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 fter our sight-seeing side-trip is over we are glad to once more be on our way east across the Gobi. We're traveling through this giant oven with no 'off' switch. The temperatures have risen to 110 to 115 degrees F. for the last couple of days. I'm writing this journal entry in a ger where they allowed us to stay for a few hours to escape the heat. Even the family herd-guard dogs are seeking the sparse shade provided on the shady side of the ger.
The animal feed and water has dried up here, so tomorrow this family will load their camels and head many miles north to find another source of feed and water. Last night we helped another family herd their camels and goats and later we helped milk them. They are also moving today and will take with them cashmere and wool they have shorn from their animals to a small town in the north. Here they will sell this raw wool to a buyer who will then truck it to the capital for processing.
We are sitting in the ger with a nomad family. The evening herding has just been completed, which means that we are about to be served a bowl of mares milk -- a real test of survival for our western stomachs. It is so sour, much like a lemon. Just now a spinach salad would look wonderful. But there is no spinach in Mongolia.
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