"Road" across the steppe

Driving across the steppe - whoever gets there first has the right-of-way!

Bactrian camels at the water hole

Bactrian camels at the water hole

Camel with a hump problem

This guy was so cute!

Camels and sky and clouds

       We drove on to small sand dunes in the Moltsog Els region.  Only about 5% of the Gobi is pure sand and the biggest dunes are 150 kilometers further north.  We walked on the dunes, looked at the mouse and bird tracks, and enjoyed the scenery for miles around.  Here the dunes are confined to a small area but move with the wind, ever changing their form and location.  Gale tried to slide down a steep dune on a poncho but the sand was too dense to slide on.

Gobi Desert dunes

Group walking up the dune

Gobi Desert dunes

Our "we were there" picture in the Gobi Desert

Gobi Desert dunes

Gobi Desert dunes and a disappearing road

Gale attempting to slide down the dune

Gale attempting to slide down the dune

At the bottom of the dune

       Next we visited a nearby nomad family who herds about 50 camels.  We sat in their ger and were served fermented camel milk tea.  It tasted like soupy sour cream.  We also had the opportunity to try their fry bread and camel milk curds.  We took polite samples.  The family lives off of their camels - milk, cheese, hides, hair/wool - and they sell handmade crafts to tourists.  They also give camel rides to tourists.  We rode the males because the females are used for breeding and milk.  We each got on a camel (with padded "saddles" and stirrups) and were led by mother, father, and three sons ages 7, 9, and 13.  We walked out to the dunes and posed for pictures. The Bactrian camel is much easier to ride than the Dromedary (one hump). You can hang on to the front hump and sitting between the humps is much more secure than balancing on the top of one hump. Riding either is far better/easier than riding a horse - of course, I have never been on a trotting or running camel.

Ger of the camel herder with satellite dish and solar panel

Waiting for us to get on

This year's baby camels

Stirrup adjustment

Ready to go

"And what do you think about your passenger?"

Really interesting feet

Gale up and riding

Time to get down - front end first

Then the back end and you are safely down

       Not far from the camel herder, we got out of the SUVs to wander in a Saxaul forest.  This small tree is endemic to the Gobi and looks like Mormon tea bushes.  The roots are one to two meters deep and can grow for hundreds of years.  The wood is hard and burns like coal.

Saxaul forest

Saxaul forest

       Another eco system is the red clay and sandstone formations of the Flaming Cliffs.  The area looks like the formations in Southern Utah and Bryce Canyon. In the 1920's American paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews found a nest of dinosaur eggs and other fossils here.  We wandered a little and looked for fossils.  Fragments of bone are all over and not very hard to find.  There were as many as 60 species of dinosaurs in the Gobi 60 to 70 million years ago.  The Gobi was a sea until the Himalayas rose up. The sea drained away and it became a desert. 
       We next drove a short distance to the top of the Flaming Cliffs and took a short (too short) walk out across some of the formations.  The area is beautiful and so different from yesterday's scenery.

Group looking for Dinosaur fossils

Dinosaur fossils

Interesting plant but don't know what it is

Flaming Cliffs

Flaming Cliffs

       On the way back to camp we stopped at a vegetable farm at an oasis that is tended by several families.  They have fruit trees and grow potatoes, cabbage, watermelon, onions, and pumpkins.  They water it by hand and use only a horse and plow to work the soil.

Vegetable "garden"

Nomad farmers' gers

Power from the wind

            It was hot today but the breeze made it bearable.  We had showers and leisure time before dinner.  Our chef made us a frosted layer cake to celebrate the Birth of our Nation and our meal was American pizza!  At 9:30 we had a bonfire in lieu of fireworks. The staff sang to us and we sang to them. Happy July Fourth!

Fri., 7/5/13 - Gobi to Dalanzadgad to Ulaanbaatar
        We got up with the sun at 5 AM, had breakfast at 5:30, loaded up the vans, and headed across the dirt paths to the DZ airport.  We got in sight of the city and vans were stopped near the eco camp where we had lunch on the first day in the Gobi.  We found out that our flight was delayed and the airport closed until 4 PM!  We went to the camp to waste some time. They fed us coffee, tea, and cookies and we watched a DVD on Mongolian tourism.
        Eventually, we went on into DZ and visited the South Gobi history museum and the new camel museum to "kill time." 

Sunrise over the steppe

Museum of the South Gobi

Camel Museum

       We went back to the Crown Restaurant for "lunch on our own."  At least it was a place to sit for two hours.  After lunch Lucky arranged a special performance by a children's morin khuur (the horse head fiddle) and dance group.  About 20 girls and boys were dressed in white traditional clothes and began to play for us in their auditorium when all the electricity went out.  This is a normal occurrence here in DZ and in our camps. The children finished that piece in the pitch black without even blinking and then we all moved to the dance studio upstairs that had light from a wall of windows.  The ensemble was formed three years ago and they play the traditional two-string fiddle, holding it between their knees like a small cello.  The "male" string is played with the fingers pushing down on the throat but the "female" string is played by pushing the string sideways with the pinkie finger under the male string to reach the far string.  The music was interspersed by a twelve-member (six boys and six girls) youth dance group that was formed ten months ago and has already won several competitions.  Lucky has done an outstanding job finding us things to do when so many of our plane flights have been delayed.

Children's Morin Khuur (Horse Head Fiddle) and Dance group

Children's Morin Khuur (Horse Head Fiddle) and Dance group

The dancers

The dancers

Playing the Morin Khuur

Playing the Morin Khuur

The "male" string is played with the fingers pushing down on the throat but the "female" string is played by pushing the string sideways with the pinkie finger under the male string to reach the far string.