We had an amazing weekend in the South Gobi. Rick and I flew to Dalanzadgad and then took a 5K drive to our ger camp.

As we explored, we discovered these critters - they were very fast, but also curious, so posed quite well!



After a fabulous lunch (all the meals were excellent), we drove to a national park where the Yul Valley and the Glacier were.

This is an ovoo. The story is that when the Mongols went off to fight the Russians, each soldier added a stone to a pile. When they returned, victorious, each soldier took away a stone. The pile left was testament to those who lost their lives - they then prayed.....now, one adds to the pile and then circles the ovoo, clockwise, three times. There is a new twist, if you are driving past, instead of getting out and walking, you can honk three times.

We're walking on ice! This will melt soon, but farther in, there is an ice floe that does not melt even in the summer heat of 100 degrees! The mountains create a natural freezer....this spot was so beautiful, and it is in the desert

The next day, we went to the Dunes and played a while! Then, off to the Flaming Cliffs where Roy Andrew Chapman discovered many dinosaur skeletons. We looked hard for bones, there are still many uncovered by wind and rain, but we didn't find any.

Then we lunched with a herder family. They are nomads, and will soon dismantle their beautiful ger and move with their camels to higher ground. This family has won many medals for having the fastest camels around! They have three mamas and babies near the ger, but the herd of about 50 are 2K away...we went and found our guys!

Our guide, Tuugsuu, is second from left, and the others are the owners of the ger camp. The gentleman is the chef - he's good! They were so kind and friendly....loved the whole weekend, even the huge sandstorm one night and the seven hour delay getting home!