Freezing our #@!#’s off in the Gobi

Well, the big thing is that it’s cold! as in really cold. Or maybe not really cold, but it feels really cold cause I’ve gotten used to the heat. Two days ago, I wore a short sleeved shirt and was sweating badly, today, I have long-johns and a down jacket to keep from shivering. The thermometer claim that it’s 6 degrees C outside, though I’m not convinced cause a couple of hours ago, a pair of polar bears walked past camp, heading south.

The camp is superb, it really is. Though there is a slight mistake in the planning. It is great for summer temperatures, but we only have one stove (which would be OK, we could heat up one ger and stay there) but there is no firewood, dung or coal to burn in the stove (this could off course be solved if we had a vehicle but that left for UB five days ago)). That car was returned to Snow Leopard Enterprise, a local NGO, who needed it back. The plan is that as soon as SLT has wired money to buy a new car the staff in UB will do so and send it here. We are kind of hoping that it will happen fairly soon cause we are running low on water and Midget heard on the radio that it’s going to snow tomorrow, so just a little bit of heat would be kind of neat.

I know that 6 degrees isn’t really cold, but it gets kind of cold when it’s the same temperature inside and you never get warm. And as I wrote, my body has probably just adjusted to the heat in the Gobi so it feels
colder than it is.

The rain has probably clogged up our snares so our hopes to catch a cat tonight aren’t very high, lessens the motivation to hike up signal mountain a bit… Well, I have looked at the trap camera pictures, done some calculations and are now fairly sure that we will catch our next snow leopard on the 2nd of September. Plus – minus one day.

Old Mr Dog (also known as Chico) died yesterday. I knew that it would happen quite soon and when I said goodbye before I left for Mongolia, I wasn’t sure that I would see him again. Still it feels really sad. He was a god dog and we had some great hunts together. I still remember when we got him, a summer day 11 years ago my step dad asked if I wanted to go for a trip to southern Sweden. I tagged along and all of a sudden we were at a kennel and half an hour later as a puppy was sleeping in the car and we were headed home my step dad said “it’s your job to introduce it to your mom cause she won’t be as upset at you as she would be with me”. Funniest thing with the dog was that he loved to retrieve stuff and if he got bored or excited, he tried to steal your socks or shoes and hopefully something fun would come out of it. I remember a couple of years ago when I packed for a trip to Zimbabwe, Chico got really excited when he saw me pack and decided to take my sandals and bury them in the snow. It wasn’t exactly love I felt when I realized that the sandals were gone, well, I found them in spring  (a bit molded). I will miss Chico, he was a good dog.

Have to sign out, Namshur is doing the evening check inside the ger and one of the traps is set, got to put on some clothes and check it out. If its a leopard it will be interesting to dart it in this wind.

—

Back again, the trap was tripped but nothing in it. Damn it.