Day 4 – Stay at Dinosaur
Bones, ride camels, take shower
This was Susan's favorite
place of the whole Mongolia trip. It was very, very beautiful. This
was the area I described earlier – with red mud cliffs ringing a
sandy tableland. Again, the feel was qualitatively much like I
imagine the Southwest to be.
The night we arrived we
watched the camel shaving. And on our full-day (no driving) we did
some exploration by foot, meeting the boy with the shovel, and went
for a camel ride (see PART 1).
We also got our first
shower in three days, paying 2000 Turkigs (about $2) at a tourist
camp a short walk away from our gers. They had cold beer, and though
it was crap it was oh so nice. Poor Bud had to pump extra insulin,
but for once I agreed that it was worth it. We decided to also get a
tasty lunch of cooked meat, rice, and “tomato” sauce (ketchup, of
course) (poor Bud went through yet another needle – he takes it in
stride but to me the guy is a living lesson in why NOT to get
diabetes) but there were some carrots in there, and a little potato
so we were all pretty stoked. The women folk were a little less
stoked when they saw the stock of goat meat aging outside – and
feeding the flies.
That night it rained, not
much, but enough to be encouraging to the locals that spring had
arrived. We didn't stick around long enough to know if this rain
brought out the grasses, but as we drive on in the following days the
landscape turned more green. Whether this was our change in location
or the result of a few critical days in early spring I can't say.
Day 5 – Drive to Sand
Dunes, climb dunes
From “Dinosaur bones”
we trucked off for the “Big Sand Dune”. One giant dune 160 km
long. When I heard this I pictured us driving across a giant stretch
of sand-desert so subtlely graded as to appear flat. But in fact we
drove across more steppe, dirty and dusty, but not pure sand, until
over a ridge we suddenly had view of the “Big Sand Dune”. Also,
it isn't one sweeping curve, arching to a peak, but a long stretch of
dunes pushed up against rocky mountains at the edge of the steppe.
By early afternoon we were
at our ger, and so could start the hike out to the dune. It seemed
to be right there, so Susan and I set off right away.
But after 45
minutes weseemed no closer. We had trekked through broken hard dirt
and rolling soft soil where clumps of scrub tried desperately to hold
onto some earth. Then the ground basically dropped out from us and a
small stream wound through the bottom of a muddy cravasse. There was
no easy way across this, and after managing a ford without losing our
shoes to the slurping mud we still seemed no closer to the dunes. It
was the hottest time of day, and expecting a 30 minute walk we had
brought no water.
Prudence being the better
part of valour we turned back, and aside from a nasty assault by some
biting flies who took to the scent of disturbed river mud on our
shoes, we made it back to the ger.
Our second attempt was
better provisioned and more wisely scheduled for when the sun was
lower. As luck would have it, this was also much better for the
light and shadow, making the dunescape more dramatic.
We climbed to the top of
the steep sand, and sat for a while as we watched our footprints
vanish in the wind. Eventually we spotted Rink following our trail,
and when he caught up we got a few really scenic Gobi portraits.
Day 6 – Drive to Crappy
town
The first half of our trip
was the Gobi – steppe, canyons, dunes and all. But the second half
was alpine Mongolia. Between these two is a whole lotta nothing.
Day 6 was a long ten hours
inside a Russian four-by-four with six other people who hadn't
showered in two days, and were all on a new diet.
At the end of it was
Ghhhttnnks or some such. Also known as “crappy town in the middle
of nowhere”. But important as it has (1) showers, (2) electricity
for recharging cameras and (3) petrol.
Now I'm kind of glad I got
to see this place. We were in the “downtown” for provisioning in
the nearly-empty super markets and for showering in the really
sketchy communist showers. was happy to have a shower, and really,
it was fine, but again this place, another holdover from the Soviet
era, is like a living Public Service Announcement about the dangers
of the “Reds”. The other thing that really surprised me was that
even in this “city” with something like 10-15,000 residents there
was no public sanitation. After our showers, when we got to our gers
(locked inside a fence amidst anonymous thousands of other
no-longer-nomads) we still had only an outhouse and the water we
carried. It will take a long, long time to modernize this country.
I wish them well, don't
get me wrong. While China felt like a backwards place trying to
build a veneer of modernity, Mongolia is clearly a developing country
actually trying to prioritize sensibly (whitening cream
notwithstanding). The people are so nice and welcoming, you really
hope for the best for them; but with a confidence that they can do
it. I'm not the only one - Mongolia's recent peaceful transition
from one-party rule to a true democracy (including some shifts in
power back and forth) and aggressive anti-corruption activity has
yielded significant foreign aide. But they do have a lot to do.
