Down to the Gobi -- 8/3

The main highway in the Gobi...

We were up early to catch our 7 am flight to Dalanzadgad, our starting point in the Gobi. It is greener than we anticipated and VERY flat. Nothing really to take photos of but the bugs and sunset. Our camp is about 60km northwest of Dalanzadgad, and the drive across the tracks in a minibus took a couple hours. The ger has an attached bathroom, a real luxury after dealing with separated facilities. The space is a bit cramped (3.5 x 7.5 ft) and amazingly, there is no tile or even paint on the plywood walls, but maybe the shower dries so fast here that it isn't a problem.

Attached bathroom = GREAT. Hobbit door = not so much

The restaurant area is very stylish and has a tv and game room underneath, the coolest place to be during the heat of the day. It was probably in the 90s today, but felt worse because it has not been hot elsewhere here. There were no activities planned for the afternoon so after lunch, I tried reading, but soon fell asleep, making up for two days of too-early starts. About 5, we decided to take a walk and basically walked the perimeter of the camp. We headed towards a herd of goats but turned away when they noticed us and started moving away. Then a small herd of horses approached and come closer as Jim called out to them. I wished I had had the apple I had saved from breakfast this morning. Perhaps tomorrow. We did see two teeny baby lizards along with two full-sized ones and a couple nasty looking bugs-- they were well over an inch long and half an inch wide and had a nasty looking tail like a stinger.

Nasty looking Gobi bug. NO idea what it is.

There is so much nothing here, it is kind of overwhelming.We discovered a nice breeze on the shaded restaurant porch and hung out there before and after dinner, til the sun went down. So far, the top vent hole of the ger  has been covered each night, making it really dark and kind of claustrophobic, but with no rain forecast, tonight it will be open. The breeze is cooling the ger off now so maybe it will be cool enough to sleep.