This is a story of how I rode a camel into the sunset with my travelling buddies. We carried our way to the next, and at this time, last ger camp. This one even featured a shower (with no water of course).
(Photo by Tumee Khan)
9 am once again we left our nice ger for our final destination Bayanzag (Flaming Cliffs).
On the way some more shamanic posts and locals with motorbikes.
Outdoor cook site.
Banged up ger door.
Tumee Khan and the guide from another group relaxing at our ger.
Once again we settled to the new place and around us opened yet a different view. In the distance, we could see a huge Turtle-shaped structure, which was later confirmed by Vladka to be a tourist camp dining hall. Also, the flaming cliffs were visible on the horizon. We’d drop by them on our way back, as now it was time for some camel riding action, finally! The camel I rode into the sunset 🙂
Riding a camel was almost like sitting on a sofa (even though not very comfortable one). I’d imagine it is much more comfortable than a horse, to say the least. The camels were roaming free in a distance from the camp and once we agreed on the price, a ger owner rode a motorcycle to herd them to us. Once saddled and leashed up (the camels have a bone nose piercing that a simple rope is attached to), we were good to go!
(Photo by Greg)
(Photo by Vladimira Lackova)
Riders in the sun.
We “rode” the camels around one hour, actually, Tumee and the shepherd both held the leash of one group and the group members would hold the next one’s leash, so we were travelling pretty tightly packed. Luckily we were used to it by now. The camel breath, btw, smelled like a bag of assholes as Greg the poet would put it.
I accidentally pulled down on the leash, resulting in the camel sitting down. After that I quickly got hang of this pretty simple interface: tug down = sit, tug up = get up, tug forwards = move, tug backwards = stop, tug left = turn left, tug right = turn right. The language I spoke to it didn’t seem to matter at all. After this picture was taken, I managed to get up and ride 20 or so meters to the pit-stop and sit down, all by myself! ^^ (Photo by Tumee Khan)
The gang.
It was time for the mighty soup! (all the leftovers mixed together) For dessert, we had Vodka and beer, appropriate for the last night in The Gobi.
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(First published 22/10/2011 at LiveJournal)