Wildlife valley

We drove further south to our next stop via the city of Dalanzadgad. The drive was much the same as the previous day, a lot of dirt road, followed by a long stretch of highway in considerably better condition that the road out of Ulaanbatur. Dalanzadgad is at the foot of a mountain range called the Three Lady Mountains (there's a story...), and is the gateway to Gobi Gurban Saikhan Mountain National Park. We headed to camp for lunch, and found it even better appointed than the previous night. The ger was pretty plush, and the bathroom block newly renovated (although the water pressure still sucked). And they have wifi, which was an unimagined luxury before we set off on the trip. James was happy to watch highlights of the Tour de France stage from the previous day.

After lunch there was time for some local exploration, which involved walking to each of the concrete statues on the hills surrounding the ger camp. They represented different animals from the Gobi, wild and domesticated sheep, and ibex and a Gobi bear, which is local to the area but extremely rare (only 50  known in the wild). From the hilltops we were able to watch rain across the vast expanse we could see, and even managed to have some fall on us. Of all of the things we dreamt of on this trip, being rained on in the driest desert in the world was not one of them. Plus, it's still very green. We were promised proper looking desert shortly!

The afternoon trip was to Yoliin Am/Eagle Valley, which gets no direct sunlight due to the steep walls and orientation. Not that it was at all dark. The valley is striking, and we were told to keep an eye out for various wildlife and birds. It turns out that the walking paths through the canyon are teeming with pika, local rodents which Gillian promptly adopted as her spirit animal. There were an unusual number thanks to the wet spring season. We must have seen over one hundred, Guwey told us he would expect to see more like 5, usually. There were also some other little rodents mixed in, called "yellow tails" locally, later identified as Mogolian gerbils (too quick to photographs!). The real highlight was spotting about 8 ibexes, at various points along the trail. They are renowned for being rarely spotted, out of 15 previous trips our guide had see one ibex. He talked about this all the way back home. We also saw an eagle owl, and several vultures, again rare sightings. It may be that the cloudy/rainy day helped us out somewhat, but it made it pretty special. Especially given that the valley is well worth visiting just for its scenery. 

After a decent day of walking and plenty of wildlife spotting, dinner and bed were welcome items on the agenda.