| |
 e have left the Southern Altai Gobi Nature Reserve, although we are not sure exactly when we did. We are in the southern-most part of the Gobi and very close to China. We are crossing shimmering black gravel plains that seem to stretch to eternity -- everything here goes on forever.
The heat rises off the plains in scorching waves. Sometimes our eyes grow weary of the same landscape and our bodies rebel against the constant need to keep going. We keep our sleeves rolled down to keep the burning sun off our skins. We have been pushing hard, averaging 33 miles per day to avoid the July heat that we know will be over 120 degrees. In July we will have to stop during the middle hours so that we can put up our shade and try to survive the heat.
For the next few days we will be traveling through an area of no human habitation and no water. At this point even a single tree would be a welcome sight.
Many people want to know what we eat on these long treks. Here is our basic diet:
Breakfast..oatmeal, dried fruit, milk powder, hot chocolate
Day snacks...crackers, dried fruit, cookies, cold chocolate drink,
Dinner...rice, instant potatoes, dried meat bits, soup, cookies, hot
chocolate, dried fruit.
Dried fruit is dates, aprocots, bananas, apples, pineapple.
Supplements...Vitamin C, multi vitamin-mineral supplement, calcium
The camels survive by browzing desert vegetation. We give them one cookie each in the morning and
at night as a reward.
|
