Bayan-Zag – Flaming Cliffs
Mongolia, June – July 2019
Day 6 – 26 Jun: Gobi Desert – Bayan-Zag
We said goodbye to our hosts and left for our 3 day journey up north. Our first stop was at the Khavtsgait Petroglyphs, dating from between 8000 BC and 3000 BC and carved in the rocks scattered on a large hill, mostly depicting animals. A welcome stop to stretch our legs.
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We continued to our destination of today, Bayan-Zag, also known as Flaming Cliffs. In the 1920s palaeontologists found the first dinosaurs eggs here. The name Flaming Cliffs was given because during sunset the bright ochre red sandstone cliffs really seem to be on fire.
Talking about fire, and on a more personal note, the place has burnt permanent marks on my legs… When I was too busy considering the composition of a photo I lost my balance, slipped and when trying to recover balance my camera was flying out of my hands; in a reflex I dove after it, catching it mid-air, but only then realised the ground in front of me was much lower than where I came from… I made a pretty hard landing and slid down some nasty gravel… I’ll spare the photos!
This time of the year there are no nomads living in the area, so there was no other choice than to stay in a so-called tourist ger-camp. We were glad we didn’t have many nights in such camps, as they lack any atmosphere and there are no locals to mingle with. On the positive side, they’re pretty luxurious and clean.
