 hour train which thankfully had seats left in 2AC class. We lost nine hours, six at the station and another three on the train, but it didn’t cost us anything and there’s free Google-sponsored wifi at the station, so it could have been worse. Exhausted from the safari and the late night, we slept much of the way as we trained back across Rajasthan into Delhi.
We took an early morning bus into Jaisalmer, sharing a small cabin maybe 4’x6’. by 3’ high for six hours, which was mostly pleasant except for the pungent smell of cleaning supplies. Though I can think of worse things to smell! After a nap and some reading we arrived mid-day and skipped past the touts (there were a lot), walking the kilometer to Jaisalmer Fort. We wound our way through various gates and alleys to our hotel at the back of the fort. Jaisalmer is the oldest living fort, meaning people still live and work inside. It was pretty awesome to be hanging out in an ancient (not ruined?) ruin built in 1155 AD. We spent the afternoon wandering through the fort, checking on our camel safari tour (pre-booked with Trotters, a local company), and packing for the early morning ride. We ate dinner up on a rooftop at the back of the fort with a nice sunset view. 
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