Day Four 01.08.2012 Gobi Gurvan Sailhan to Dungene Am

First thing this morning is to drive to a nearby town for fuel and bread – fuel available but no bread and then the very necessary water.  Our water is sourced from underground and dispensed at local water ‘stations’ – everyone in the village comes with their trolleys, trucks, horse-drawn carts carrying anything from a milk can to a variety of plastic containers of all sizes.  You may pump your own water or it is dispensed via a hose and supervised by an attendant.  Payment is made to a person sitting at a very small window in the ‘building.’  Water is of a consistently high quality and nothing needs to be added to make it potable.

The road again provides the morning’s excitement.  We find two families in their family cars, one Subaru and one Toyota, in the middle of the ‘road.’  Albeit 4WD’s, they are not having a great deal of success in passing through this section.  One is, in fact, ‘stuck!’  Everyone is out of both cars with shoes and socks off trying to work out how to solve this situation.  Turuu solves the ‘stuck’ one by simply backing up and pulling it through, while Sandag hooks up with the ‘waiting’ vehicle and pulls it safely through also.  We give the kids some ‘treats’ – notebooks & pencils, stuffed toys, hair bands – and have a lovely ‘chat!’  They travel between our trucks in convoy until we stop for lunch, again with a magnificent vista. 

Destination today is Dungene Am in the Three Beauties National Park.  Those of you who ‘travelled’ with us in 2009 may remember the story of the King with 3 beautiful daughters who all fell in love with poor herders.  The King banished them from the kingdom and this is where they remained.  We can see storm activity all around, and as we enter the Park, heavy rain is falling, but by the time we reach the uvoo at the top of a VERY steep climb, the sun is shining again.  We stop to absorb the view and notice hail that has fallen on some of the surrounding peaks. 

The ‘road’ has become a small stream as we drive through the gorge to our camp site – we are ‘camping high’ tonight, rather than along the actual stream bed, just in case there is more overnight rain, with the obvious possibility of flooded tents!  We disturb the local residents, small rodent-like animals called picas, who scurry around letting us know that we are not all that welcome...but they are very cute!!  Rain is still threatening so the boys roll out the awning attached to Sandag’s truck just as the first drops fall.  There is a small problem with one of the guy rope tapes needing stitching, so John’s repair kit strikes again and the problem is soon mended.

Everyone takes the opportunity to have their first ‘bath’ and do the laundry.  Folk disappear in all directions bearing bowls, towels and other paraphernalia to find a ‘private’ spot to perform the tasks at hand…not easy, but tyranny of distance is wonderful!!

Tonight’s moon-rise is sensational (possibly “full”) and we go to bed in bright moonlight…it’s still ‘daylight’ at 2.30am (not telling what we were doing up at that time!) and surprisingly mild.

Skink



Breakfast and milking time

Overview of campsite

"They're stuck"!!