The Desert Farmer and his two tone moustachios

After an indifferent entertainment by a small group playing drums, singing and one dancing girl in the courtyard between the mud huts we had a delicious thali with 8 different dishes in it. As soon as the sun had set it became extremely cold and a huge fire was lit but bed called and as soon as the son rose again I set off into the scrub around the village and onto the dunes – not vast like in Arabia but rather reassuringly intimate and welcoming, covered in tracks of little animals, birds and in the valleys between prints of goats, peacocks, cows and camels. I saw chinkara and peacocks again and walked out straight into the sun thinking that I would then find my way back by following my long shadow forward – not so, for I forgot that the sun would have risen and I should make some adjustment...finding a cow skeleton reminded me what happens when you lose your way... and my return further to the west of the village than necessary was inevitable but rewarded by finding the 4 village wells to which everyone had come to fill their water pots including the camel drawn water carts. What a job the young men with the carts had each morning. They had 16 litre containers they hauled from the wells with which they filled the women's pots and then they had 36 pots to haul for themselves to fill the container on their cart. In between they threw an extra load into a trough which would serve any passing animal and I was told the wells would take 2 hours to replenish before they could be used again.

We drove slightly north east through the desert and found two Egyptian vultures feasting on a dead cow and then through the huge wind farm that we'd come through last evening = thousands and thousands of turbines for more than 45k and as far to the sides of us that we could see. There were also solar panel fields but never anyone in sight tending to anything. We saw two desert eagles attacking a chinkara fawn which escaped into the undergrowth and lots of camels again but the drive was a long one and we didn't stop many places until we got to some lakes at Phalodi Khichan where Russian Kurja cranes spend the winter. There were several thousands raucusly honking and every so often groups of them mass lifted and flew to the next lake when they were disturbed. They are so tall and elegant with a fluttering bib tie of long black feathers so no wonder they are the choice of bird for the Chinese and Japanese artists.

We gave a lift to a large farmer who had been visiting relatives for a wedding. When we reached his village he allowed me to take this portrait of him and his half hennaed moustachios and then he led me to some women who had nose studs instead of rings and insisted they let me photograph them. They were so shy but let me do so rather grudgingly in the end. Their jewellery was totally different from that I'd seen before – heavy silver bracelets but gold ornaments on the head.

Towards evening partridges took to the roads and played chicken with us – we must have avoided 50 over the space of half an hour then in the dark with headlights on we disturbed a fox eating the remains of a young goat lying on the road and waited to see if it would return. It was hungry and in the glare of our headlights we could see the tyre skid marks of the vehicle that had hit the goat and could see how with each mouthful the fox was pulling his meal to the side of the road. Unfortunately my shots had to be through the windscreen so aren't very good but they give the idea.

You'll need the patience of Job to wade through this lot which includes the cranes and the fox