India 2012

Sunday4November

We leave our hotel in Bikaner to reach the small tourist bungalows where camel rentals are possible.

Landscape on the road, including small Bishnoi huts.

En route, P.K. branches off to a body of water where demoiselle cranes reside

"The Demoiselle Crane or Numidian Demoiselle (Grus virgo or Anthropoides virgo) cracks, yelps, trumpets. Its cry, quite similar to that of the common crane, is very powerful and perceptible from afar. Carried by the wind, it can be heard two kilometers away." (© Wikipedia)

Pritam, our driver, stretches his legs while waiting for us  

The children of the neighboring village also enjoy the landscape (or generous tourists with rupees and pencils???)  

We are not far from the majestic and impressive Jaisalmer fortress that we will visit the day after tomorrow

This is where we will sleep. In the yellow house. There aren't many people, all the bungalows surrounding this courtyard are empty.

Our only neighbors will be the people who work here and the birds...  

And there I am, on my camel like any self-respecting tourist  . The goal is to reach the nearby desert to enjoy the sunset.

When a camel is thirsty, a camel stops.

We pass by the neighborhood well

45 minutes later, here we are on a dune ready to hide the luminous star behind a piece of Earth.

The camels, stoic and all dressed up, let this tourist routine pass by.

And meanwhile, a boy seems to be looking for something...

An old man? A guide? A sage? All of these at once?

The boy who was looking doesn't seem to have found anything.

And the Sun circles its bed, delaying the inexorable hour of sunset.

And what is the beetle doing during this time? It walks, it walks, it walks.

And finally, all red with effort, it goes to bed leaving the night behind it.  

And as I told you earlier, we are the only visitors to these bungalows... So we eat alone, in the middle of this courtyard.   P.K. takes the opportunity to show us some photos of his village and his family whom he left in the mountains of northern India

And before we go to bed, I cast a glance towards Jupiter and Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus, shining here just as they do at home...