Day 407 - Ice, Ice, Baby

We woke up early to get a headstart on the long drive ahead of us. Although the drive was a little easier today (and harder to get lost) as we were leaving one tourist attraction and going to another - different from the last few days when we've been in untourist zones. We stopped for lunch along the steppe, which was really just a flat windy open space with mountains looking on from the distance. Even though the wind reminded us of home, we moved on pretty quickly and by late afternoon we were winding our way through rocky gorges to the Yoliin Am - at one point the rock walls were no more than a few centimetres from our van! Yoliin Am is a protected National Park in the middle of the Gobi Desert, originally created to protect birdife, but most people come to see the ice gorge, which has ice during most of the year, even now in the middle of summer!! We wandered along side a river with little gerbil-like creatures popping out of the ground at every step. While most of us enjoyed seeing the little critters, Franco was absolutey petrified as they resembled mice a little too much! The walk was wonderful - we made our way underneath tall cliffs, with birds flying above, over and under ice (though not much was left at this stage of summer) and through freezing cold water. As the group made their way back to the car Adam cleaned off in a waterhole for another Mongolian naked swim! Back in the van for another few hours drive, before making it to Dalanzadgad a major town in Mongolia where Syvlie is leaving to fly back to Ulaan Baatar tomorrow morning. As it was very important Sylvie made the flight on time, we decided it was best we find the airport tonight (and even buy her ticket if possible). After a lot of driving around, we finally came across a dilapidated building with broken windows and an airport sign - Chana, our now very tired guide, was willing to accept this was the airport, but we convinced her otherwise. We soon came across the real airport, where a cleaner told us the flight left at 8am in the morning - not the 10am we had been told!

At this stage we were all exhausted after a long day (especially Chana, who was now a little grumpy) we decided to check into the Airport Hotel Sheraton - luxury with a real outdoor longdrop toilet and 3 real beds!

After Adam discovered our mat had gone missing, his mood took a dive which resulted in the beer bottle taking a rise and the night ended up being a great farewell 'party' to Sylvie.

Adlibing ice.