The incredible sound of Rajasthani musicians singing about their camels in the sunset of the Thar Desert. The day has cooled and we are sitting around a camp fire after dinner, tomorrow we will visit a Bishnoi village.

The Bishnoi people have been following their ideals since the early fifteenth century, they are Hindu but follow a set of teachings which among other things bans the killing of any animals or insects or felling green trees. They will protect any life form with their own life.

Bishnoi women will breast feed a baby animal particularly the small deer that are found in their area..

The village we visited was beautiful. The women had their faces covered because we had men in our group, but once the men were out of sight, they pulled back their veils to reveal their wonderful big smiles and their beautiful jewellery which was obviously worn all the time.

Wandering around the village on my own, I was invited in to a house to have a cup of Chai, traditional Rajasthani tea made with fresh milk, peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger, sweetened with a little jaggery – raw cane sugar in a solid form. Delicious!
The adobe houses were round, painted with a clay wash the windows and doorways were painted by the women with beautiful designs.

Each house was in a courtyard with an adobe wall and clay pots built in to the walls to store grain.

Then best of all, in a lot of the courtyards were baby camels, black ones with pink ribbons around their necks.