Mongolia: Dinosaur bones and camel rides

From the urban bustle of Ulaanbaatar to the rural expanses of the Gobi Desert. We left from the northern part of Mongolia to the southern areas of the Gobi desert. Upon landing at the small airport in Dalanzadgad, Mongolia (where we were the only plane), we headed off for two hours on a dirt road to the Three Camel Lodge. The Three Camel Lodge is a collection of Mongolian round houses, called gers, or yurts, as the Russians call them. These are the traditional homes that Genghis Khan used when conquering the largest swath of land ever controlled by a single man.

From the Lodge we then did a side trip to the Flaming Cliffs where we will found some dinosaur bones that are 70 to 250 million years old. We also had some time to ride camels and take a small hike into the Gobi Desert Forest: a bunch of scrub brush a that stand out in this sea of grasslands and sand dunes.
Ellen, in her embrace of the planet, rolled down the sand dunes prior to our adventure on the Bhactrian Camels.

Factoid: Fossilized dinosaur bones stick to your wet tongue, rocks do not.

more on life on Mongolian Plains - Gers, Horses

Rand and I both rode the longhaired horses owned by the family whose Ger we visited. (That's Rand in the blue jacket).

We learned that the 70 year old woman (the beautiful lady in Green) who lived in the Ger had inherited it from her parents and that it was 90 years old. She hopes to leave it to her children.

The Ger is heated by a small stove - dried cow dung is the fuel. It has a waterproof felt roof with a round hole at the top covered by clear plastic. The poles that hold up the roof are decoratively painted.

Being nomadic, the family moves when the grazing land for its horses, cows, camels and goats is bare. The heaviest part of the Ger to move is the felt, so they are sure to wait until 3-4 weeks after any rain because any moisture makes the felt much heavier.