Orjan is a Swedish PhD student who bought a one-way ticket to Mongolia to work at the base camp of our long-term research project. These are his adventures…
Emma left today. This must be the emptiest day in the Gobi for me. We have built ten traps, put out a few cameras, checked some kill sites and enjoyed the mountains. This is a spectacular place. A week ago we caught an ibex in one of our traps. We got the snare off and let her go, she was a little shaky but otherwise she was in good shape. Seems as if ibex get a bit more stressed than snow leopards do and therefore the recommended drugs is not enough.
I have cracked or broken a rib, not sure which but it points out a little so I lean towards the latter. Not very fun when we are bouncing around on bikes and climbing mountains. Besides I broke it in such a stupid way that I can’t really whine about it.
Early one evening as I was typing in data on the computer, the ger suddenly got dark. We looked out and the sky was all yellow. A huge sandstorm was coming towards us. I didn’t think it would be too bad since we are in the mountains and we thought it was a little exciting at first (Yup, like two tourists). Soon it got a little more exciting, the storm ripped the ger’s cover and plastic sheet apart like nothing. We tied the ger down with our water cans, our gas cans, the two motorbikes, everything we had, but it was still a close call. I crawled around on the roof, trying to tie ropes across the biggest holes in the ger cover and putting heavy items on the roof while Emma tied down items along the walls. Most of our furniture got blown or knocked over as the ger moved, first the kitchen cupboard fell over, spreading broken plates and cups over the floor. Emma is a tough girl but she didn’t look completely happy as she hung on to one of the poles that hold the ger up to prevent it from going up into the air. The morning after we had a layer of sand all over the floor and our gear and the entire ger looked like a battle field. It must have been cold because there was still a layer of ice in all our water at two in the afternoon. Oyuna says that almost 20 people died in the storm. Poor herders, they probably had to tend to their animals. We were never in any real danger, if the ger had blown away we could have made a shelter with our furniture and some felt and stayed in our sleeping bags and blankets but I wouldn’t have wanted to go out in the storm for any longer time.
Hey, i am thinking of getting hold of another motorbike for my husband. He however is very worried around what type of risks could take place from motor biking accidents. Look his love is athletics so if he was disabled, he would likely kill himself, no laughs. Does biking injuries usually occur, or is it usually most likely death!