“How many here have ridden a camel?” Jim Wiltens asked his Morning Forum audience Nov. 18. To his surprise, almost two dozen hands went up – Los Altans are an adventurous group!
Once he had recovered from his surprise, Wiltens went on to tell the audience of his own experience traveling across the Thar desert in northern India with a British pal, an “Untouchable” guide and four temperamental camels. To the delight of his audience, Wiltens pantomimed the lurching of a camel rising and mimicked his friend Dan Wright’s British accent, as well as the accents and diction of the various Indian officials and villagers they encountered along the way. The entire adventure is chronicled in Wiltens’ book “Camels, Skulls, and Cobras.”
The first challenge was purchasing the four camels. Wiltens and Wright learned to beware the seemingly healthy-looking camel whose hump had been artificially inflated to disguise its malnourishment, and the seemingly mellow camel who would turn into a killer once its drug dosage had worn off. “And most important – do not buy a camel without a test ride to make sure you can control the beast.”
While assembling supplies for his adventure, Wiltens had time to explore the techniques of the snake charmers who plied their skill in the local market. Once Wiltens had proven his sincerity by allowing a fully fanged cobra to slither down his collar and wrap itself around his waist, his teacher explained that the secret of the snake charmer is not the music, but the movement of the flute. The cobra thinks it is another snake and weaves back and forth as the flute moves, preparing to strike. The charmer must keep the flute moving.
The trip began inauspiciously, delayed first by the crowd of well-wishers and journalists that assembled to see them off. Then Wiltens’ camel, panicked by a large bus approaching with its horn blasting, decided to topple over, throwing him into a pond full of raw sewage. Unfortunately, while Wiltens was attempting to clean himself at a local water basin, he tied his camel to a post, which turned out to be a religious icon, and to avoid the angry worshipers, they moved quickly (and Wiltens odoriferously) out into the open desert, where 100-degree heat soon felled Wright with heat exhaustion.
As they proceeded, feeding the camels was a daily challenge, and in feeding themselves with the local food, Wiltens and Wright risked burnt insides from the hot spices and acute indigestion from the lack of sanitation.
Among their packs, the adventurers carried a number of solar-powered LED light systems, which they offered to the schools in the rural towns. Children who study at night risk burns and lung diseases as they read by the light of a smoky kerosene lamp. The LED lights gave safe and reliable light; the only condition Wright and Wiltens insisted on was a commitment that girls would be allowed to study as well as boys.
Toward the end of their adventure, Wiltens and Wright found what seemed to be an ideal camping spot near the India/China border. They were awakened by shouts to find themselves surrounded by a very well-armed SWAT team, which suspected them of spying. The commanding officer was finally convinced of their innocence after inspecting Wiltens’ official-looking National Geographic membership card. The next night, they camped after dark near the river that borders Nepal, and in the morning, Wiltens discovered that the “sticks and stones” he had kicked aside to clear space for this tent were actually bones and skulls. They had camped on a religious site where corpses were ritually burned. Fortunately, this time, no angry believers confronted them.
Asked why he made this trip, Wiltens said that he had been adventurous since childhood, getting a thrill from going under barbed wire fences and exploring beyond them, even if he had to jump back over the barbed wire to escape a charging bull or a hostile dog. He has also kayaked through headhunter territory in South America, ridden horseback across Africa and dived to explore sunken wrecks. Wiltens earned a warm round of applause from his audience for sharing his adventures.
The Los Altos Morning Forum, now in its 75th year, meets routinely on alternate Tuesdays from 10-11:30 a.m. at the Los Altos United Methodist Church. A livestream option is available. For more information about the Morning Forum and its fall series, visit morningforum.org. For subscriber information, visit morningforum.org/2025-2026-Series-Subscription-new.
