Gobi Gurvan Saikhan NP - Day 2

Although we've done an awful lot of travelling in the last couple of days it's all been within the  Gobi Gurvan Saikhan National Park which is about 10,425 miles square and is the largest National Park in Mongolia and today we're driving back to the lovely Gobi Mirage Lodge for the night but taking the quicker (4-5 hours), southern road.

Google identifies this as a Spotted Toad-Head Agama, which was just outside our log cabin when we got back from breakfast.

As I mentioned before, we're taking the shorter, southern road back this morning but it'll still be a 4-5 hour drive.  The road runs alongside the dunes for some time before the dunes disappear into desert steppe bounded by the last of the Altai Mountain Range.

Sotto and Bridget were keen to practice their sand driving skills so we made a short detour into the dunes so they could play and judging by the number of tyre tracks, they're not the first.

A very iconic sand dune photo.

A little bit of vegetation.

Ian decided to head off for a short walk, he said the sand was surprisingly firm to walk on.

Abandoned whilst the drivers played.

We often come across one shoe in weird places, but I wonder that the story behind this lone glove is?

This is Sotto having a scout around - he's the slimmer one of the two drivers but even so I don't know how he managed to scramble up onto the roof.

Camels always seem to be very lazy animals so I was surprised to see this herd almost cantering along.

I love the ornate entrance to this property - two snow leopards atop brick blocks and no perimeter barriers whatsoever.

We've now driven to Yoliin Am Gorge, an area still in the Gobi Desert which receives little rainfall but is known for a deep ice field which reaches several meters thick by the end of winter and is several kms long.  We're going to hike to the glacier and watch wildlife en route and since the weather is being its exchangeable self, we've put on extra layers which I think we may regret.

There are many ponies for hire and the two siblings decided to, but I declined as I didn't want Ian to have to carry my backpack if I rode.

It was a beautiful walk but quite a long way and again I think Oogii underestimated the capabilities of some group members.

It's commonly known as "Vulture Valley" as yol (Mongolian name for Lammergeier Vultures) are often seen here.  We did see some riding the thermals way above us but no chance of a picture which is a shame as they are the most fabulous birds and the common name of Bearded Vulture is very apt (internet picture).

Good job the little bridge was there!

This cute little creature is a pika, which looks rather like its close relative the rabbit, only without the long ears.

This is a white-winged snow finch.

These are locals and even they're exhausted!

Eventually we reached the "glacier" and the disappointment was immense, it was just a lump of very dirty ice.  I get that it's unusual to see ice in mid-June but really it didn't warrant a 3/4 hour walk!  Another very visible sign of global warming

One of the group noticed me taking this photo and so kindly offered to take one of us both but unfortunately her phone settings produced a rather weird hue.

Walking back I went on ahead as the pace was too slow for me and my backpack was starting to weigh quite heavily.  I saw this lovely herd of yaks heading towards me.

Being rounded up by a motorbike riding yak man.

And a few more pikas to finish with whilst I waited for Ian to catch up.

When we got back to the vehicles we learned that the 87 yo had been overcome with exhaustion and so Pudu who'd been walking with her all the way persuaded someone on a motorbike to give her a lift back.  She's certainly a game old thing but even she admitted this type of trip might be too much for her again.

Then we were back to the Gobi Mirage Lodge for another night and our bottle of wine that we didn't get to finish last time was waiting for us, nicely chilled.