Monday, 25 July.  Yet another very early flight to the Gobi.  (Note: “Gobi” means desert.  Gobi Desert is hence a redundancy.)  The airport was again very small.  Oddest of all was that the road to the airport was unpaved.  We first entered the small town, which seemed deserted.  There was a large (empty) plaza with a fountain and an imposing sculpture in the center.

The drive to our lodging defies description.  A 100KM field with various ruts.  Each driver of three vans choose their preferred track and headed west.  There were one or two defiles that required some maneuvering down and up, but mostly the path was just a monstrous field.  Towards the end of the trip we happened upon a flock of camels.  There was also one very dead camel which was mostly an upright hollow shell.  Interesting, but disgusting.

The gers were nearly in the middle of nowhere.  The center large ger for meals etc., was raised with a surrounding balcony.  A wonderful viewing area.  The ger doors were a little lower than our past quarters, which caused me to leave a little skin behind in the Gobi.

Nearby was a watering well shed and troth.  Each day horses, cows, and sheep meandered to the water.  Only the sheep had handlers, exclusively made up of children.  Our guide said that during summer vacation the parents tasked the children to do the shepherding.  It was amazing that animals came from separate directions on a seemingly set schedule.  Only the sheep needed to be shoved away.  The other animals simply drank there fill, then moved off.

Sunsets were incredible.  On the whole it was peaceful and interesting day in the middle of nowhere.