Mongolia Gobi Desert - Monday 07 May

Today we packed our bags again and left for the Gobi Desert, stopping on the way for breakfast and food shopping. It was 280kms to the desert, although took us around 6.5 hours to get there due to extremely bumpy and windy roads. There was one toilet stop on the way and...you guessed it...another drop toilet. Aaarrrgghh! The girls and I took the back seat of the mini bus, which was the worst decision ever. The seats were situated over the wheels and we felt every bump and pot hole in the road, and ended up with extremely bruised behinds by the end of the trip. We were constantly almost thrown over to the next seat, but it made for some good laughs by all. We never took the back seat again.

We reached our Ger camp, which is a cluster of Mongolian style tents. A ger is a cylindrical house made out of a wooden base structure that is covered with a thick padding made of yaks hair, then covered with a material type cover and another one. They are big enough to stand up inside and walk around, and include a pot belly stove which is stoked throughout the night by a Mongolian, 4 large day beds, a sink (without running water) and dressing table with mirror and a small table with 4 stools. They are extremely sturdy and they are home to many Mongolian nomads.

That night we ate a delicious Mongolian meal with many different delights. Later it was drinking time, and everyone pulled out their stashes of vodka and met in one of the ger's for hours of drinking games. One of the games meant all 14 of us were running around the perimeter of the ger 3 times in the pitch dark, and then we were piggy backing each other around another time. Good times!!