From the ger campsite, several walks were possible of which the most appealing were those towards and into/onto the boulder strewn mountain.

Some cows found a bit of shade underneath one of the sparse trees …

During these walks The Wandelgek had several encounters with bactrian camels that roamed the land searching for food, mainly green leaves from low hanging tree branches.

These camels live in the semi desert areas and further south in the Gobi desert and they are well equiped to survive in the desert without water for a long timespan.

This is also why humans prefer them over horses in those desert landscapes…

This was not my 1st encounter with Bactrian camels. Here are some other blogposts in which The Wandelgek photographed them:

Visiting a nomad family, horses, bactrian camels and living in a ger (Khögnö Khan NR)

On the road through Northern Mongolia (Uran Togoo NR)

Walking around Lake Karakul (Xinjiang, China)

The leaves that these camels eat are often quite leathery, because a thick leathery skin keeps the moisture in, even when its hot like in a desert. Camel’s stomachs can deal with these leaves while other animals don’t eat them.

Does anyone else out there agree with me that camels, when eating, look so completely satified and so engaged into tasting and enjoying every juicy flavor coming from those leaves? They really look like the ultimate ambassadors for promoting slowfood??

The Wandelgek walked from the ger campsite towards a small bunch of trees bearing juicy, green leaves and a herd of Bactrian Camels was enjoying a meal…

Then he walked south along the mountain side until he reached a less steep area between two steeper and higher areas and he started to climb up between those two higher areas. It was like a small mountain pass. At the other side he descended and now he had another view over the wetlands and the Mongol Els dune sea. He turned left and again followed the verge of the mountain, curving left.

When he returned to the vicinity of the ger campsite, at noon, it got really hot and The Wandelgek found this great spot to spend the hottest part of the day:

It was like mini cave where he was sheltered from the sun…

After a while, tharea around got shady too and The Wandelgek sat down on some rocks and he used that part of the day to rest a bit and to read about the upcoming parts of the journey that would be gorgeous and some stuff would even be spectacular.

There was some semi desert vegetation like thorn bushes, that grew from the cracks in and from the spaces between the rocks…

The Wandelgek made this 360⁰ view of the area of the Nature Reserve:

It had that feeling of a very old, ancient landscape that had been worn down by wind, rain, ice, and sun…

After a while the sun descended and the most of the heat dissappeared. …

Then he walked on. There was not really a trail to follow, but it was left to good judgement and common sense to decide where to walk, where to climb and where to crawl over the rocky slopes.

When evening came, it cooled down very quickly and it was time for The Wandelgek to return to the ger campsite.

The Wandelgek stayed here for 2 days and after those he drove further east, back into Central Mongolia and nearer to Ulaanbaatar.