Once upon a time, at regular intervals in the middle of the night, the seemingly dead Thar Desert would suddenly come to life with a colourful caravan of hundreds of camels laden with spice, silk, tapestries, bronze ornaments, incense and other items. These were not ghost trains. The Thar was a part of the Silk Route, a 2,000 year old circuit between China, Turkey and Italy that passed through North India.

The route no longer exists today. However, in a recreation of bygone times, The Retreat offers a camel safari to the nearby sand dunes where the views of the sunset are majestic. The gently undulating movement as the ‘ship of the desert’ carries you on the back can be quite a meditative experience, even therapeutic. As the sun goes down and the stars begin to twinkle in the sky, it is easy to be transported back in time to the era of camel caravans.