Desert dog

The main place we were due to visit was the Flaming Cliffs, red sandstone cliffs where many of Mongolia’s dinosaur fossils have been found, and which looks at its best at sunset. On the way we stopped to see the Ongi monastery, which used to house 1000 monks and is now a ruin following the Stalinist purges of the 1930s.

The family we were staying with live a few kilometres from the main cliffs and a short walk from some smaller cliffs. We arrived about 4.30pm and had a couple of hours to wander around before going to the Flaming Cliffs for sunset. The family dog decided to come for a walk too and was very good at climbing cliffs! The extra shows the view in the opposite direction.

As we went back from these small cliffs, the wind got up and clouds rolled in and by the time for sunset it was pouring rain. We didn’t go to the Flaming Cliffs! The storm lasted all night, with the wind blowing the rain and sleet horizontally, proving again how tough a place this is for the people who live here.