July 16. At Gobi Tour Camp in the Gobi Desert.
Click on the photos to enlarge them.
Birding enthusiasts out for a before-breakfast walk. Looks to me like unpromising territory for birds.
The Gobi is rich in subtle colors, textures, and modulations.
On our outing after breakfast, we passed this large herd of camels at a watering hole. They were being herded by a man on horseback.
We drove to the mountain gorge of Yolyn Am, cut into ancient rock at the crest of the Beautiful Sister mountain range.
The Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park is named after the desert and the adjoining mountain range, where we spent most of the day. There is a small but interesting interpretive center and museum for the park, where this lively little girl showed me some of her favorite exhibits.
Nearby, local families have put up gers where they offer handicrafts, textiles, small mineral specimens, and fossilized wood. This grotesquely gnarled burl was enhanced by an even more grotesque carved head.
Wrestling in Mongolia seems to be as common a pickup sport as soccer or basketball in the US. These guys will have to put on some weight to compete in Ulaan Baatar.
Grazing horses that will be bridled and saddled if tourists want to ride back to their cars after their hike.
Young Mongolians seem as devoted to their animals as to their modish clothes and shoes.
This area gets enough moisture that wildflowers bloom in profusion and shrubbery is green.
The little pika, a relative of the rabbit, lives in abundance on the rocky hillsides.
On our way back to camp, we stopped at the site of an abandoned ger camp that apparently had used this rather mysterious sculptural installation as an advertisement.
Two more experiments with the Dramatic Tone setting. The first is a service building at the abandoned ger camp; the second is a lively sky with some rain falling in the distance. When the effect works, it is indeed dramatic.
