The Gobi

When we were arriving in Dunhuang by bus, you can see off to the left these massive sand dunes. They must've been 400 - 500 m high.

Wicked! What can we do to get out there?

Once in Dunhuang, there are many cafe's which cater to tourists and we saw a posting for camel rides! Cool, who thought we'd be able to do that here?

After doing the Mogao Caves, we signed up for an overnight trip into the Gobi on camelback! We were taken out to a nearby village where Mr. Li (our guide) lived. We sat in his living room while he got the camels ready and once all saddled, we went out back to get going. I must say, they are BIG animals! Bigger than horses for sure.

I need to get on this thing somehow and since it had stirrups, I figured it's like getting on a horse. One foot in. Grab the saddle and up and over with the other leg. Nope. Mr. Li motions to just straddle the bugger! Hmmm...ok. Well the only advice I have after straddling a camel is to fricking hold on! Once on, the camel started to get up and I tell ya, I almost flipped off the back of this thing cause I wasn't ready. What a site that would have been.
So we're on and heading out. First through the town with locals asking our guide where we are from and other things we couldn't understand...next through a cemetary...then on into the desert. You know we are in the desert when the guide takes his shoes off! Cool....heading into the dunes for the first time was amazing. So much sand...hot and dry, I was happy to be riding instead of walking.

Up, down, over and around dunes for about 2 hours and we reach our campsite. Smack dab in the middle of nothing but sand! Sweet....

We had about 2 hours before dinner so we headed out (and up) onto the big dune behind our site. Things started out really hard. Walking on soft sand at the crest is crazy hard. I think we made it up a third of the way before we figured there's no
way we'll make it up and back in time. So a couple pictures there then Jenni tried to use this sled to go down the side...well I think you need to have a really, really, really steep slope to go anywhere. Jenni hopped on and went 2 ft!

We ended up just walking/sliding down. Every step you take you go a couple feet so if you keep walking, it's almost like sliding down the dune! We ended up at a smaller dune to wait for the sunset. I tried being artsy with some footprint shots! Here's my free plug for Ecco Receptor shoes. "Built for the Gobi" is my tag line!
Just remember Ecco that these pics are copyright! ;)

The sunset was unfortunately obscurred by some clouds but it didn't change the magnificence of being alone in the desert. So quite, no cars, honking, spitting...just a pesky fly and silence! Beautiful.

Dinner was instant noodles (don't know what we would do without these things!) and followed by stargazing. Not quite as spectacular as what we've seen in Algonquin, but nice nontheless.

Morning came to quick. We were up early to see the sunrise (again obscurred by some clouds) then some tea and bread and we were off, back to civilization!

What an experience!

Things we learned?
Camels spread their legs when they pee.
There is absolutely no humidity, none, I tried fogging up my lens to wipe it and nothing, very cool.
Your butt will be very sore after the trip!
Always, always, HANG ON!



Intrepid Silk Road Travellers Jenni and Ian :)