zhongwei & the tenga desert

During the train journey, I saw a lot of different scenery- mountains, dry plains, narrow channels... however the most interesting part was passing a massive military operation! It seemed that they had been camping for a training exercise, but they were loading a lot of trucks & cannons onto a cargo train, with about 30 tanks in the background! A little unnerving. On arrival in Zhongwei, we walked through the centre of town, which was bigger than I expected (although nothing compared to Beijing!). A day trip out of town took us past high mountains, where we stopped at a tiny village on the Yellow River (more a collection of a few mud houses than a village really). We went goat-skin rafting, which was exactly as it sounds. Inflated goat skins tied together, with some sticks & cushions on top. You could actually see the shape of the goat's legs still! Was a very unique, peaceful & cool experience- floating down the river, seeing nothing except mountains, several houses, sheep and goats. The only downside was the extreme cold & slight drizzle. We ate dinner in the local food markets which was delicious- dumplings & filled pita bread for under $2! The whole day we didn't see one other tourist which was great. The next morning we left for our camel trek & overnight stay in the Tenga Desert (right on the edge of Inner Mongolia). We stopped on the way to see a very ancient part of the Great Wall made out of packed mud. We met up with our convoy of 20 camels and 4 drivers. It was really fun trekking on the camels! It was nice & slow, and VERY bumpy going down the hills. We passed through low scrub at first, but soon it was just sand dunes into the distance! After about 2 hours we stopped for a break. We ate lunch, collected firewood for the night, went sand-toboganning & played hacky-sack. Once the drivers had rounded up the camels after letting them roam free for lunch, we travelled a bit further then set up camp for the night. After collecting more firewood & putting up the tents, we sat around the fire drinking & toasting marshmallows. It got quite cold so we stuck close to the flames. Our BBQ dinner took about 4 hrs to cook all the food, as it was so tiny! I tried very strong rice wine (yuk!) that the camel drivers were drinking like water! One of the girls in the group was celebrating her birthday, so we had firecrackers & cupcakes & a singing candle. We retreted to our freezing tents, and I was grateful for the 6 layers of clothing I was wearing! After a pretty shocking sleep on hard, slopey ground, I got up early & explored the surrounding dunes. After the drivers had a few big swigs of rice wine, we were ready to leave. We trekked for about 2 hrs, then met up with our minibus & civilization! I really enjoyed my camel experience! We killed time back in Zhongwei, before buying some 'Great Wall' red wine & having a bit of a food stall crawl at the markets. After stuffing ourselves, we boarded the night train to Xi'an.