Travels with Kathryn

Today is Monday, and I can not believe I am already half-way through my trip. It is a classic it has done really quickly, but I also feel like I have been away for no time at all.

We are going to spend all day here so I decided that it was time for a well earned lie in. However, I did wake up just as the sun was rising so was able to take a quick photo and then slept through until nearly 9am.

Khongor has some of the largest sand dunes in Mongolia, up to 300m high, 12km wide and 100km long. The dunes are created due to three environmental factors:

• Wind – strong winds blow in one direction funnelling the sand towards the base of the Altai mountains (which you can see behind the dunes).
• Mountain trapping – the wind loses velocity as it hits the foothills of the mountains, and the sand blows no futher.
• Ancient basins and waterways – the sand originally comes from the dird up basis of pre-historic lakes and rivers. Also, the Khongor River (I would say its more of a creek) runs along the northern edge, providing moisture and vegetation that anchors the dunes and prevents it spreading further.

They are also called “singing sands” as the dunes have a thin surface coating of slate, so when the wind blows, there is supposedly a resonant humming sound. These are my third attempt at hearing singing sand dunes, and I do think that last night I could hear something but there was not anything this morning. We are planning two trips today – first in the morning, and then again for sunset so although I did not hear anything this morning, perhaps I will later.

We drove the short distance to the oasis at the bottom of the dunes. I genuinely had expected sandy desert sweeping for miles, and it is just scrub, then a wide-ish strip of green oasis, and then the dunes. I was a little nervous, but these dunes are very different from my China attempt – in Dunhuang it was a straight up (using a ladder) whereas these are more soft peaks (in meringue terminology) so I felt happy enough to go up a bit, and the come back down. No crying, no losing water, no losing face – hurrah! A few photos to enjoy:

We drove back via a well-appointed coffee shop (yes, in the middle of the desert) for an iced lemonade. Then it was back to the camp, where the owner/chef/Mum had promised us Koren food for lunch having lived there herself for 5 years. The vast majority of the tourists we have seen here are from South Korea, and there was a large group of relatively young people staying last night (this same lady was not happy about the amount of hot water they had used for showers so she turned it off – love this!).

We then retired to our little house to escape the heat of the sun, and sad times. We had been asked to move in the morning as someone else had booked the particular house we were in and we had questioned it and seen if there was another option. I had just settled down to right this, and our guide came in, incredibly apologetic that the guide who had booked it had thrown some kind of wobbly, so please, please, could we move? We have moved and are now in a perfectly nice ger (with 6 beds), but unfortunately, no ensuite. We shall just have to manage. I am keeping an eye out on who is getting our room, and so far I have seen a matching pair of wheelie luggage and white carry-on bags. I do not think they are sufficiently deserving.

At 5pm we headed into the main ger to learn another game involving knuckle bones – more of a drop and match game. Far less thrilling. It was then dinner of dumplings before back to the dunes. This time we drove towards the end of the dunes where they are tallest. There were a lot of people dragging toboggans up and it was probably the busiest place we have been in Mongolia. Not my idea of fun.

I sat on a ridge and watched these fools scale 300m of dune only to slide down. I was happy with my choices.

After sunset we drove back to the ger and had to shower in the communal shower block (I missed my ensuite as it was freezing cold water) and then packed as tomorrow we’re heading further south to Yolyn Am Valley. I shall now starfish on my bed and go to sleep. Good night.