I wandered out just after dawn and enjoyed the early desert morning. As I was walking I realized that I didn't hear anything, anything at all, other than my footsteps. I stopped and there was nothing. I was struck by the complete silence. I don't remember ever experiencing that before. Even the birds were quiet. It was a little unnerving. Finally the wheatears starting calling and I saw one of the shrikes hunting. A baby Tolai Hare tried very hard to be invisible.
We ate breakfast and set out with a boxed lunch for the day. Our destination was the Yol Valley. I was really looking forward to this day! The Yol Valley is home to a large population for Lammergeiers, aka Bearded Vultures. I have seen them in Spain and India, but they are such a cool bird! They drop large bones on rocks from great heights, breaking them open to feed on the marrow. The valley is a deep gorge, so deep that the river inside it has ice for almost the entire year. There are a lot of other birds found there, along with Ibex and Argali, a wild sheep.
We stopped at the entrance of the park where there was a small museum. I have to admit we were a bit amused by the very bad taxidermied animals. The snow leopard and lynx were almost unrecognizable. The wolf look like it had googly eyes! The three of us had a good giggle, which I am sure the museum staff didn't appreciate.
After we left the museum we drove into the gorge. We were delighted to see a group of yak grazing on the hills, including a little black and white baby. I had seen yaks in India, but these had much better coats, which swung side to side as they walked. There were also some really beautiful horses. The scenery, even before we got to the gorge, was fabulous.
We pulled up to the parking lot. I was so excited to see White-winged Snowfinches. We had looked for them in Spain, but didn't see them. They were all over the place! I know I amused everyone by my squeals. Rami and Max planned on hiking down the stream as far as they could. I again, planned on going slower. Sergie stuck with me, as she had pulled a muscle playing basketball. We walked down and crag-martins and house-martins were zipping over the water. We spotted a few Lammergeiers and Himalayan Griffons, another large vulture, soaring overhead. Two Common Cuckoos called. I was absolutely enjoying this place!
Sooner than expected, Rami and Max came back. They had gotten to an area of very thick ice and decided to not climb up and go on, as they didn't think it was safe. We went a little way down a side path, but then decided to move on to our next location. I was disappointed that we did not see any Ibex, but I think we got there a little late in the morning for them. One of the differences between this trip and birding trips that I have done is that we didn't leave nearly as early in the morning. This is an area that I could spend a lot of time in.
We left the Yol Valley and headed to an actual big town, Dalanzadgad. It is the capital of Omnogovi providence and has a population of about 25,000. Mining is the main occupation there. For the first time in several days we drove on paved roads! There was a natural history museum there, but it was closed for lunch when we arrived. We did a little shopping and had our boxed lunches at a small park. We visited a grocery store that had a great dinosaur in front of it. All of the grocery stores we went into in Mongolia had major displays of vodka. I was very surprised to see bottle of Tito's in this one, which is made in Texas, in with the Russian and Mongolian vodkas.
The museum finally opened after lunch. We went to several museums on this trip; this was my favorite. It has only been open a year. The building is very attractive and modern, with wonderful light. I would highly recommend visiting it if you ever find yourself in this area. There are fabulous fossils, including dinosaur eggs and a couple of skeletons. There are many historical artifacts. The exhibits were well laid out. We left and drove out of the city, passing an amusement park with a dinosaur theme. I wondered if it was called Jurassic Park. We got back to Gobi Nomad for our final evening there.
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