We've been racking up the miles since our last blog, packing in a flight and two night trains in the last week. We're now at the complete other end of the country, right down in the south, in Kerala - God's own land (because God is Indian, obviously).

But for now, back to Jaisalmer. We spent out first day wandering through the tiny, traffic (but not cow) free streets of the old fort, and it wasn't long before Alex managed to muscle in on a local's game. Cim, if your reading this, its the one you have a board for, and we were going to play one time. For everyone else, it looks like a cross between tiddly winks and pool. The unsuspecting man, looked quite unpeturbed when Alex asked to play, taking the place of the player who had just been so easily beaten. This calm, quickly turned to suprise and then panic, as Alex's natural talent shone through on his first ever play of the game. It was close, and a fight to the death. Alex looked to have come out on top, and had an easy shot for victory, but the nerves got to him, and his beginner's luck desserted him. He lost. A little retail therapy rekindled our spirits. It wasn't long before we were sucked into the classic "Just looking, no buying" carpet scenario. Dazed by the miriad of pretty colours thrown before us, we were almost convinced that we deffinately, deffinately needed a large green, fabric wall-hanging for our non-existant houses. However, saved mainly buy the need for more tea, we left the shop to 'think about it' before a purchase. In the harsh light reflecting off the bottom of our tea cups we realised we had been a) gullable and b) ridiculous to even consider these large fabric bedthrows as suitable back-packables. Thank god for tea.

Other news: Fern's stomach still decidedly dodgey, while Alex somehow managed to avoid most of the tummy-churning bad stuff. However she managed to hold it together enough for a trip into the desert to meet a couple of camels. We got a jeep (in the loosest sence of the word, more like a buggy, with no back, so seatbelts, and no working dials) into the desert, stopping off on the way at a tiny village for some Chai (that's tea to you). We were greeted there by large numbers of children who wanted "One pen" or "One photo" and all found it fascinating to see themselves on our digital cameras. They asked Alex if he knew Dhoni, but seemed to have no idea who Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen or Andrew Flintoff were...After the girls laughed at Fern for being crap at their clapping game (which they didn't explain very well) we met our camels in the desert, which we were to find out later was not far from the Pakistani boarder. Don't freak out mums, the most threatening thing we heard was an out of tune campfire singer - and that was only Alex. We rode around on our camels for a bit, enjoying the novelty. Fern was on a mummy camel, and her few month old baby, who the man agreed to name Fern in her honour, followed a few paces behind. Alex's camel was called Kalou, but it was not made clear if this was after the footballer. His footing was no more assured though and he tried to throw Alex off on a couple of occasions. It was well worth the perillous journey. We reached the sand dunes and witnessed the sunset and then moments later the full moon rise over the desert. Our hosts prepared dinner of rice and curried vegetables which they kept amazingly sand-free. Alex 'got involved' and made his own chapati (bread), which stayed less amazingly sand-free but tasted all the better for it. After food, the Indian guys broke out into song for us, before requesting we reciprocated with traditional songs from our own country. The Spanish couple we were with sang "La Cockoracha" about a cockroach with a broken leg, before putting in a request for The Beatles from team GB. Fern sang beautifully, Alex mumbled, while sproadically hitting his drum. It was awesome.

Next day was back to Jodhpur for some more fort sightseeing. The fact that his fort had been designed to withstand an elephant attack, automatically meant that this was the best fort we've been in India. The story about a man who volunteered to be buried alive inside the walls of the building, could only have added to it its appeal. That day, on one street in Jodhpur, after passing the usual cow, dog, cat, monkey, goat, pig and mouse, we came face to face with our first elephant. He was just chilling in the road, on his lunch break from his job as a corriander transporter. Fern said hello and shook his trunk, while Alex stood, amazed. The elephant however, was more interested in his corriander.

Back in Delhi. We were dreading Delhi, but this time it turned out to be a much more pleasent stay. Being India Veterans, we threw all touts and scammers aside. We didn't have the fear in our eyes anymore. We'd seen an elephant. And they knew it. We checked out the house where Gandhi was shot and its individual appoach to a museum. After that we checked out the zoo, which seemed to be solely inhabited by deer, and mainly built out of concrete. But we did see some hillarious animal shaped bins, which more than made up for the lack of actual real wildlife.

We flew to Kerala the next day, stopping for just one night in the state capital city before heading for the coast. Onboard the train we sat next to a group of fisherman, whose mildly racist jokes were all taken in good spirit. They found Fern hillarious, telling her she had a face like a light, and cackling after loudly exclaiming "You white, me black - Ha ha ha ha ha!" They were particularly interested in Alex's palms, which they enjoyed stroking. They showed him their's, which were rough from hard work, and found his weird and smooth. We're now in a little place called Varkala, which is incredibly beautiful. It's a plam-treed beach paradise, with enough good eateries to keep Alex satisfied. The food down south is excellent - Fern in enjoying the fish in particular. So far here we have got an extreamly oily massage to sooth our weary backs, and gone to a morning yoga class. The south is much more laid back than the north, and here we fill our days by drinking fresh juice, and swimming in the warm sea once the sun cools off in the afternoon. That's where we're heading now - we're off in search of a bodyboard.

Please feel free to use the message board to let us know how you are all doing! We would love to hear how you all are.