We cried off the 4.30am drive today.
I'm really not feeling up to being so cold and bumped around at the
moment – especially as the first few hours will be in the
dark/gloom. Having been lucky enough to spot leopards on the last
two drives we're happy to call it a day ( David certainly didn't
relish a 4.30am start)
So after breakfast at the very
reasonable hour of 8am we were taken to a nearby village to see the
shepherds taking their flocks to the fields/hills for the day.
Actually what we saw was the tail end of the operation – the
geriatric shepherds and the weakest of the livestock but that didn't
bother us as we managed to take dozens of photos. I transpired
that in order to see the major event we'd have needed to be at the
village before 7am but weren't offered that option.
The Shepherds are Rabari tribesmen, semi nomadic herdsmen whose traditional dress of red turban and white tunic (sorry don't know the proper term) make them look very distinguished. Because internet time is limited (I have to write this blog sitting next to the breakfast room as we have no wifi in our lodge) and we're due to leave for Jodhpur shortly. So this is a random selection of Rabari tribesmen
The ladies of the village, shepherdesses, wear lots of chunky bangles on their arms. The bangles used to be made of bone but these days are normally plastic. These ladies are collecting cattle dung which is dried and used as fuel.
Apparently the reason we saw more older folk and women doing manual work in the village is that most boys leave school in their early teens to take up jobs in towns, usually carpentry or metalwork or manual labour. They are betrothed at age 3 - 5 years old so once they've been away for 10 or 20 years they return to the village to get married - they know exactly who their wife will be and which house they'll live in. They then settle to village life
The ladies of the village, shepherdesses, wear lots of chunky bangles on their arms. The bangles used to be made of bone but these days are normally plastic. These ladies are collecting cattle dung which is dried and used as fuel.
Apparently the reason we saw more older folk and women doing manual work in the village is that most boys leave school in their early teens to take up jobs in towns, usually carpentry or metalwork or manual labour. They are betrothed at age 3 - 5 years old so once they've been away for 10 or 20 years they return to the village to get married - they know exactly who their wife will be and which house they'll live in. They then settle to village life
a few more scenes and characters we saw in the village
and who could resist this lovely bullock calf who really wanted to make friends ....
These are gorgeous photos -- i can see lots of wonderful art work from you. Someday I will also put these places you have visited on my itinerary too :)
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