Golden Gobi Tour #2

It was the first day without so many kms to drive and we were driving parallel to high mountains to reach the largest and most spectacular sand dunes of Khongoryn Els (300m high, 12km wide, 100km long). They were even more spectacular as in some parts there was snow, so contradictive landscape as we all have desert sand dunes in our mind in really warm countries. We drove over the mountains reaching 2.000m on an almost non-existent passage next to herds of sheeps, cows and horses. We enjoyed an amazing view over the desert that was underneath us.

Just before sunset, we had a short walk around the ger camp, meeting camels and enjoying the beautiful land and sky colours. Dinner more or less was the same as the previous ones, saltless soup and a lot of white loaf for getting some calories of energy. Having nothing to do before go to bed, we decided to play some poker just to see how two British, one Swiss and two Greeks can gamble and bluff better. Funny, but you could easily see the difference among us-the Swiss banker was a conservative player, the Greeks up and down and only ones bluffing, but still gambling and the other two just dependants mainly on their luck. After consuming a bottle of Ghenggis vodka (best Mongolian) and a lot of smoke from the stove we enjoyed the cossyness of the warm -at last wood burning stove- colourful ger and went to sleep relatively late for our new schedule, midnight.
Next morning after having the usual breakfast at 9:00 (butter, marmalade, bread, tea or coffee) and some advises from Gedoff about riding camels, we headed towards the sand dunes just 5km away, but when you are riding a camel everything looks so slow and dull!
Nevertheless, it is an experience to travel with such a big and friendly animal that is called the “ship” of the desert. The Mongolian camels have always two humps and if they are in good condition these humps are always firm and tall. Despite that they smell pretty badly and spit all the time they provide a decent way of transportation in the desert being able to carry 250kgs and stay without water a whole week and without food a whole month. We left our hairy animals at the beginning of the dunes, started climbing over the dunes which is really tough and exhausting thing as declination is high at some points and sand sucks your feet. From the top the view is outstanding, the sand, the sky, and the cold wind reminds you that it is a desert during wintertime. We took tonnes of pictures and getting back to the ger camp was much faster we got used to the camels and we went faster. Night-time it was a unique experience to observe the stars, maybe the most starry sky we have ever seen, as there is no light pollution at all, no humidity and no clouds in the country of blue sky (250/365 days). We wish we knew more constellations :(
[Tina where is the telescope?]