I think one of the first things that struck us when we arrived at the Ger Camp in the Gobi was that it was green! I think we were all mislead by the word desert, even though this is the north end, we did not anticipate so much green. It is not grass exactly, more like wild scrub brush that survives in the red sandy soil. Many of the plants smelled of sage or marjoram and so some areas were very pungent. We were told that there had been quite a bit of rain this season, which caused the plants to grow. There are also many desert flowers, variants of daisies, buttercups and succulents.

The area we were in, BAGA GAZRIIN CHULUU, is know for its rock formations, which are considered holy. They somehow reminded me of the shoreline of some of the gulf islands but here the reddish granite stone is erroded not by water but by centuries of wind. Did i mention the wind yet? Well it can get very strong; some days it threatened to knock me off my feet.