TRAVELS WITH A PRINCESS

SIMON CLAYS heads out on a caravan of friends, family, and reunion to explore the western fringes of the Thar. On a trip that takes in Jaisalmer and Jodhpur, he discovers that there is far more to the desert than the baked dunes and the heat haze of his imagination.

- SIMON CLAYS

GOD’S COUNTRY IS THE DESERT, I’ve decided. If it took a god to create it, then humans must be gods themselves to dwell in it. It’s a thought that needs ratification. Kerala lays claim. Farther afield, Scotland, Colorado, Montana, and New Zealand field the tagline. For sure, the gods get about.

Craning from a middle-aisle seat through a frosted aeroplane window, there is nothing but the smudge of burnt sienna, scarred with the worry lines of aeons of baking sun. It’s my first time out this far west into the Thar. I always get giddy at the scale. I never had the commitment to drive double-digit hours from Delhi all the way out to within kissing distance of the noisy neighbours and Jaisalmer. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as big a fan as anyone of the ‘Great Indian Road Trip’, and a two-day desert haul via Bikaner has merits of its own. But SpiceJet’s one-and-a-half-hour hop out of Indira Gandhi International Airport down to Jaisalmer’s bunker potted runway strip really does take the backache out of what might be otherwise a hurried yomp. Sands of time and all: this relatively new flight is reason enough to tackle a triangle beyond what those visiting North India normally encounter. Beyond the Taj and palaces of Jaipur.