A local dog woke us around 5AM. Surprisingly we had a decent night’s sleep in the Lexus.

By 6:45AM we were back at the river that kept us from crossing last night. The two cars that were stuck in the river were gone and we later learned that the Russian vehicle did show up after we left last night and pulled them to safety.We had hoped that the water would be gone by now, but it was still flowing at a fair rate. Our drivers again took off their shoes and spent about an hour walking through the water and mud, trying to find an area that did not have deep holes that could prevent our crossing. Their focus was upstream of the normal roadway but the issue there was that the exit bank was elevated several feet after the level of the stream. There was no level exit lane in the immediate area. Oh, I should mention that our vehicle that we had to abandon yesterday somehow managed to extract himself sometime during the night and had joined us here at the river’s edge this morning

Finally at 7:50 AM our #3 driver (the car Scott and I were in) felt he could successfully make the crossing and off we went first. I had a moment of panic as we approached the high bank on the other side of the river as we seemed to slow down and wobble a bit, but our trusty Lexus simply rose to the challenge and we bounced our way onto firm ground. After our vehicle made it across the river, our other two vehicles also successfully made the crossing and we were together again, safely on the other side of the river. Below is the video taken by some girls from Indonesia who were watching us from the other side of the river. They were kind enough to share it with us.

 

We were supposed to have visited the Flaming Cliffs last night but our river experience obviously changed those plans. Maggie did a great job changing our trip plans on the fly. We immediately went to the ger camp we were supposed to have stayed last night and luckily managed to find we could spend tonight there instead. We arrived at the Mongol Gobi ger camp at 8:30 where we were able to get breakfast, with the rest of the morning available for us to shower and rest. You could tell we were in a pretty isolated area as electricity and hot water availability was limited here. Internet was unavailable and the beer and water was only mildly cold. We are roughing it here!

 

The original tour plan was to continue further south the see Khongoryn Els, the tallest (300 meters) sand dune in the Gobi Desert. The problem was the roads leading there were likely to be worse than the ones we just traveled on. Maggie wanted to wait until she heard from drivers coming back from that area what the road conditions were like before we committed going there. She even called all the local ger camps to see if any tour groups had arrived from that area. So far, none had. She said a decision would be made by our 1:30 lunch. By that time there was no information about road conditions in that direction so we moved on the plan B or was it Plan C or D by now. No one was upset as most had seen big dunes in the past and we did not want to repeat yesterday’s experiences! We would go to see the flaming cliffs at 3PM and then visit a local nomadic family who had camels where we would get to ride on the Bactrian camels that are common in this area.

We first visited the Flaming Cliffs which were made famous in the 1920s when an American paleontologist, Roy Chapman Andrew’s expedition,  accidentally discovered a nest of dinosaur eggs, proving that the species laid eggs. The expedition also discovered for the first time the bones of the now famous (because of Jurassic Park movies) velociraptor dinosaur. The area got its name because of its brilliant color at sunset. It is a pretty spectacular area that reminded me a bit of what our Badlands look like.  We plan to return to the site after dinner to see that sunset spectacle and have a “sundowner” cocktail party in an area below the cliffs where Maggie was given special permission to take our vehicles.

 

We drove to visit a nearby nomad family for our ride on the two humped Bactrian camel. We got to see the family milk a camel and learned more about these unique animals before climbing on board for a short ride near some local dunes. Camels are pretty valuable- worth $400-500 each. The fur is used to make woven mats that are used as insulation on the gers. Camels are milked like the horses and the meat is often eaten. Other fun facts:  only 6% of the world’s camels are Bactrian and they are mostly in Mongolia. The humps do not hold water; they hold fat. A camel with a “floppy hump” is undernourished. They live 40-50 years and can run up to 40mph for short bursts and maintain a sustained rate of 25mph. They are larger and heavier than their dromedary cousins.

This particular nomad family owned 100 camels and had a herd of 600 sheep and goats located about 20 miles away. Oh, by the way we learned a bit about nomadic medicine- a mother’s urine is often drunk as a cure for fevers, headaches and sore throats.

One thing that caught me by surprise was that the Gobi Desert is not all sand like the Sahara Desert. Most of it strongly resembles our desert southwest, minus the cactus. There are only small areas that have sand dunes.

Back to the ger camp for dinner and then hastened back to the base of the cliffs where Maggie and team set up a small table and stools and broke out snacks, beer, vodka, wine and soft drinks as we took in the beauty of a magnificent sunset! It was stunning and again, my pictures do not do it justice.

No one complained about our tour changes. It was a marvelous, memorable day in the Gobi Desert!