Claire de Lune

The Gobi Desert

The Earth is not a Cold Dead Place

－Explosions in the Sky

I’ve never been in a desert before, at least not without some ruins or other feature that was the focus of my attention at the time. It was far more impressive than I expected, and I’d expected impressive sights. There was also more life than I’d thought there would be. Besides the camels that some of our group rode out on the second day…

…there were also little lizards, beetles leaving veined tracks in the sand, and plenty of shrubs and grass.

We spent the night camping in the desert, which was the best decision we made the entire trip. Not only did we see the sunset…

…and sunrise…

…but the stars as well. You really can’t see the stars at all in Shanghai, so this was especially wonderful. The title of this blog post is particularly appropriate because the moon was unbelievably bright. Flashlights were unnecessary, since you could easily find your way under the moonlight. I didn't think to take a picture at night, but you can see the moon even in this early morning shot:

We could often see efforts to combat desertification:

My strongest memory is of the enormous beauty of the desert. It is easily my favorite place to have traveled in China.