Wednesday, October 12, 2011

A Night in the Gobi Desert


The bus parked on the side of the road in the middle of no where. Desert stretched as far as the eye could see on all sides of us and the silence was broken only by the sound of our voices and the occasional passing car. We took everything we needed out of bags and packed small backpacks for the night, applied sunscreen, and then went to meet our camels.


The camels came in all sizes and colors and some had two humps while some seemed to only have one, and a few camels had weirdly bent over humps that I didn’t really understand. We were in trains of about 8 camels each, but it didn’t really matter which group you were with because when you’re riding in a camel train you find it’s not very easy to communicate with anyone. The camels were sitting down when we climbed up on their backs and it didn’t seem so high then, but as soon as we were ready to move the camels stood up and I was surprised to see how high up I was. 


I was the first in a train of camels so I had the whole of the Gobi Desert to behold. It was a dry and desolate place. But up ahead in the distance I could see some sand dunes that marked an area where we would be camping for the night. Someone in our group had looked up how to tie a turban and all of us had our heads wrapped to block the sun from our faces, and the dry air from our mouths and noses. We must have been quite a sight to see. 


The trek to the campsite was about 2 hours on camel, and I have to say by the end of the ride I was pretty sore from riding. I couldn’t imagine people on the Silk Road riding for days and days although I did get rather attached to my camel that I named Dustin. There was nothing really to do except to pull out an ipod and listen to a desert playlist, which is what most of us ended up doing to pass the time. 

 This is Dustin.

When we got to the campsite, which was easily spotted since it was the only source of color for miles, we said goodbye to our furry camel friends. We would be boarding a van to drive us out of the desert the next morning. The tents were brightly colored and very small for sharing but obviously it would have to do. We saw our dinner laid out for us. It was a dismal sort of meal that was made up of instant noodles, assorted fruits, sodas, and prepackaged precooked sausage and pre-packaged vegetables that looked anything but appetizing. We settled in to eat.



After a meal that mostly consisted of apples and grapes for me a bunch of us decided to hike up one of the larger sand dunes to try to catch the sunset. It was an easier climb than earlier because the dunes here seemed to be packed down a little more and we got a great view of our campsite from up top as we watched the sunset. When we returned we found that people were starting a party. The campsite was bathed in full dark and people had thought to bring glow sticks and speakers for ipods and the sounds of American pop filled the night.

The people who had set up our camping trip had a few tricks up their sleeves as well. They brought in some dry brush and we got a huge bon fire going and roasted potatoes and other assorted random things over the fire to eat. Someone even thought to find marshmallows in a Chinese supermarket and so it was almost like a traditional American campfire. Eventually everyone tired out from the long day and we all headed to our tents to sleep. 


It was a long cold night. I had on lots of layers but I was never quite warm enough during the night, and someone to my left snored the entire night at a volume I didn’t know existed. When we awoke the next morning at around 6:30 it was with little rest and we piled on more layers for breakfast which was instant coffee and bread with some apple jelly and some fruit left over from the night before. Although I was cold and sleepy I have to admit the early morning haze in the desert was sort of beautiful and when we got in the van that would drive us out of the desert and back to civilization I was kind of sad to leave. 

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