Jaisalmer. Rajasthan

25th June
Another frustrating time trying to get ot of a city. This time it was Jodhpur which took us well over an hour and when we did hit the main road it was after cutting cross country over some dicey roads and up a steep incline. I mention this because it was interesting to see how the camel driver's braking system had been devised to slow them down. They were bringing cart loads of sandstone slabs down this steep hill, to stop it getting away on the camel they dragged behind them a further 2-3 pieces of rock on an old tyre thus slowing their momentum.
It was a good road the 280kms to Jaisalmer and it didn't take much to work out why the roads were of such a high standard in this part of the country: the Pakistan border is nearby and as the two countries are not the best of neighbours the road infrastructure has to be good to get the forces to the front in a hurry. Jodhpur had a very large military and air force base which we inadvertently drove through trying to find a palace. Not the place to take photos. Actually, looking at a road map of India/Pakistan it shows a major road system with 100kms of the border the whole length of their respective borders from the Rann of Kutch near the Arabian Sea, right up to Kashmir.
The road went through the Thar Desert for most of the trip. A strong wind was blowing causing windblown sand to cut visibility considerably. There were large sand dunes with scrubby trees growing on them but most of the time the land was flat with the occasional village or hamlet breaking the sameness. Camels almost outnumbered cars on the road and we saw a few small antelope as we drove. Quite an intriguing journey actually.
Later
Spent the day visiting the Maharaja's Palace in the fort complex and an old haveli built by a very rich Jain family a couple of hundred years ago. Jaisalmer was on the main caravan route between the Middle East and Asia for centuries up until the time Bombay Harbour was built and then partition in 1947 sealed its fate. With tension between India & Pakistan increasing in the last 30 odd years it has once more become an important base for the military. The fort is massive with 99 bastions on the outer wall alone.
Interesting to see the hundreds of wind turbines on the horizon to the west of Jaisalmer, Howard carries on about the third world coming to grips with global warning before he will do anything yet many of the hotels we have stayed has rows of solar panels on their roof, 59 at one of the places, energy efficient lights are used everywhere, these wind turbines at Jaisalmer would dwarf the total number in Australia and that is only one group.
The internet here suffers from the wind blown sand, we hope we can send this off tomorrow. We are heading north fairly quickly starting tomorrow and hope to cross into Pakistan in a couple of days.