Yal Valley and Sand Dunes

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July 16th
Even with rain the gobi is still hot, the morning entails another lamentable breakfast and off to the yal valley. After arriving we hike through the mountain passageways untill we arrive at the Ice canyon, due to the rain I left my camera behind, I'll try to post some pictures another time. It was quite amazing and on the return way it had rained enough to make the small caves within the ice passable, saving us the trouble of climbing over them again though the prospect of hundreds of tons of ice crushing us was also exhilarating. The gerbil like creatures living in the valley's are also quite cute observing our every move and occasionally becoming the super for some of the mongolian herders. After squeezing the russain mini bus through the mountain passages that are now open due to the rain we arrive very late to a small village to stay in the best horror hotel ever, playing uno and sleeping on prison issue beds while the storms raged outside.
July 17th

Surviving the night at the baits motel and we continue onwards to the Gobi's tallest sand dune. On the way we meet some brits who got stuck due to the recent rains, our good samaritanship is not paid though as we are also immediatley stuck after attempting to help them. After a few hours of engineering with rocks and a small jack and tire iron we are on the road again. After arriving late at the Sand dune we climb to the top to watch the sunset and Sophia is accidently pushed down the other side. Our later attempts to use matts to slide down is once again sullied by the recent rains. To make up for getting stuck ohna has prepared some special mongolian dumblings which is a nice change from the usual rice and mystery meat. After supper we continue on trying to diminish our quickly dwindling supply of beer and vodka, even warm the 2L plastic bottle beer is still ok...after a few vodkas to kill the germs. i aquire another sleeping bag from our driver and we'll see how the nite goes.

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