I'd Walk a Mile for a Camel?

Okay, when they told us there would be sand dunes in Dunhuang, I was picturing the dunes I'd seen before--maybe 40-50 feet high. These Gobi desert dunes were MASSIVE at about 600 feet high, at least. Because it was "golden week" holiday in China, we were not the only ones there. There were perhaps 500 camels either resting or carrying passengers up and down the dunes. It was a bonding experience between "master" and animal. I now feel close to "Fred," and empathized with his pain as he lugged all my weight up the steep dunes. At one point, he decided to take a short break without telling me and knelt down using his front knees. We rode for about an hour before I came to a realization . . . Confucius could have said, "He who rides too much on camel becomes Soprano in choir." We wanted to ride an ultra-light aircraft after the camel ride, but did not have enough time.

What a blast, though!

That's not a mountain ahead, that's just a sand dune! The Gobi Desert is amazing

Laraine, all set to start her camel journey. She's already jealous of the camel's long eyelashes.

These are a few of the camels who are resting. I'm sitting on one of them, ready for lift off.

I was the caboose on a 5-camel team. this was my view as we started out.

Doing a selfie is hard because you kind of need both hands to hang on to the camel.

Camel ride done, we're off to the oasis "Crescent Lake." Those are sledders in the distance.

The orange foot coverings are to minimize contact with the sand. Kind of an odd thing to do in the desert.

This is part of the oasis, a pagoda, with a "short" dune (maybe 200-300 feet high) in the distance. The lake is just behind this pagoda.