The Gobi - Days 3 & 4

Day 3 - Flaming Cliffs to Khongoryn Els

We awoke pre-sunrise to catch the magnificence of the cliffs. We could not have been prepared for what we saw. The cliffs were an incredible almost blood-red in the rising sun. We drove a short way to Bulgan, a small town, where we reloaded on water, gas and some food supplies. Andrew went to the hospital to recharge the battery on his camera. We realized how absurd this concept would be back home. I can't imagine anyone walking into the local hospital to plug in a camera to let it recharge. After our short break, we continued on with some relatively flat driving. We stopped for lunch in an amazing spot where a herd of horses were dining on some grass and water. At this point I realized how salty the water in the Gobi is. Everywhere water has been in the past few years has massive amounts of salt left behind. After a pleasant and peaceful lunch, we finished the day's journey by passing through a chain of mountains where the road followed a dried up riverbed. When presented with the choice of sleeping in a ger or camping out, we opted to camp. After sleeping in the Flaming Cliffs, who could turn down the chance to camp under the world's tallest sand dunes. That's right, world's tallest, from bottom to top, not in elevation. Ironically, the Gobi is also the desert with the least amount of sand in the world. Before dinner, we decided to work up an appetite by climbing to the top of the tallest dune. About 1/4 of the way up, the girls chickened out, and turned back. The climb was insanely difficult. It took us about an hour and a half, but we got there. At the top, in my great intellectual way, I turned to Andrew and commented, "Wheels, I have sand in my eye." After a few amazing photos, we decided to bum-scoot all the way to the bottom. We looked back at the bottom and realized we cause a landslide that could be seen from miles away. The view was spectacular. When we returned, Andrew and I found that Nora, Dava and Maureen had set up the tents. Dava had a campfire started, and had managed to get some of Gobi wood. This is the most amazing woods of all time. It is so dense, that you can't chop it with an axe, it burns for hours, produces an immense amount of heat when it burns, and ignites quickly and easily.

The Flaming Cliffs at sunrise. (I hate you Dan, cause now I have to laugh every time I say/hear Flaming Cliffs)

The water source. Is it wrong that it seemed normal?

Our horse friends at lunch.

The dunes.

The top of the tallest sand dune in the world.

The view from above.

Day 4 - The Dunes

It was a nice break from driving on our fourth day. Instead, we rented camels for the day. We started with the best grilled cheese sandwiches of all time before Dava drove us over to our guide and our camels. It turns out we had the "park ranger" as our guide. It was widely acknowledged that My camel, Jerry, was by far the most intelligent. He went fast when I asked him to, turned when told to, and even bit Andrew's camel on the butt a couple of times. We're told this either means he thought the other camel was too smelly, or too slow. Since Andrew's camel wiped snot all over his leg, I was glad to get out into the lead. We stopped at our campsite for lunch, where Andrew decided to go climb the dunes again while the rest of us continued on for a few more hours. Big mistake - my butt had bruises for days, and I had to sit on a pillow in the van the next day it was so sore.

My camel can kick your camel's ass.

"You love my humps. My humps, my humps. My lovely camel humps. Check it out."

Maureen, in her transition from tropical climate, and Cat's camel, doing whatever it pleases.

Notice the camel on the left. He didn't start the day with us. He eventually joined in the line.

A few notes about camels - the camels here are the less common Bactrian Camel (2 humps) and much furrier than the 1-humped Dromedary Camel. The Bactrian Camel will only live in domestication within the next couple of decades as wild ones are severely endangered. Camels like to walk in straight lines. If another camel is within 30 feet in front of one, it will automatically follow the lead camel's path, no matter what you want it to do. We joked about how a camel's single's ad might read "Likes - walk in lines. Dislikes - not walking in lines."

Two more installments to come....