Adventures don't always go according to plan. The camels we chose from the desert never arrived. Dr. Mehta, who helped arrange the deal, thinks the problem may have been the fourth camel. If you remember, camel number four was difficult even for the Raika herders to handle. It may have proved so difficult, the Raika discovered they could not train it in time to reach the Bikaner Camel Research station by the agreed-upon date, which was part of the deal.

On an adventure, having the right attitude makes all the difference. Rather than see the lack of camel delivery as a setback, Dan and I have viewed it as a valuable learning experience. We feel that we were too lax on the importance of looking at only well trained camels. An amazing coincidence has also occurred. Two years ago in preparation for the expedition, I met a Mr. Singh online and emailed him several times. He answered a number of my questions regarding camels. Then I lost contact with him. When we arrived by train at Bikaner, we were approached by a young man who wanted to take us to his hotel. I started to refuse because we had already picked a hotel from a guide book, the Harasar Hotel. He handed me a business card. He was from Harasar House. As we piled our substantial load of gear into a waiting car, the driver politely inquired what we were doing in Bikaner. I explained the nature of our expedition. The driver mentioned that he had been in contact with someone else who had a similar plan. A lightbulb went off in my head. I asked his name- Bubbles Singh. It was the same Mr. Singh I had communicated with two years before. Even before we had looked at the desert camels, Bubbles helped us develop a backup plan. The backup plan went into affect when the camels did not arrive.

So we have again been looking at camels in nearby villages for the last several days. Bubbles and his relative Ranveer run camel safaris and are very familiar with riding camels. Unlike desert camels, village camels are used to working, carrying, traffic, and being ridden. Bubbles suggested that the desert camels might have been very dangerous around the congested traffic on the highways which we will encounter. Our search for camels in the villages has been interesting in a different way from the desert search. Villagers start working their camels early in the morning -- pulling carts, plowing fields, and riding -- so the best time to see them is in the evening. The Singhs arranged for a respected village elder, Pane Singh Ji, to accompany us. He has taken us through a maze of village streets to visit with potential camel sellers. These nighttime shopping trips require that we use powerful halogen lights provided by Pelican Products to inspect the camels for signs of health. Then we ask for a local village lad to ride the camel. You always want someone else to ride the camel first. Some of the camels take off like space shuttle launches and we cross them off our list. When we find a camel we like, Dan and I have a Russian Camel Roulette arrangement. Dan rides a camel, then I ride the next one. Due to the time it takes to saddle up a camel, I've ridden the last few camels bareback. You sit over the camel's back legs and grab a hank of hair on the hump. Then hold on for dear life.

Our visits to the villages have turned into a form of evening entertainment. These people have lived with camels all their lives. They find the camel-riding antics of two foreigners hilarious. Judging from their laughter, we are the Adam Sandler-Robin Williams comedians of camel riding. We often have an audience of 50 villagers surrounding us. This impromptu audience has also brought out the actors in both Dan and I. While waiting for a camel to arrive or to be saddled, we put on a magic show. Against a backdrop of thornbush fences, accompanied by the moaning grunt of nearby camels, under a starry sky, we pull coins from the air, pass ropes through our necks, and make scarves disappear into bare hands. This delights both adults and children.

After a number of nights of this, we have located four camels. Today we return with a veterinarian to check the health of the camels before the final purchase. We have already visited a variety of shops to collect or build the other gear we need -- a leather shop to buy halters to our specifications; a saddle shop to buy local wooden saddles; a blanket maker to sew pads for the camels' backs and our tender bottoms; and a blacksmith to forge stirrups from one of our drawings.

In our next entry we'll let you know if we are finally camel owners. You will also find out what happens when we take a class with cobras.