Goats and camels!

Trip Start Jul 17, 2008

Trip End Aug 16, 2008

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Flag of Mongolia Gobi desert, Mongolia
Friday, July 25, 2008

We woke up later than usual (apparently the Gobi schedule is a little more relaxed than in UB!) enjoyed breakfast and headed off for the day. On the way we stop at a well. There's a huge group of camels and goats in the area and we spend some time mingling with them. The goats were being herded by two young boys who were very willing to have their pictures taken. They even helped dress up one of their young goats in a belt making the goat look punkish.

We arrived at our new Yurt camp and unpacked. After lunch we headed out for a 3 km hike to the Flaming Cliffs. These were essentially red sand dunes where lots of dinosaur bones were found. We didn't find any bones but we did find a fossil in the sandstone. No word if it was a dinosaur!

With a sandstorm threatening we skip heading to an oasis nearby and head back to the camp. The staff were 'battening down the hatches' so to speak. We all scurried into our yruts in preparation for the storm. It never materialized. There was only a little blowing sand. Almost no rain. The sun even stayed out the whole time! All in all it was a pretty disappointing sandstorm.

After the storm had cleared, we headed over to the oasis. Not much to see there as there were no animals around. We found a few bones lying around and headed back to the camp.

Once again our evening was open and we filled it by amuzing ourselves. We had a laughter-filled game of sherades. And then we took the party outside with a makeshift campfire. Since no flames were permitted, we made a fire out of beer bottles. Luckily we had asked the guide to call ahead and ensure there was sufficient beer on site so we didn't run out this evening.