"Only a fool crosses the Gobi"

Our first day in the Gobi Desert...and it's frackin HOT and DRY! Maybe I should have read this part in the Lonely Planet first - "Between the summer heat, winter cold, sandstorms, poor infrastructure and lack of water, this is one of the harshest landscapes on the planet. Mildred Cable, an Englishwoman who passed through in the 1920s noted: 'only a fool crosses the Gobi without misgivings.'" - I guess I'm a crazy fool! Interestingly, the Gobi is quite diverse with various ice-filled canyons, American Southwest-esque rock formations (think John Wayne movies) and fresh water springs...and only 3% of the Gobi has sand dunes.

We're told in the morning that it would be a long drive to Tsagaan Suvarga ("White Stupa Cliffs"), which meant hours of dusty bumpy dirt roads in a hot van.

We made a quick stop to see a Buddhist temple (Gimpil Dajaalan Khiid), one of the few that survived the communist purges. The monastery was built in the late-18th century to commemorate the first ever visit to Mongolia by a Dalai Lama (the name Dalai Lama means 'Sea of Wisdom' in Mongolian and was given by a Altan Khaan in the 16th century). The monastery reopened in 1990 and the current Dalai Lama visited in 1992. The monastery is a small scale version of Tibetan temples, including a statue of Tsongkhapa (founder of the "Yellow Hat" sect of Buddhism), a Stupa and prayer wheels.










Wahoo...my first sightings of two-hump camels! We stopped to check out a group of camels relaxing on the side of the road. The Mongolian camels, unlike to their cousins in Africa, have two-humps and are slightly smaller. Their humps droop when they don't Wahoo...my first sightings of two-hump camels! We stopped to check out a group of camels relaxing on the side of the road. The Mongolian camels, unlike to their cousins in Africa, have two-humps and are slightly smaller. Their humps droop when they don't have enough water.









After few more hours of driving (just miles of arid landscape), we stopped at Tsagaan Suvarga ("white stupa" cliffs) for a break and a short hike. The 30m cliffs are formed by white limestones, hence the name "White Stupa".








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