While in Rajasthan and around desert area, it's a must do thing to visit these Deserts & explore a very different type of experience. The Excitement level increases if we plan to have bonfire in the desert under star studded sky. This time 'Malji Ka Kamra' team organized bonfire for us in Desert of Churu. It was one of the most exciting part of our weekend trip to Churu. This Photo Journey shares some of the photographs shot in the desert during Bonfire and some incidents we came across.
Many times I planned weekend trips to Rajasthan from Delhi but this was first time when we were in an area surrounded by Deserts. So this weekend trip was quite special for us. During the trip we were staying at 'Malji Ka Kamara' and they arranged this bonfire for us in Desert. The very first experience was driving on Desert and the way SUVs were slipping on sand. We started in 3 cars from Haveli and on the way everyone fit into the SUVs we had. We went ahead on these SUVs as normal cars can't be driven on sand.
Whole Gang of Writers and Bloggers was excited to have fun in Desert. All arrangements were already done before we hit the Desert for Bonfire. When we reached, we had to climb up to reach the main place, where lighting & seating arrangements were done. Chef was ready with some Scrumptious snacks. While we were settling there, few folks started setting up the cameras on tripods to shoot stars, star-trails and desert lit with moonlight. Few of us were very focused to keep track of shooting stars.
Desert Bonfires in Rajasthan are very popular during the month of December. Many of the tourists hit Rajasthan to celebrate Christmas and New Year in Desert camps. Desert Bonfire on Christmas eve sounds very exciting. And this is what comes to my mind when I think about this - Jingles on Guitar, Cake with Wine and gifts for each other. Bonfire in Desert can bring lot of excitement and craziness. On the same lines, New Year Eve in Desert around bonfire can be very special with friends and family. With time, cost of celebrations of New Year have increased a lot i cities and a Desert Bonfire with friends can be a brilliant option with much lesser cost and a private affair.
The sad part of the bonfire was unavailability of drinks in Desert. Malji Team had only beer to offer and many of us couldn't have anything else. I opted for beer and found it very different. I never had such strong beer before. Hope that other guests at Malji Ka Kamara ensure that they arrange drinks themselves or request the team to arrange variety of stuff while in desert. We would have loved to have some options in drinks to enjoy the Desert bonfire better with star studded sky and very frequent shooting stars.
Suddenly everyone started noticing the silence of desert and the discussion lead to ghost stories. Now ladies wanted to act like ghosts in the desert. At least they wanted to have some posed photographs in desert by giving some evil impressions. Priyanka lead this shoot and everyone else joined the gang. This was the time, when I got up from my seat and started clicking photographs of these folks. Before that I was feeling lazy and enjoying the beer at Desert Bonfire. Are these stars in above photograph? What do you think?
It was time when people wanted there special photographs. It was a real challenge for me because of very low light and didn't want to use flash. So above photograph tells about the process we followed to click various photographs you see in this Photo Journey.
Before visiting Churu, whenever I heard of 'Desert Bonfire', it was mostly about Jaisalmer or Jodhpur in Rajasthan state of India or Saudi. Few of my friends had great time in Jaisalmer, when they stayed in sand dunes and spent most of their time around Deserts only. Hopefully I will plan a trip to Jaisalmer soon.
It was an amazing experience of bonfire in Desert. With time, it was getting very cold in the desert and we planned to move back to the Haveli (Malji Ka Kamara) at around 11:30pm. There were lot of things in our To-Do list for next day. We had dinner at the hotel and moved to our rooms to take rest and start the new day with a city tour of Ramgarh.