20251103 Viking Gems of China and Japan Day 30 – Gobi Desert, Camels, and Flaming Cliffs

Viking Gems of China and Japan Day 30 – Dunes, Camels, and Cliffs that Flame

Something I ate yesterday didn't agree with me, so I was up frequently last night. My stomach is still not quite right, so I passed on this morning's activity.

Since I have about four hours to myself, I spent the first hour sitting in the sun on the front porch of the lodge. 

We haven't seen a cloud in three days - clear blue skies over the vast nothingness

There was no wind, and it was beautiful. I don't know what the temperature was, but I had my coat unzipped and hat and gloves off. I watched and listened to the endless activity and chattering of the hundreds of Eurasian tree sparrows who hang out in the rafters and bushes.

Two sparrows settled in on top of the bushes

I watched as the horse herder on a motorcycle shepherded a group of horses out to roam in the open expanse of the Gobi Desert.

You can see the herder on the left

A little more than two hours later, the day's wind started, signaling me to walk back to the ger for a bit.

Let's talk about Mongolia. 

Mongolia is in Asia. It looks like, but does not actually border Kazakhstan on the west. It borders Russia on the north and west, and China on the west, south, and east.

Mongolia is just under 6% larger in area than Alaska. It is roughly 1,500 miles east-to-west and 800 miles north-to-south. With approximately six people per square mile, Mongolia follows Greenland as the second least densely populated country in the world. When you consider that half of Mongolia's 3.5 million people live in or around Ulaanbaatar, in real terms, the rest of the country is nearly barren.

Here is a map showing you where we are in the Southern Gobi. 

The blue star is Ulaanbaatar, where we arrived in Mongolia - the red star is approximately where we are in the South Gobi Desert at the Three Camel Lodge

The Gobi is all public land, mainly inhabited by nomads who follow their herd as they move to better food sources through the year. Most have a more permanent winter habitat that they will move to soon.

I asked about the Three Camel Lodge and why it was in this location. The lodge leases this public land from the Government for the purpose of increasing tourism. Because it is an eco-friendly facility, it doesn't have much impact on the local ecology, so the government supports it.

This specific location was chosen because it backs up to a scenic volcanic outcropping. In addition, it is centrally located, 30 to 60 minutes from multiple local tourism spots as well as the airport in Dalanzadgad.

For the most part, there are no roads in the Gobi Desert. We have been on a few paved roads for short parts of our driveway, but most of the driving is on dirt paths or two-tracks with absolutely no markings or landmarks of any kind. It is amazing watching the drivers. They know where all the big bumps are before we get to them, and slow down. They make turns in the middle of nowhere to get us to our destination. Our guides said that the drivers all have internal GPS systems because they have been driving this desert for years. It is quite amazing to watch.

This morning's activity was a one-hour Mongolian massage (desert drive) to Moltsog Els sand dunes. Once there, the group met with a nomadic family of camel herders and were given a chance to ride camels in the Gobi Desert. The fact that it would involve two hours of driving there and back, and there would be no facilities there other than an outhouse, most likely without paper, solidified my decision to sit this one out. The intrepid Arlona took in the activity and provided the documentation.

Wide open desert - sometimes you find powerlines

The camels

The three gers that the nomads use as a home, a kitchen, and a waiting room for guests - they move them throughout the year - this is their fall location, and they will move to their winter location soon

Arlona, getting in the saddle

Starting up

Almost there

And, we're up

They went for a guided walk of perhaps a mile, up and down one of the dunes, before returning to the camp

Arlona got back to the lodge just after noon. She said the drive was closer to 45 minutes, so the whole trip was quicker than expected. She enjoyed the camel ride. The camel was much more comfortable to ride as the two humps form a natural saddle area versus the wider backs of the dromedaries. This was her first camel ride, as all the other rides we've taken have been on dromedaries. Dromedaries have one hump, and Bactrian camels have two humps. The way to remember is the shapes of the letters D and B. If you lay the letters on their backs, the D, for dromedary, has one hump, and the B, for Bactrian camel, has two humps.

After lunch, we packed our bags so they could pick them up at 3:00 for transport back to Ulaanbaatar. Luckily, my stomach was feeling better, so I was able to participate in this afternoon's activities.

A ton of these little Mongolian gerbils were running all around the property

We walked to the main lodge, where we watched a documentary film about the Flaming Cliffs and the first discovery of dinosaur eggs, before leaving for the 30-minute ride to explore the Flaming Cliffs. From Google AI:

The Flaming Cliffs are a series of red sandstone formations in Mongolia's Gobi Desert, famous for their fiery appearance at sunset and their historical significance as a rich source of dinosaur fossils. Discovered by paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews in the 1920s, the site yielded the first-ever dinosaur eggs and a trove of other fossils, cementing its status as a world-renowned paleontological site. 

Arriving at the Flaming Cliffs

This was a model of a dinosaur and eggs that were found here

The camels in the distance are statues commemorating the Tea Road trading path that came through this area

All the formations were quite visually different

There were several of these scrub plants surviving on nearly no water

That's Arlona off in the distance

Unusual etchings - not sure what they were

Moonrise over the Gobi

Our caravan - we loaded up after walking around the cliffs and drove down to the bottom for a different view

A closer look at the Tea Road statues

The cliffs were starting to look flaming

We thought this looked like a lion swallowing the moon

Our caravan drivers

This is a recently discovered fossilized dinosaur skeleton

This is where it was found - it is still being excavated

This is what they think it looked like

A nice red rim as the sun was setting behind us

We drove back to the top to catch our last Gobi Desert sunset

With the sun gone, we made the half-hour drive back to the lodge. Nora, the lead guide, sponsored a cocktail hour before dinner. Then we enjoyed another nice dinner in the dining ger.

After dinner, they surprised us by bringing in students, mostly high school students, plus two ten-year-old girls, to perform traditional Mongolian music and dance for us.

Here is a video of the performance. Warning, it's about 16 minutes long. If you want to hear the traditional Mongolian throat singing, skip to around the six-minute mark. If you watch the two girls doing the cup dance, be sure to watch to the end when they show what was in the cup.

After the performance, we returned to our ger for the evening. We will be up early tomorrow. We will leave the lodge at 9:00 for the one-hour ride to the airport. Then, we'll have the return two-hour flight in the small aircraft to get back to Ulaanbaatar. We have a temple tour and a farewell dinner tomorrow night to wrap up the Mongolia extension. Then comes the really long travel day from Ulaanbaatar to Seoul to Atlanta to Orlando to home.