The dog spent most of the night barking at his own echo but fortunately we were allowed a lazy start. After breakfast Emilie showed Bob how to make friendship bracelets and following half an hour of intense concentration Bob proudly presented a powder blue chain. After, we walked to the partially frozen lake, half a kilometre away, and photographed the reflection of the snow capped mountains and surrounding trees in the still water, dotted with mini icebergs. A c...

The chill of the morning was crisp on my extremities as I set about relighting the ger's fire in the early grey light. With a small pile of 'briquettes' starting to glow I layered up and slipped outside, heading up the bank to the ridge, past the main ger whose chimney was trailing a slim wisp of smoke. As I turned around, the broad valley stretched away into the half light, bordered by the far ridge, which was highlighted by pale blue sky and the bright suggesti...

A storm gave the ger a good rattling overnight and the rain hammered against the felt. I opened the door to a grey morning, where the wind carried the rain horizontally making a trip to the gents a very swift experience. The promise of porridge for breakfast had Bob wriggling excitedly in her sleepingbag, but on arrival it turned out that Mongolian porridge used rice instead of oats, water instead of milk and salt instead of sugar... Nevertheless it was warm and...

Victor surpassed himself producing warm pancakes and a tub of Nutella for breakfast. We fed the remainder of the less popular, but more traditional, cinnamon breakfast cakes to the unbelievably cute, but purely decorative, small black pooch who had 'guarded' the outside of our ger all night, waiting for exactly this moment. We loaded up Olive and set off, leaving our furry companion and the sandunes behind, heading into the vast expanse of rocky desert and endl...

A blissful lie in in the dark ger was curtailed by light bursting through the open door. Outside the temperature was already climbing and the sun was blisteringly hot, almost like we were in the middle of the desert... We had pancakes containing pickled greens for breakfast, as well as sugary donut bread and tea before heading back to pack and prepare for our camel ride. We briefly watched only of the ladies 'grooming' a goat, which was tied down and obviously n...