Day 13/14/15: Post Adventures of the Gobi Cold Camel Expedition
1st-3rd Feb 2018
It was a 500km drive out of the Gobi; about half off-roading across the desert and it took 12 hours in total.
We passed countless herds of horses - sometimes passing 500 within 10 minutes of driving in the desert, small dirt road towns and once we reached the main highway it was barely visible under a blanket of snow!
There are no words to describe now nice it was to shower and get clean. We've spent the past two days sleeping, having massages and eating out.
It was a 500km drive out of the Gobi; about half off-roading across the desert and it took 12 hours in total.
We passed countless herds of horses - sometimes passing 500 within 10 minutes of driving in the desert, small dirt road towns and once we reached the main highway it was barely visible under a blanket of snow!
There are no words to describe now nice it was to shower and get clean. We've spent the past two days sleeping, having massages and eating out.
We're taking Tess and Big Man to the opera as a thank you for everything they've done for us over the past two weeks but there's only one problem; we have no clothes apart from the ones we wore while riding in the Gobi. The only semi-clean clothes I have are the t-shirt and jeans which I wore on the plane over.
We hit the shopping malls and soon have outfits; we've all decided to wear our silk deel jackets so I choose a plain silver and black dress. Finding boots in size 40 is harder; it seems no one has feet this big in Mongolia and eventually I stop pointing at styles I like and ask them to show me the occasional pair that will fit me instead. Finally my outfit is sorted and we head to the salon to have our hair washed and styled. It feels strange looking pretty again and dressing up after two weeks of being feral in the desert!
The opera, an Italian one with Mongolian subtitles, is very good and just behind us is one of the worlds most famous Opera singers, who won several competitions in the UK. He started life as a herder and Big Man stops to chat to him while Tess explains how important he is. Occasional he yells bravo and his voice booms across the theatre.
After the opera we head out to dinner and listen to more of Big Man and Tess's amazing stories; this time of Chinggis Khaan and in more recent years sending thousands of Mongolian horses to the Vietnam war; one horse ran away from battle and returned across several thousand kilometres back to it's family Ger in the Gobi Desert, it's markings and brand unmistakable. Paperwork was indeed lodged upon it's arrival in Vietnam so there was no denying the journey it made. Scientists came from all over to study the breed.
Tomorrow I'm off to find the wild horses and the last three camel riders are joining me before they fly out, along with Tess and Big Man. I expected the last week in UB to be on my own, having to navigate in a foreign country, and to have their friendship extend for the extra time we stayed was the most special gift of all - I so appreciate them gifting us their time, it meant the world to have the company of our newfound Mongolian friends.
[This is the 13th update in a 15 part series, if you'd like to follow the rest of my journey in the Gobi Camel Camel Expedition LIKE my page for daily photos and blogs]!
