Kate and Tamsin Trip 2019

After breakfast at 9 am we departed for the Flaming Cliffs an hours drive away.
After dodging the souvenir stall we spent an hour or so climbing over the sandy, wind sculpted red cliffs with a vast view of the desert plains below us. This included a belt of rare Gobi trees which have the plain a shade of green. These r now protected and are not allowed to be cut for buildings or firewood.
Getting down from the cliffs was a mission as Unru wasn’t sure of the way.... luckily K and Neil worked out the safest was down and we arrived safely at the bottom after some anxiety.
Next it was off to a close up of the Gobi trees where K spotted a type of mouse- gone before most of us could see it.! She got a photo on her camera as proof!
Neil was interested in the history of dinosaur fossils found in the area so off we went “ fossicking”.
This turned into the weirdest experience ever.... our driver got out of the car, walked over to a little culvert, started digging at the soft sand with his hands and hey presto..... a real life dinosaur skeleton -WTF!!!! One of the drivers confirmed that if u lick a piece of bone and its dinosaur it will stick to ur tongue/ finger ( this was done with a chip in the sand)!!! By now we were all mesmerised but really uncomfortable. Unru informed us the palaeontologists knew the area had so many fossils they no longer feel the need to protect the site- however we felt it really should be protected .... especially as 12 dirt bike tourists roared past!!
Our driver recovered the fossil once more and left it in peace and we got back into our vehicles slightly bewildered by the whole experience!!
After another 4 course lunch it was a trip to the onsite museum and now an hours test before a visit to a herder family.... hopefully an experience not a terrible village visit.
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