Hanging in the Gobi Desert

Despite the car picking me up for the airport at 4:15 am to head out - Lkhamaa (Mongolian colleague) and I spent a great day in the Gobi.  We were taking an international interest group on a photo tour.  I have to say, not a bad way to spend a day.

So, after lunch we set off to see what there was to see.  We stopped to take some pictures of camels, peacocks - and just see the sites.

But then, our lovely driver Pagi thought it would be great to show us this natural spring. So we headed off road.  And...  well you can see.  (I'm actually really starting to worry if I'm a jinx - because being stranded is starting to be the norm.)  It was a bit over 90 degrees - so hot but not dire and we had water so we figured we were ok.  Oh - that and you could see the main road from where we got stuck and we were about an hour's walk to the town. 

Still, getting stranded in the desert is no laughing matter.  Except maybe for the bit where Lkhamaa and I actually thought we might be

able to push the car out of the sand. That was hilarious.

Instead of sitting in the heat, we decided instead to grab oodles of water and just hike to the spring. 

Only flaw in the plan was my sunscreen and hat were in my backpack at the camp.  Let's say this...  I did a great impression of a lobster - ouch.

So after a bit of a walk and many lizzard and bug pictures along the way - we finally made it to the rocks.  Oh did I mention that Pagi stayed with the car and Lkhamaa and I were leading these poor innocent people on this trek?  Neither of us had really any idea where we were going - but really - what could go wrong?

I could credit my sense of direction, but I would say it was more than a bit of blind luck, but we found the spring.  And it might have even seemed like we knew what we were doing.  We spent about a 1/2 hour here and then headed back.  By the time we got back the car was back on the road and ready to take us on to the next stop. 
This is the river bed near Khanbogd (pronounced hanbod).  See, the original plan was to hike this river bed - so we set out again.  While we were still without suncreen - I managed to steal a hat out of the car so while I remained the color of a Coke can it didn't get any worse. 

Definitely a memorable and fabulous day!