July 16 (Wednesday) – A Nomad Family, Sand Dunes and Camel Rides

Our excursion today was another hour+ drive into the desert where our first stop was at a nomad family’s camp.  They had four gers set up (and a pit toilet that we all used). 

We were greeted by the husband and invited to enter the first ger.  It was really a lovely ger with beautiful “rafters”, fine furniture and interesting accessories.  

His wife joined us and they gave us a traditional welcome.  

We were offered dried curd (not bad but not a favorite),

camel milk candy (which we all liked),

tea and fermented mare’s milk.  The mare’s milk is a national drink.  We all tried it and decided that it tasted very much like unsweetened yogurt. 

The wife gave us a box of the camel’s milk candy and we gave the wife some hand lotion and lip Vaseline.  They had two kids so we gave them some color markers and little tablets of paper. 

The family has a number of camels and they offer camel rides. 

We have had a number of camel rides over the years but not Jessica and Liam.  So they decided to take a camel ride out to the nearby small sand dunes.

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    Video on the camels
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Paul and Mary rode out to the edge of the dunes in the car and walked around the dunes a bit. 

Then it was back out for some more driving.  Saw a lot of sheep and goats.

We had lunch at another resort camp.  They had a very large dining room and it seems that they offer meals for the many groups that are out exploring the desert.  As with the resorts in the Gobi, and at the national parks, there are no menus - everyone gets the same meal.  They did serve Paul a vegetarian meal.  In general this was the same meal with vegetables instead of meat, although at a couple of places it was a different meal.

Then it was off to the Flaming Cliffs.  This is the location of some of the first dinosaur bones found in Mongolia in the 1920’s.  We did a quick visit to the headquarters where there were some displays about the flora and fauna in the area,

and a very large sleeping dog.

Then to the cliffs, which are very red.

The souvenir shops their offered lots of camel souvenirs.

There was also a nearby snack shop.  We all got a soft-serve ice cream cone.  It was hot out and we all needed to cool off.

Nearby was a monument to camels…a long string of statues of camels.

Last stop of the day was the Khavtsgaits Petroglyphs.  Sounded like a good idea.  Unfortunately, to get there required a very long and relatively steep climb…more suited for mountain goats.  Paul and Mary opted out; Jessica and Liam headed off with Rainbow.  They made it to the top of the long climb and found a few petroglyphs but apparently not the really famous ones, which were further on, down the other side of the hill.  Oh well.  The views from up at the top were fine.

On the way back to the camp we had some lovely clouds over the desert.