Travel Tips

Mars: No, the Gobi

Tip: Take water and while your at it, tires.    This was a daily scene.

Travel Tips

I believe this to be one of the Gobi Pit Vipers.    It pays to check around first before squatting to relieve oneself.   Could be a real bummer.  Although we have various types of  snakes in Canada its very seldom you actually see one.  Here they are a daily sight.

Travel tips

Do explore the capital Ulaanbaatar, but be careful during the night as the streets and sidewalks sometimes disappear, there are no street lights and the manhole covers are off all the sewers, we assume they have been stolen for scrap metal.

Camping

The country is vast, but fascinating.    The fauna and flora is quite abundant, although you wouldn't think so by the  landscape.  The raptor population is diverse and plentiful. We used a local tour operator,  Bolod Tours. 

http://www.bolodtours.com/

Flag

I thought the expedition should have a flag, so I created a flag consisting of the flags of all four countries involved.  There was a minor hitch when one of the Australians would only  explore under the Republican Eureka flag.  However it did lead me to learn all about one of the first labour rebellions in Australia and strangely enough its Canadian connections.  Here is Kathy with our expeditions flag.  

Exploring the uninhabitable

Mongolia

Kathy and I still have fond memories of our trip to Mongolia.  We had been camping near the Nanaimo River Estuary, doing a preliminary study on the area, to determine its suitability for one of Kathy's projects for which we would eventually return some summers later.  However Dave and Yvonne Theriault, old friends from Squamish days, now of Australia, happened by to spend a rainy afternoon with us at the campsite.  David asked why don't we all spend next summer in Mongolia?  Why not.   The crew consisted of four couples, two French couples who were friends of Dave and two local drivers, a cook and her young daughter.