So we arrived in Jasilmer on the 30th Jan around 6.30am after a long night train, and managed to get a hotel with hot showers....bliss!!! We spent the day checking out camel safari's and booked one for the next day.

6.30am was the pick up the next morning and an hours drive into the dessert. We met our guides and the camels and sat round the fire having breakfast watching the sun rise over the dessert....a pretty good start!

After a really quick introduction to riding camels (bearing in mind i'm scared of horses!) we were off. Our camel's were all very amusing with their own personalities. Fred's in particular couldn't have been more like him if he tried. He kept running off ahead and eating everything in sight!! All the camels were boys and it was mating season so they all had the horn. At one point mine spoted some ladeeez's and went pelting off with me on the back for a bit of fun, luckily the guide ran after us and caught him in time, otherwise i may have been involved in a camel threesome!!!

We rode for three hours in beautiful sunshine to a village and met lots of children and women (see photo's) all asking for pens and sweets. All we had were a few mouldy biro's and Fred had loads of chocolate eclairs (??!!) which went down well. After that we rode for a bit longer and stopped for a lovely three hour lunch in the sand dunes. Our guides set up big rugs under a tree and we just chilled out whilst they cooked us the most delicious lunch, a potato and spinach dish with rice and fresh naan...the best food we've had so far.

After a snooze we arried on until we settled for the night in the dunes where we watched the most lovely sunset. We ate another delicious meal by the fire and sat chatting with the guides until bedtime. We then slept in the open air in big beds watching the stars which were the most amazing i've ever seen.

Getting ready for bed involved going for a wee in the pitch black and not being able to see what was there it was pretty amusing and there was lots of toilet humor going around :0)

We woke to a nice hot cup of chai and the sun rising - great way to start the day! For breakfast a boy who randomly lived neaby brought fresh goats milk for our porridge - totally yummy!

We rode again for the rest of the day stopping for another long lovely lunch in the dunes and for yet more delicious food. We meet another family living in the dessert, that had the cutest cow you have ever seen (see photo) and we chatted with the children and they showed us their school books. Luckily they didn't ask me to check their English....cant think why??!! The jeep picked us back up early evening and we went back to Jasilmer very tired but very happy....the best thing we have done so far....