We were up early again ready for our trip to the Gobi Desert. We were in the same car that we drove around Olkhon in (much to Toms delight). We met our guide Bimba and driver Rucksha. Bimba is 21 and is working as a tour guide as a summer job as she has just graduated. She speaks perfect English which is a real novelty!

Our first day was a 7 hour drive south of the country. The paved road lasted about a minute outside of Ulan Bator, after that is just 4x4 terrain. This was fun to start, but after 7 hours started to wear very thin. Laura and Sarah both had to stop as they weren't feeling too good. Luckily we had some amazing scenery to keep us occupied on our trip. Apparently what we drove through is known as the Mongolian Steppe. There is nothing for as far as the eye can see and we barely saw any people.

We finally arrived at our camp for the night, however we quickly found out there were no beds left. Apparently the family we were staying with thought there weren't so many people coming so had collapsed some of the gers (I think we know these as yurts at home!). Bimba managed to find a few beds in a ger with some Korean girls, but we would have to share. This would have been fine, but one of the beds was literally a plank of wood so there was no way two people were going to fit into it. One of the Korean girls had a bigger bed so we asked if she minded swapping. You would have thought this would not be an issue as it was still a bed, but she kicked up a right fuss and refused to move. Sadly after a 7 hour drive this did not go down well with us and it may have led to some abuse from both parties. Poor Bimba ended up having to drive to another camp and find a spare ger to house us for the night as the Koreans refused to budge on their bed decision. It was an amusing way to start the trip but at least we ended up with a bed each!!

For those of you who aren't familiar with what a ger is, its a traditional Mongolian home. They are white circular tents which consist of a few beds and a stove in the middle. While driving through the country you see them dotted around. Every 100km you see villages of gers which are where the schools are and they tend to have a little shop. Gers that are out in the countryside are what we would consider farmers. They tend to have horses and camels around the camp and then lots of livestock spread out in the distance.

After a good nights sleep we decided to have a look around our surroundings in the daylight. We had a huge mountain range as the back drop to our camp. We went walking to get a better view and climbed one of the hills close by. At the top you cannot see anything other signs of life, we were able to see for miles and miles.

Once we were down we got back in the car ready for another 7 hour journey. The Gobi Desert may look relatively close to Ulan Bator, but when the top speed is 40kph it takes a lot longer than you think!! After driving a few hours we got to a different type of mountain range, it looks like lots of lumps which you could drive all the way to the top of. This was proper 4x4 to get up to the top and very fun!! Once up there we had a wander around and found a snake. The driver was so scared he moved the van away from it. It was the tiniest snake but apparently they view snakes as a devils animal and consider them bad luck.

We carried on and got to our camp in time for sunset. This camp was in the middle of the Gobi Desert so was perfect to watch the sun setting. The family we stayed with had camels, I have never smelt anything as bad as they smell!!

While mingling among the camels, Bimba decided to show us how friendly they were by giving one a kiss. As she puckered up, the camel let rip! A huge green blob of what can only be described as snotty spittle flew at her and covered her face and head. Through our laughs and her screams she managed to negotiate her way through the rest of the camels and back to the safety of the bus, where she washed her hair several hundred times. I think she learnt a lesson.

The next day we were up ready for our final day of driving to the Gobi Desert. Our destination was a little city where we could stock up on food and have a shower before we headed off into the desert. While we were here we started to talk to Bimba about what things we would be doing and decided because we had come so far we would add an extra day and night on to our stay to make it really worth while. This would mean we get to see a waterfall, the old city and one of the biggest monastery's. By this point we were all starting to feel worn out with the trip. No-one had anticipated how much driving we would have to do and there are obviously no toilets anywhere. The families we stayed with live in the middle of nowhere and their toilets consist of a hole in the ground, which sometimes would have a shack built around to hide your modesty. You would be amazed how quickly you adapt to this type of living, but we were ready to spend some time outside the car seeing things.

Luckily on day four we started our trip properly. In the morning we got up an drove to the ice valley. Because of the time of year not much ice was left, but it was flipping freezing!! All wrapped up warm we headed off on our 5k walk to see the ice valley. It started out with rolling green hills, then you start to walk between the mountains, They are so high and you have to clamber over rocks to get down into the valley. The rock formations here were beautiful and it was a completely different terrain to what we were used to.

Our second stop was to see dinosaur excavation site. This place was like dried mud and you could honestly imagine dinosaurs being there. Its like a big valley (this might have been because of the excavation but I'm not sure) which we were at the bottom of, so we climbed up to the top to take a better look. When we got to the top we found the most spectacular view over the valley. Behind dropped into the valley which had a bizarre formation and in front was mud lands for as far as you could see. It wasn't difficult to imagine that they had found lots of fossils here. It was exactly how you pictured dinosaurs living when you were a kid.

Our final stop of the day was at the sand dunes. We arrived here just as the sun was setting. This view is shown on the front of the Lonely Planet for Mongolia for those who want to see it and it's where our ger was for the night. The land is completely flat, then out of nowhere the sand dunes appear, then directly behind them is a mountain range. Watching the sunset over all of this from of ger was pretty out of this world. We decided then that we would get up at sunrise and walk to the top of the sand dunes. Bimba arranged with the family that we could use there camels to get closer so at 6am the next morning we got up bleary eyed ready for our day. Unfortunately there were not enough camels for everyone, so Sarah decided to sacrifice her place so everyone else could ride the camels! This now meant Sarah got to ride a motorbike with Bimba and one of the family to the sand dunes instead. Amazing. Sarah now wants a motorbike.

We got there expecting just sand dunes, and found the most amazing sight. The sand dunes were massive and out of this world. Its the type of sight you see in books all the time, but to see it in person is fantastic. We climbed up to the top of one of the sand dunes and found they went on even further than first though. They are so vast and cast amazing shadows on each other. These are definitely worth a Google as words can't really describe it.

Bill and Tom decided there was only one way to get down the sand dunes, and that had to be roll down them. These sand dunes are a lot higher than you guys probably think, they picked up speed pretty quickly! Bimba and guy looking after the camels found this hilarious! Even Sarah rolled down one part of the dune! Tom has been finding sand for days later!

Unfortunately when we got back to the bottom Sarah and Bimba's driver had gone. Bimba told us apparently he was tired because he was still drunk so had gone back to sleep! She found it very funny we hadn't noticed, apparently he stank of booze! So this now meant Sarah and Bimba had to pair up with Laura and Suzanne on a camel to get back. This really wasn't the most pleasant experience. They don't have proper saddles, they just put a blanket between the two humps. Laura and Sarah now have bruises in places you shouldn't and are not in a hurry to get back on a camel again!

We were very sad to leave this ger and wished we could have had longer, but we had to head off again to get to our next place. We were starting to head back north up the country now. The driver stopped at his mother in-laws ger on the way. We got a more traditional experience than we were expecting. Gers are very small, and when we got inside we found a sheep hanging dead inside. The smell was awful. Laura had to leave immediately, the rest of us managed to sit through it.

Apparently it is a tradition (and seen to be very lucky) to eat the insides of an animal when you come to visit family, so the mother in law immediately brought out a bowl of the sheep organs. In Mongolia younger people are unable to refuse anything offered by an elder, so this now meant Bimba had to eat some of the organs as a sign of respect. This was enough to make anyone want to be sick and it took a lot to sit next to her and hold it in (this is Sarah by the way). We were lucky enough to get away with not being offered the organs, apparently they know the tourists won't eat them! However she did bring out some milk tea, which Bimba quickly told us we weren't allowed to refuse. I shot in there pretty quickly and explained I cant eat diary products so managed to get away with it. However, the lads weren't so lucky and had to drink the tea. That stuff does funny things to your insides so was glad not to drink it!

Finally we were on our way again, the lady had been kind enough to give Rucksha part of the animal which had to sit on top of our backpacks. Nice. It was in a bag, but when stuff is flying everywhere while you go over bumps, your never quite sure when a sheep's head might fall on your lap!

When we got to our ger we were able to head into the town and get another shower. The have bath houses that everyone in the city goes to twice a week to have a shower. Our first one had been an amazing shower, unfortunately the second shower wasn't so good. But either way it was nice to have a wash! That night was the most cold night we experienced to this point, no one slept most of the night. We have only got little sleeping bags and the gers don't hold the heat in as much as you would think.

After a sleepless night we got up early and headed into town to pick up some shopping and use the internet café, Its amazing that we can be in the middle of Mongolia and see be able to get the internet, but pretty sad at the same time that we went in and used it. After a few minutes on the net to check the rest of the world hadn't collapsed we headed off on our drive to a family who live near a waterfall. The landscape is changing so much now, we were used to dry desert and now we have rivers and green mountains. We had to ford many rivers on the way, which was very fun. We stopped for lunch in a beautiful area. For those people who have seen House of Flying Daggers, it was like the final scene where the snow starts to fall. We were seeing trees for the first time in Mongolia and all the colours are starting to turn on the leaves.

Our camp was at the waterfall and is a larger tourist camp, with a wooden fence surrounding it and a few wooden shacks which were closed as the main season is over. We had a lovely ger which was decorated by the owner, he is apparently famous for painting gers. The toilet here was a wooden shack that was leaning precariously to one side, it looked like it would fall over as soon as you entered!

The green(ish) field around the ger lead down to a huge gorge and we were able to look down over the waterfall from above. The rocky stream leading up to it was a perfect spot for photographs. We decided to head down to the base of the waterfall and after a fairly steep climb down the rocks were met by a beautiful stream surrounded by green trees. It was a lovely walk through all the changing leaves to the waterfall. After many photographs, Bill decided he was brave enough for a dip... a very quick one at that!

When we arrived back in camp we noticed a ram tied to a satellite dish, as we got closer he decided to charge us and actually managed to pull the satellite along. Bill decided to introduce himself and went to pet him. Bimba the guide was horrified and shouted "No! Don't! It's a bad ram!" Apparently the family do not like the ram as he causes trouble! The family watched in awe as Bill tied him to a fence. However when we woke up in the morning the ram has escaped and was nearly out of sight! Bill brought him back to the camp with some gentle encouragement. He was later found staring at the door of our ger, scary!!!

The waterfall was such a tranquil and relaxing place, it was great to chill out after all the driving. Later that evening we were invited into the families ger, we enjoyed watching a bit of Korean soap opera! The grandma and grandpa are looking after their 8 month old grandson, we were (well me! - Laura) intrigued why he wasn't wearing a nappy. His grandmother explained that he is already toilet trained and goes when she holds him between her legs- we were very impressed! Bimba explained that the family are worried the baby is too skinny. Although he looked healthy to us, Mongolian families like their babies to be chubby so that they can survive the very cold winters. We later learned that last year a huge amount of Mongolian livestock and people living in the countryside died because the temperature dropped to -40 degrees. The local people use animal poo to burn for heat and we often saw them collecting it ready to use as fuel in the winter.

The next day we drove to the Old Capital, this was the capital of Mongolia during the reign of Ogodei Khaan before it was moved to Beijing, and then onto Ulan Bator. This is now where all the monks and their families lived as the main focus is the Monastery. Monks are now allowed wives and families to our surprise. The monastery is mostly destroyed now because of the Soviets but there are still remains and part is still in use. When the Soviets destroyed the Monastery they also killed about 300 monks. We were surprised to find that this was actually seen as a positive by Mongolians as they felt that monks were almost holding Mongolia to ransom, so it gave them more freedom.

Walking around the Monastery is strange as they are mainly remains, but it was so interesting to have Bimba give us an insight into Mongolian life. Apparently her grandmother walked for a month across Mongolia to get to this Monastery as Mongolians felt it would lengthen their lives. There were still three temples which you could go inside and Bimba explained the different statues while we were inside them. There are so many superstitions, so its so interesting having Bimba with us to tell us all about their culture and way of life.

After the Monastery Bimba said there was another place we could go that wasn't part of the tour. It was a huge statue of a penis! She had never taken any tourists here as she was too embarrassed, and even taking us she was still very shy. When we got there we were amazed that it was actually a statue of a penis and they had gone into quite a lot of detail. Apparently the statue of the penis was erected as a punishment for monks who had slept with women and got caught. This was not allowed before so the monk would be made to meditate for 7 days and nights in the cold as a punishment by the statue. After a few pictures (much to Bimba's embarrassment) we headed back to our ger for the night. We were sad this was our last night, but so ready for some real food. After 8 days of three carbs lunch and dinner and no veg we all wanted some healthy food!

Our last day was spent driving back to Ulan Bator which was on a paved road, this felt luxury to us!! Once we were back we headed out to get our souvenirs and then onto dinner with some friends to celebrate our last night in Mongolia.

We have had a lovely time in Mongolia, it was so different to anything we had ever experienced. There is more livestock in Mongolia than people and it is very noticeable. Every day was completely different and it has some of the most amazing sights. If you can cope with long drives this country is the place you need to come.

Sarah has already started planning her next visit!