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 n day two we discovered the full fury of a Gobi Desert storm that engulfed us in a black wall of sand driven by winds that we guessed to be 80 mile-per-hour. Small rocks hit our bodies like shrapnel. The choking sand and dust blotted out the sky and reduced our world to a few feet. We shoved on close-fitting goggles and bandanna masks as fast as our fingers could move, but our eyes were already watering from the blasts of sharp grit. Screaming wind slammed into us. Lightening struck the earth, and thunder cracked close behind. The camels were already crouched on the ground. We dove behind their humps just as the first wind-driven drops pelted us, stinging our backs with their force. We held onto their tie-down ropes to avoid being blown away. The camels, our life-saving anchors, were as still as stone, with heads close to the ground to screen out the blinding fury. Jagged streaks of lightening flashed so close we smelled the odor of burned air and earth. After three hours the storm passed by.  It was too late in the day to travel so we camped and began the process of digging our gear out from below a thick layer of sand
For the first days we've only seen a desert that stretches ahead of us in great rolling plains. Because this is still spring they are covered in a gray-green shroud of tiny plants no more than three inches high. The Altay Mountains form a high rocky barrier to the north with the highest peaks over 12,000 feet still wearing their snowy caps.
To the south lies a barrier of lower mountains that guard the Chinese border. Ahead, individual mountains rise up from the desert plains like ships at sea. The afternoon temperatures hover around 90 degrees F.
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