The short ride back to Kharkhorin was done in plenty of time to get organised and meet our transport back to Ulaan Baatar.

Easier packing into a modern Toyota than a UAZ bread loaf van.

More advanced suspension was nice too, although the added distraction of a large screen playing music videos did not seem to improve our driver’s already questionable speed and direction smoothness.

Out of the hills and pleased not to be riding along this road.

Thankfully we didn’t have far to go, ninety kilometres or so, to the Little Gobi – where a long, thin strip of sand dunes seem to rise from far granite peaks and extend for eighty kilometres, punctuated by spring-fed lakes. Quite a strange sight in itself. We were staying in a small ger camp on a hill overlooking a vast landscape – one that I struggled to capture by camera.

Another bright home for the night.

For the second time in two months, I found myself riding a camel! This time, the rare two-humped Bactrian variety. Unlike last month’s ride, as one would expect for Mongolia over more-regulated-Australia, the ride was less tame. In a small train, we wandered to and over some of the dunes – pitching and rolling only a little as the magnificent animals took the terrain in their long stride.

Surely this hurts less than it looks.

I was fascinated watching each step as the two toes contacted the soft sand and spread the load evenly.

The camels being much wider than the horses we’d ridden on the previous day (even more so compared to our normal bike steeds), after an hour or so we were left walking like a gunslinger of yore. A walk around the lower reaches of granite peaks in Khongo Khan park was in order. It was quite hot and dry, so we didn’t spend overly long looking around some old buildings and just generally checking out the interesting plants and creatures.

Strangely tame ground squirrels.

Back to camp for dinner and another stroll up into the hills to see what we could see as the sun sank to the horizon.