Gobi Desert, Day 2.

First, I'd like to say that giving the play-by-play for our days last week in the desert is much more enjoyable from the comfort of a couch in our mini apartment in Korea, but reading my notebook through the smudges, sweat, and dust helps me get back in the mood. 

We woke up on our second day to blazing sun at 4:30 am. After a herder-style breakfast [milk tea and fried biscuity things], we waited for our guide to show up. I took temperature readings of the ger, we made paintings, played with the kids [ankle bones!], and packed up our stuff. After our host returned home from his morning herding duties, we set off [on foot] for the next ger. Upon arrival, more mutton and noodles, and an introduction to our next means of conveyance: camels [or, timee, in my newly acquired Mongolian]. 

Camels, it should be noted, are incredibly ornery beasts - they snuffle and fuss, they honk and snort, they chew their cud and look at you through long eyelashes. And, they fart. A lot. We rode on a cart behind this musical creature for about two hours, while our hosts were more interested in our art supplies, my tinwhistle, and drinking water out of my canteen than in keeping the camel on track. The camel seemed to know what was expected of him though, and kept barely within the bounds of those expectations. I'm sure we made a funny sight, bumping along through the desert, were there anyone to see us.

Our overnight ger was very nice, and we soon made friends with the youngest member of the family. He reminded me for all the world of my little cousin Ben, with a ready smile, periods of intense concentration, mischievous looks, and a great sense of fun. We wrote our names in the sand at the water hole, we did some Mongolian wrestling, we taught him how to throw a baseball [aka a rock], he taught us tricks with string, he drew me several pictures in my sketchbook, and we taught him how to twirl a flashlight while we took long exposure photographs. It was completely delightful - I felt like I had space to breath, room to think, and ears to hear: it was so quiet, I swear I could hear the moon moving across the sky.

Jon helps collect dung for the fire.

The camels! The unlucky one waits near the cart for our departure.

Ready to go!

One of our drivers tries his hand at my tinwhistle. The camel remained unimpressed.

Our young host, Dashnyam, is unimpressed by our desire to nap.

Writing in the sand.

Race back to the ger! This family was unusual, in that they also had a wood frame house. They cooked in there, but ate, slept, and hung out in the ger [peeking out above the rock outcropping to the right].

This one's for Aunt Lynn - the view from the "toilet." The stick in front is to help you balance while you, ahem, squat.

He's already got a mean fastball...

This is moonlight in the Gobi.

We taught Dashnyam about long exposures. See his boots and legs to the right of the image...