Day 2 and 3 in the Gobi

So we woke up to a few drizzles and a bit of wind. Of course the lucky canadians are in the rain again. We have breakfast that Sasso our guide cooks for us. We pack up and wait patiently for our driver Dashgka to drive over to load our gear. Hmm his hood is up at the families ger. Not a good sign. so with some help from the family we carry all our gear to his jeep. Apparently when he went to start it the wiring under the dash melted and the starter chip thing was melted big time. He had the whole dash apart with wires all over. He looks at us. Sorry but no problem. Looked like a huge problem to us. But I was well prepared that in Mongolia vehicles break down all the time and drivers are also mechanics. But what will he do with no Cadian Tire? Just cut out the bad parts of wire. Steal some from the stereo and clocks. Bypass the starter and tape it all together with packing tape and stuff it all in. Don't forget to save a piece of wire so you can hot wire it to start it. Done. whew. so only 2 hours late leaving. Not bad. the weather was getting darker and windier. We drive in to a neighboring town to pick up some air in the tire and look for a lucky part. No luck. It is so windy now you can hardly stand up. They decide against the usual picnic lunch and take us to a local greasy spoon restaurant. Yummmmmmyyyyyy. Now it is major thunder and lightning outside. And we just get in the car that we push start and get going. Into the gobi desert with no one around the storm looks like it could produce a tornado. I ask our guide if they get tornados here. But was having a hard time explaining what they were. She just said no tornados. Sure..... So as we are driving on this flat like Saskatchewan field with no roads and we are the highest thing for miles around. lightning all around wind , driving rain, flash flooding. I am the only one worried. Ann is sleepping on and off and the guide and driver and chit chatting lightly. OK Rena go with the flow. the ground is quickly saturated and very deep with mud. They say that the ground does not absorb the water quickly so if we take to long the mud will get worse. Dashgka is an amazing driver. We are all over the place and he is the expert. We head deeper in to the desert. It is so dark out you would think it was nighttime. The wind is blowing the rain sideways. Don't even think about pee breaks. We drive in those conditions with outa break for around 3 hours and then the desert is white. It took a minute to figure out it was hail. A thick blanket of hail. they said we would experience 4 seasons in one day, they were right. After the longest drive ever we reach a ger camp for water jug filling. Ann and I am staying here. they look at us. You don't want to camp? Are you kidding me? 80k winds there is a crazy storm we just drove through and it could be coming? I said that as far as we were concerned that we had a choice to pay extra and sleep in a dry secure ger with flush toilets or sleep in an open field in a tornado waiting to happen. hmmm. It cost us 130000 togrogs which is $10 for all of us to stay. And we cooked in comfort and played games in comfort.

In the morning it was all over. nice and sunny and hot. So on we went. We drove to this amazing place called the white stupas. It is a cliff with beautiful views of the valley below. Driving there is like being on a roller coaster. Then we went to Yoli Am. It is a national park that is 2.7 million hectares. We hike into this gorge that is full of ice almost year round. So beautiful. The ice almost seems like a glacier but it can't be in the middle of a desert. There is a small herd of wild horses that we can get close too. they are used to humans but aren't owned. The setting couldn't be better for them. Lots of fresh water, lots of grass, shade, and no polution.

We hike out of Yoli Am and Dashgka takes us on another of his driving adventures. WE drive down this canyon and follow this small river. The canyon gets narrower and narrower. then he says I think I can fit through that slot. Yeah right. WEll he does. Maybe a couple of inches on each side of the jeep. He laughs at us non believers. Did I mention that he is a good driver.

We set up camp for the night along this river on a knoll. BEautiful spot if we had more time it would have been cool to ride horses through here. Just had to catch one first.
we have a late supper and go to bed.