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  • Day 85

    The Singing Sand Dunes

    November 29, 2017 in Mongolia

    Khongoryn Els - the singing sand dunes. The area that seems to have collected all the sand that I thought was going to be everywhere in the Gobi. 200m high at the highest point (think the shard is only 300m!) and we were going to climb it.

    BUT BEFORE as the majority of nomads had sought warmer, sheltered pastures elsewhere we were aimlessly driving to find somewhere to stay until after nightfall - this meant that we didn't get a layout of our surroundings until the next morning. The 4 of us entered the nomads ger and were offered the milk tea and food as is the tradition in Mongolia and whilst we learnt about the patriarchs gold mining nearby (hence why they were weathering out the winter here) I was chowing down on some questionable meat. Now to this day I still do not know what it was that I ate but let's just say there were strong indications that it was horse penis. Yeaaap...boiled horse penis. As I was chewing - and it was very, very chewy - I could feel something wasn't quite right but forced a swallow anyway and as it hit my stomach the gurgling started straight away. 30 mins later I am running around the camo trying to find the outhouse but had no idea where it was because it was pitch black and hadn't seen it on the way in. In my panicked state rushed to Rach for help who was stoking our burner. Without a word she chucked me a stick and grabbed her coat and torch, we both ran out into the desert and I dug myself a trench with the stick whilst Rach shined a light on the matter. Just about managed to finish before I started prarie dogging
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