Gobi

July 17 - Flight to Dalanzadag is on an German Fokker 50 via Aero Mongolia - high wing turboprop. After arrival our driver, Bayna, gets a traffic ticket for not wearing his seat belt - $4.00. We start off on the beginning of a long dirt road across the Gobi desert going to the north. Mongolia has a grand total of 600 miles of paved roads.

At Yolyn Am, a beautiful canyon with a section of perpetual ice, we see four ibex high on the side of the canyon. Along today is a couple from North Carolina - he is a biologist and birder who wants to see the bearded vulture - we spot only one soaring above the top of the canyon. Cute little pica are all over the ground and pose for everyone's pictures.

We are traveling in a comfortable 4-wheel drive Mitsibushi van, owned by our driver. The road is outlandishly rough in places, crossing dry streambeds. I have no idea how the driver finds his way - the countryside is featureless with a web of crisscrossing dirt paths. Sometimes he takes a shortcut across the desert (when he realizes that he is on the wrong path?). Landscape is flat with sparse short dry grass. An occasional herder dwelling dots the countryside, but we can drive for an hour without seeing anything.

Ger (Russian word is yurt, but don't call it that here) camp is not very crowded and the bed is hard, but I sleep well. I am by myself so I get assigned a smaller ger - keep hitting my head. Beautiful moonrise.



July 18 - We are on the road by 9:00 to see the famous Flaming Cliffs, where an American led expedition in the 20's made a major find of dinosaur fossils, including eggs in nests. When we get there, I am a little disappointed. Although the landscape is beautiful (like Arizona maybe) the area is small - maybe a square mile, in the middle of the otherwise featureless landscape. At the top of the cliffs are a collection of souvenir stands, and I am compelled to buy a bone. The rest of the day is a long 6 hr drive to the next ger camp at the sand dunes of Khongoryn Els. The day is overcast with occasional sprinkles of rain. We stop at a scenic picnic spot, in-between rain showers. The ger camp at the sand dunes is larger, with a mix of mostly English or German speaking visitors. After dinner we try a warm glass of Chengis Khan vodka, which is quite good - a legacy of the Russian influence on the Mongolian culture. The local beer is also very good. Another beautiful moonrise, which I watch with my traveling partners, Dennis and 'Babs" from the Olympic Peninsula. Babs is concentrating on photographing 'orbs' which I had never heard of. They are little mysterious specks of light which sometimes show up on camera exposures, which are not visible to the eye. Babs is one of a whole culture of orb believers, but Dennis is skeptical. She does get some images on her camera, which when enlarged are hexagons with some fine weblike structure inside them (cue the twilight zone theme).














July 19 - is camel riding day.

Molor has arranged with a nearby herder family to take us out to the sand dunes. My camel is a handsome devil, but I am not convinced of his abilities. They are all a little obstinate, but are persuaded into activity by tugs on a set of wood stakes through the nose.

Out to the sand dunes is a couple of kilometers from the herder's ger, but it is enough to make you feel sure that you are not in Kansas anymore.

In the afternoon we drive to the singing dunes where we take our shoes off and climb up a huge dune - but only partway. On the way back, the sun has come out and the once warm sand is now frying pan hot. Run to the van with stops every fifteen paces to bury our feet in to a cooler layer of the sand. We make it back without permanent injury.