It was nice to meet a nomad family in the out skirts of Gobi desert today evening. They are our only neighbors here in this beautiful desert camping site. It felt like I am meeting my ancestors. I come from a shepherd community. My ancestors used to be nomads and herd their sheep and wander seasonally. My great grand father settled in Kolar, which used to have many lakes and huge number of shepherd settlements. Now with the increase in population and change in weather, Kolar is considered as an arid region and a drought prone area with few lakes and depleting ground water table in the deccan platue of India. Well, in my village my relatives still herd sheep, cattle and farm vegetables and rely heavily on the rain water.

Their hospitality was wonderful. They were leaving for their evening work when we reached their Yurt (as you can see in the picture). They gave us a warm welcome and made us sit and offered home made fried cookies. With all the stomach upsets we had in the Russia, we kinda hesitated to take fried stuff in the beginning. But, I ended up eating everything they gave and feeling stronger now. The Chai (tea with goat milk) followed the cookies. The elder person introduced to everyone in their family. It was nice to meet his three sons, one daughter in law and one grand daughter. They live a simple self sustained life. They have three hundred sheep, many cattle and horses. The contemporary technological advancement has made its way in these remote nomad yurts. Solar panels, cell phones and radio systems for weather updates have become part of their lives.

Meeting Nomadic family in the Yurt next to our camping site in the Gobi desert

Dairy products and meat comprises their daily diet. They rarely eat vegetables and fruits. Our interpreter “Baat” told us that every nomad is a literate and they have a very interesting school system. A child can transfer to a different school in between an academic year and continue the education. It makes the Mongolia 100% literate country. It’s a vast country with rich natural resources and scarce population. There is abundance of water in north part of the country and there is scarcity in the south with huge Gobi desert.
As sun was setting, sheep and horses were making their way back to their shelters creating a dusty dusk. The sky was crimson red all around and horizon was visible on all the sides with our yellow colored camps just half mile away. We tasted the horse milk and dried camel yogurt bar before we said good bye to them. I could feel an inexplicable unspoken sentiment with this life style and remembered my grandma telling stories about our history.

I will be the first BPR runner to run in the Gobi desert around 9 am tomorrow morning. The pavement ended today evening and we will be at the mercy of GPS from tomorrow till we reach north China.