Mongolia Gobi Desert - Tuesday 08 May

Breakfast at 9am, bags packed and we were off on the bus for a 100km drive to stay in a different Ger camp for the night. On the way we stopped at a 2m high rock mound which was actually a shrine, and tradition meant if you threw a rock on and walked around the mound once, you would have good luck. There were also gifts left on the shrine for Buddha which included traditional scarves, empty bottles of vodka and a steering wheel??

We then went in search for the Phallic Rock which was a small rock in the exact form of a penis. You can imagine the photos we took! The rock was barred off to the Monks many decades ago as they would go to the rock which would make them amorous and then hit on the local girls. Behind the rock was a huge mountain called the vaginal slope. We actually thought that many of the mountains in the desert looked like vaginal slopes. There were many Mongolians selling their wares, and we all picked up some beautiful jewellery and old things such as spear heads, bowls etc which are apparently from the bronze age. I bought a pendant type peice in the shape of a bull, which is (apparently) from the bronze age and was used as a passport to cross the border.

Next stop was a Buddhist monk monastery which we did a tour of but unfortunately missed the praying and chanting time. It was quite interesting but by this time many of us were so hungry that we lost interest. Finally we left and found our next Ger camp and ate some much needed lunch. The food was aweful but we were so hungry, no-one was complaining. Later in the day we helped build a ger with the Mongolian men who found our help rather amusing. It was hard to tell whether we were a help or a hinderance, but they let us keep helping so we couldn't have been doing that bad a job. We also saw our first Yak!