Camel Safari in Jopdpur

COUNTRY: India
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching
WRITTEN BY: Sarah Raine & Antips in India

We had a fair amount of rain this week which meant we didn’t go to the orphange on Monday. Fortunately we made up for it with some very energetic games of handball over the rest of the week! We feel we are really started to get to know the kids well and it makes a big difference to their enthusiasm for learning which is great.

This past weekend we all went to Johdpur on a camel safari, a top ranking weekend for experience and cultural emergence. We travelled to Johdpur on Friday afternoon and spent the night at a lovely little guest house with Ravi and Sahill (our co-ordinators) who were also lovely enough to take us to all the great resturants around town for breakfast and lunch. We then visited the highlights of Johdpur on Saturday, checking out the temples and a huge fort.

After our Johdpur tour in the hot sun, we headed off to the desert in our jeeps! Along the way we stopped at one of the oldest and biggest Hindu temples and all given a wristband for health and good luck.

We arrived in the desert in the late afternoon and met our host family whom we enjoyed some chai with. From there, we trekked up the sand dunes to watch the sunset wich was an surreal experience. The evening was spend eating tones of delicious Rajanthany foods and dancing with the young brothers of our host family.

After sleeping out under the stars we headed off at 4:30am the next morning on our camel safari. We were 2 gappers per camel, and I can assure you it was great fun trying to figure out a position so that one of us wouldn’t go flying into the sand! We were lead through the desert for about 45 minutes until we reached an elevated sand dune to enjoy the sunrise. It was a great experience to share with one another, and some fabulous photos were captured.

The sunrise was beautiful the pink and orange over the sand was inviting but the day heated up very quickly. On our way back we got to see some great animals like peacocks, cows, goats and birds. When we returned we had some breakfast with our host family and headed back towards Johdpur.

Back in Johpur we cleaned up and made our way back to Udaipur. This week we farewell our UK friend Anna and next week another group of 10 arrives in the house!

That’s all for now – until next time!

Regards,
Sarah & the antips in India