Camera Obscura

N 40 47.380 E 102 18.053 - 7 October - Khonger sand dunes

Today is the day to mourn the passing and near passing of some dear items to me. My pen, my favorite one, which wrote just beautifully, a nice helping of ink to show up brightly, halfway through my journal entry for the day it completely dried up. I had been expecting it for a while, the ink level kept sinking, but expecting the passing and dealing with the passing are two different things. And my camera, it suffers a blow and a near death, or at least a debilitating sickness. More of that later though, we have some camels to ride and sand to see.

It is a bright cheery morning. It is windy and cold but still seems nice. The outhouse in this camp is brilliant too. It is amazing how many variations there are of the missing slat over a deep hole there can be. This one has a steel shell and some well designed ventilation system (must be using the wind to good effect) and it really doesn't smell at all.

This is our camel ride day, although not for everybody. Alex is feeling a bit wonky and decides to sit it out for a day. For breakfast, we are quite excited by the addition of apple jam (all the way from Panama no less) to breakfast. We also see a big group of vultures off in the distance as we are scanning the horizon for our camels. I'm pretty sure they are black vultures, although our bird book only covers Europe so we are not completely sure of a lot of the bird identifications since a whole lot of common birds of Mongolia and Asia are not in there. We are still not sure about a lot of the eagles, maybe one of them was a golden eagle, maybe it was a steppe eagle. Not really sure. But the vultures, they were massive and amazingly impressive, devouring whatever it was dead off in the distance and then hop and slowly lumber off into the air.

We go in and out of the ger a lot this morning, looking for our camels. I seriously bang my head on one of these occasions. Stupid doorways, it is one of the few things I really won't miss about Mongolia, doorways about 4 feet tall. Even if you don't hit them 99% of the time, the few times you do just really suck. After one of these whackings, I end up with a huge cut across my forehead, my badge of shame (or of being unable to stoop so much) which stays for most of the tour before it heals. But our camels, a small herd of them are sighted on the horizon, being chased by two guys on motorcycles. Hurray, here we go. We had a taste of camel riding yesterday, but this will be a much longer day on them. I totally love the ears on mine, they just look so chunky and fuzzy and cute. The camel under them isn't quite as cute, they don't have a unwarranted reputation for stubbornness and strong mindedness. Still, they are pretty cool.

We get some basic camel riding instructions and mount up and head out. Camels respond to the same basic 'choo choo' commands that most animals in Mongolia respond to. And by respond to, I mean ignore unless also accompanied by a stick, whip, or kick. Amy's camel later throws her off, or runs too fast and she slips off, or we don't quite know. She is then put on probation and her camel is tied to the camel guy's camel and she doesn't have to steer for the rest of the trip. As it is, they all like getting their head down to get a few bites of bushes as they go past, you have to keep choo-ing them and pulling their head to keep them going. We loose them completely for a while when they spot some water and nothing can stop them from heading over and sucking up a good drink. They make an amazing vacuuming sound as they drink.

We head along the line of the dunes. I keep hoping that we will head up and over them, but we never do. I guess I later realize why we don't considering how much of a struggle that would have been, but I'm still disappointed. Still, it is a cool ride along the edge and then after some time we stop up sort of higher on the dune and get off to walk around for a little bit. The legs are a bit wobbly and crooked after that long on a camel and it takes a few steps to get the muscles back in place. My inner thigh muscles are not that strong and I can especially tell after getting off. Many of the camel people we see have a strange gait, I wonder if that is the effect of years of riding camels.

We head back and although it is a nice ride and fun, I'm kind of glad to be back. We had met somebody who really wanted to do a three day ride across the desert on camels, we didn't go with her because that would have only been three persons and kind of expensive and also we were a bit intimidated by the idea, but I wonder how that would have been. Although it was good to be back and done, there was also something nice and meditative about riding, just watching the scenery go past slowly, sitting up there. It is a nice pace to see things.

We have a late lunch and it is getting on in the day. Alex doesn't seem much better but the rest of us decide we would rather hike up the sand dunes than do the other half of the camel ride. The dunes are there, looking so high and taunting us with what might be on the other side, you can't pass that up. We set out with more time to spare before sunset (and darkness) and head towards the dunes. I would really love to see a lot of the places we saw in a different season now, probably in summer. The travel guide has a picture on the cover of the sand dunes with horses grazing in a lush green pasture, which I assume is just about where we were, except it is brown now. The hike to the dunes is across this land, dry plants with a bit of scattered sand some occasional parts of the river to jump across. There are a few parts of the river that are a bit tricky getting across, jumping from mound to mound but no wet shoes (and no kitten today to have to mind).

When we hit the sand dunes, we head straight up. It doesn't turn out to be so far, but parts of it are a bit hard to get up. A few ridges crumble and slide and we have to crawl up them. Getting to the very top is so worth the climb too, and not just for curiosity sake. There are no dunes beyond that nearly as tall as the ones we are on, but smaller dunes stretch off in the distance for 5-10 km and it looks like looking out over a rough sea from a cliff. Very cool. The wind is blowing hard at the top is blinding at times. I know I shouldn't have but I try to shield my camera and take a few pictures from the top. It seems to be ok. We sit on the top for a while just enjoying the view and trying not to slip down the other side, way down, it would take ages to get back up. The crest also keeps disappearing under where I am sitting as the wind continually reforms the shape of the dune.

We head back down again and have fun jumping and trying to sled down the steeper bits. I find that as you slow down, you can leap up a bit to propel yourself just a little bit further. A hike back to the ger, a fantastic sunset behind us, just setting into the dunes. I am completely dismayed to find that my camera is not very happy anymore. No doubt a bit of sand caught somewhere, the lens pops out fine when you turn it on but the bits of metal covering it don't slide back the entire way anymore. Pictures then have two diagonal black stripes on the edge. Crap crap, I should have known better. I'm sad too because the sunset is really nice. I guess I have meant to get a new camera anyways, probably when we get to China, but that's not for another few weeks. If I zoom in slightly, it is usable but what a pain. It does have a sort of happy ending, eventually a few days later, the grit must have worked its way out and the lens finally opens all the way again, but still I intend to get a new camera in China. My lens already has a bad smudge on it and it has had a good life.

Back at camp, we have dinner and a special surprise, some hot water in a bucket in a spare ger. We head off two by two to wash the best we can. It isn't as great as a shower but is still nice, especially after a dusty day.