A camel safari through the traditional villages of this unique Rajasthani city and desert region can leave visitors with long lasting memories of an unforgettable desert experience.
Dream the Desert offers a wide variety of camel and jeep safari adventures that can be booked as a package, or tailored to the specific needs of individuals. These adventures are Dream the Desert's specialty and our many years of experience allow us to offer a trip like no other. Our trips can be made longer, venturing all over the deserts of Rajasthan and encompass a far less touristic feel than other available safaris.
Our desert destinations take visitors far off the beaten path to areas where no other tourists can be found, guaranteed! Our adventure safaris are designed for small groups, never more than eight visitors at a time, and if you can spot a tourist from another agency, we'll offer compensation! Dream the Desert's safaris take place 60km and further from Jaisalmer's fort, travelling on isolated sand dunes that provide an impressive setting for beautiful uninterrupted sunsets and clear starry skies. Every few years, new locations are scouted to ensure the complete avoidance of tourist areas for our trips, allowing us to provide a truly intimate desert experience.
The Thar Desert's dark night skies allow for a clearer view of star constellations, shooting stars, satellites and even the Milky Way – especially when compared to cities and more light polluted areas. Most visitors choose to sleep out in the open, to experience a night long view of the skies, but raised beds and tents are available options as well. When the moon is full, we can offer visitors a night time excursion to experience the deserts nocturnal wildlife. The sand dunes provide some distance from the desert's wildlife, allowing a peaceful night's sleep under the open stars – quite a magical experience!
Our guides enjoy sharing information with visitors on the different cultures, wildlife and traditions of the area. The camel men can share with you the ways of the Thar Desert, including cooking, traditional safari techniques, singing and of course, camel riding. All of our guides speak good English and hold hospitality and safety as the highest of priorities. Our camel men cook all desert meals from scratch; they prepare chapatti bread, chai (Indian tea) and cooked vegetable dishes on an open fire.
We ask that you will join us in doing our best to protect and preserve the natural beauty of the desert. We must leave the desert in the same condition that we found it. We do not leave litter and we use large jerry cans to store filtered water to avoid creating unnecessary waste with bottles and packaging.
During some of our safari experiences, visitors can visit small rural desert villages. The communities that live here often find it very difficult to travel to larger cities and, as a result, have little access to healthcare and education materials. If visitors wish to bring with them simple un-harmful medicines (such as painkillers: paracetamol, ibuprofen) and educational materials (picture books, English books, stationary etc.) these will be gratefully received by the small, friendly desert communities. Children in the villages are often keen to interact with visitors, who are invited to sit and talk with them over a cup of chai.
Occasionally, on longer safaris, opportunities arise to meet the Thar Desert's only group of nomadic people – the Kalbeliya Gypsies. These small communities are constantly moving and are famed for their snake charming and medicinal abilities. (Contact with the Kalbeliya Gypsies can be arranged with the jeep if this is of particular interest to visitors).
Questions, queries and requests are very welcome. We have a number of pre-designed packages of varying lengths available, which can be booked in completion or adjusted to suit your needs. We like to provide visitors to Jaisalmer with their ideal desert experience, so we are keen to work with you to create the desert experience of your dreams!
History and Facts
The Thar Desert is the world's 18th largest subtropical desert. Sand dunes in the south are said to rise up to 152 meters in height! The desert itself, is estimated to be between 4,000 and 10,000 years old. Millions of years ago, as early as the Jurassic period, the region was completely submerged underwater. Dinosaur fossils as old as 6 million years have been found in the area.
Indian epics describe the region as Lavanasagara, or Salt Ocean. A number of ancient texts, including the Mahabharata, mention the Sarasvati River that dried up in the desert. A small present day Sarasvati River, Sarsut, exists that eventually joins the Ghaggar River. The ground water beneath the desert helps to provide the area with the variety of vegetation and wildlife that can be seen today.
Wild Life
The Thar Desert displays a wider variety of vegetation, animal life and human culture than other deserts of the world. Some areas of the desert surrounding are full of life, where plants and animals fill the landscape. Contrastingly, other areas are made up of uninterrupted sand dunes where very little wildlife can be found.
The Thar Desert is home to a number of species which are in fast decline in other areas of India, such as the Blackbuck, Chinkara and the Indian Wild Ass. Over 140 species of bird can be found here. Some of the larger birds to be spotted include eagles, buzzards and vultures. The most popular of these is a bird rarely seen anywhere else, the Great Indian Bustard of Jaisalmer. This beautiful bird is usually 40cms in height and is most often seen in the pasture lands of north-west Jaisalmer. It is mostly grey, has long legs and moves sideways when walking. The Bustard was endangered for a while, but the population is recovering and its estimated to have reached over 1,000.
Camels are an integral part of desert life and prized possessions of local people, but due to the higher numbers of trucks and jeeps now being used for transport, the camel population is on the decline. Safaris provide a different opportunity to reassert the importance of the camel to desert society.
Packages
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