On the Mongolian Grasslands
Trip Start
Jun 09, 2005
1
17
105
Trip End
Jun 08, 2006
Hohot,
China
Thursday, August 11, 2005
We have a pretty quiet day in Zhongwei, visiting the local temple which combines a mix Buddhist and other religious influences, and laughing at the bizarre museum of torture which is housed beneath the temple. Down in the eerie catacoomes below are gaudy displays of beheading, mutilation, and boiling alive complete with neon lighting and soundtrack from distorting speakers.
We spend time finding a restaurant where I can re-build my strength after the long bouts of diarrhea. Beef and peppers in oyster sauce, with fresh green vegetables and rice goes down a treat thanks to our chinese guide who provided us with the translation
01 A man being sawn in half
. Sometimes its hard to get the expected food when we are in restaurants, as most dont have English menus. We often point at what other people are eating or use some translations in our guidebook with the waitresses, but its sometimes more of a miss than a hit and we've had our share of disappointment. Occasionally we get lucky and eat something that is nicer than expected.We have arranged to go on a 2-day camel trek through the Tengger desert with the rest of the group. Early the next morning we head out to a rendezvous point, beside a crumbling section of the great wall, and meet up with 20 or so enormous Bactrian camels that will be our transport for the next few days. Nick, the truck driver, has agreed to pick us up late afternoon the next day several kilometers down the road through the desert.
The camels seem really placid apart from the odd growl from one or two of the older beligerent beasts. They are equipped with saddles that comprise 2 strips of wood running down the sides of the two humps and ropes pulling the strips together onto soft mattress material beneath. Theres one hoop of metal between the strips to act as something to hold on to. Between the humps is thrown a saddle-bag, mine contains water bottles and on rachel's camel its full of sleeping bags. Over the saddle bag is thrown a thick rug to sit on. Control of the camel is via a single rope attached to a pin that goes through the camels nose. Pull left to go left, right to go right, and back to stop.
We set off, initially in a camel-train, with the rein attached to the camel in front. Its pretty comfortable apart from the fact that the camel's girth plus the girth of the saddle-bag and rug means my legs are splayed quite wide and get sore on the inside
02 Camel train
. I soon readjust my position by sitting side-saddle or crosslegged on the top of the saddle. We meander off into the dunes and get into a trance-like state due to the rocking motion of the camel under the hot desert sun.We camp in the evening and enjoy walking over the dunes and exploring the infinite variety of shapes and sand formations. The camels go off and forage for grass which is reasonably plentiful in some of the troughs between the dunes. At night its not too hot and we sleep well.
Next day, since we are now experience camel-miesters, we get to control the beasts ourselves via the rein. It all becomes much more fun and we enjoy coaxing our beasts to the front of the group, taking them down steep dunes without falling off, and commanding them to stop when we want. In addition to the rein controls we practise the guttural voice commands like 'DTUI' that the camel guides are using.
We meet up with Nick at the agreed point and re-board the truck. We drive a few hours and camp in the middle of a mountainous dusty area on the edge of the Gobi desert. Via our Chinese guide I talk to a local farmer who tells me that he has 500 Kashmir goats which he gets Y140 (about GBP10) for just the fine wool combed from each goat per annum
03 John on Dune
. It sounds like a good basic income, but thousands of acres are needed due to the sparseness of the vegetation.After breaking camp we head on into Inner Mongolia province and the re-enter the vast Gobi desert. We pass some beautiful huge yellow dunes that contrast with the sky and the primordial dark rocks. We are driving through country where it looks like dinosaurs might appear behind the next outcrop.
Occasionally we pass though isolated factory towns that look like ecological nightmares. Inner Mongolia has great resources of iron ore, coal, and many other minerals and these are the necessary ingredients of the Chinese economic boom. Giant black smokestacks reek into the blue sky and everywhere in these grey towns is covered in a layer of grime. Bright slogans on the factory gates speak of the bold industrial progress but the reality feels different to me.
We find another campsite in the Gobi desert amongst the the dry shrubs and thorns next to a dry river bed. We're wearing sandals and Rachel gets a lovely big 1/2inch thorn stuck an her toe and broken off with nothing exposed. I manage to extricate it to her relief. We've had a little bit of rain in the afternoon and the sun peeks through at dusk to give a warm glow across the plains at the end of a long day
07 Rachel on Camel
.After the previous day's long drive we stop at lunchtime to camp for the day. We find a great spot at the foot of some rocky mountains in a dry river bed. In the afternoon we take a walk over to what looks like a huge burial mound. In the sandy soil we see pieces of translucent quartz that glow in the sunlight like amber. I keep picking them up and examining them as though they were precious stones. At the foot of the burial mound we decide to scale the mountain ridge behind us as it does not look too technical and its a fairly cool afternoon. We start by walking up a river valley and see rocks piled up on the sides as memorials and graves; it feels quiet and spooky. Once we start scaling the mountain our mood refreshes as great vistas open up of the red and ochre hills around and the flat plains behind us. At the top of the ridge we wave to others in the group who are on other ridges about half a mile away, and we see goats hunting for vegetation in the dry hillsides.
That night we camp without a tent and nearly regret it as raindrops splatter on our faces at 3am in the morning. Fortunately the clouds dissipate and we get to sleep in the end. In the morning our Chinese guide gets stung by a scorpion which creeps into his trousers in the night - even though he is using a tent
09 Rachel by tent
. Our guide is OK and we feel lucky not to have been similarly attacked.In the morning we drive out of the Gobi and into more irrigated areas that are fed from the waters of the Yellow river in a corridor extending to 50km either side of the great waterway. Through this area we see thousands of bright yellow sunflowers grown in small fields interspersed with corn and wheat plantations as far as the eye can see. After a long days drive we stop in a threshing yard of a local village to camp.
The locals are very friendly and enjoy watching us cooking on the truck stove and passing comment on our western approach to cuisine. The crowd swells to about 40 and they kindly bring us gifts of watermellon and invite us to their homes (does this sound familiar?). If I was born in China this is the sort of rural community I'd like to be brought up in.
Next day we bounce along very dusty dirt roads that slowly transition on to the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. This vast steppe was home of nomadic mongolian tribespeoples, but these days most live permanently in small villages dotted around the countryside. The grasslands are truly beautiful when bathed in bright sunlight; the cumulus clouds shade the undulating grasslands olive green to contrast with the sharp bright green all around
goats
.Small herds of cattle and sheep graze the land. Occasionally we see a 'yurt' the traditional round tent dwelling of the Mongolians, but these days they look fairly permanent with their concrete bases. Our Chinese guide tells us they are used as feeding centres for the coachloads of tourists who drive through. We stop in the middle of nowhere and set up camp for the night. I feel very comfortable in this landscappe of green drumlins cool temperate climate. Unusually we're so remote that we have no visitors to the campsite that night.
Next day we're driving through the open country when we unexpectedly come accross a Naadam festival. Held at the end of July and beginning of August when the grass is its longest, these are hugely popular events where the locals participate in horse racing, archery, and Mongolian wrestling. We park up the truck and join the masses to discover that its the first day of the 2-week Nadaam and the opening ceremony is in full swing. Music blares from huge speakers as teams of horses, wrestlers, and local children from various towns parade around a huge quadrangle marked by enourmous red balloons. Many people are dressed in traditional brightly coloured costumes of the Mongolian nomads.
goats on rocks
The event has the feel of an enormous agricultural show with its beer tents (liquer yurts according to Rachel), amusements, and food stalls. Amongst the crowd in the side-shows I see monkeys being forced to do a show, a python being passed around the crowd, and even a tiger in a cage. I climb the hillside behind the main arena to get a grand view of the proceedings.
One of the guys in our group participates in some wrestling and eventually gets beaten by an enormous Mongolian, another guy drives the car in the wheel of death. Its a very enjoyable few hours for everybody.
We drive downhill for a few hours and enter Hohot, regarded as the gateway to the grasslands. Its another fairly non-descript Chinese city.
