Gobi Desert, Mongolia

After spending 7 days in the heart of Gobi desert and more than 10 living like a nomad, I feel fine to be back to civilization. Gobi desert lies in the Southern part of Mongolia and it`s the fifth largest desert in the world, an outdoor heaven for me. In one week, we crossed just a small bunch of villages, few gers and nothing else. Wild nature only: exactly what I wanted to see, what I wanted to experience once more. It`s difficult to explain in few words the feelings felt in a such place as the range of emotions can be really wide: you can easily shift from asking yourself what the hell are you doing there, to enjoy the amazing taste of freedom in that epic emptiness; from swearing to the awful morning cold or rains to feeling happy just because of the beauty of the landscape is passing in front of your eyes... Or maybe, you can just sit to enjoy the unbelievable silence which covers almost everything there (except for my tinnitus, of course!)

I definitely had great times there, sometimes was tough, but I must admit it has been a great experience to live.
Here is some of the highlights from Gobi desert, something I won`t ever forget:
1) the white clouds painting the deep blue sky;
2) watching wild horses running free in the steppe: Gobi desert is the only place in the world where you can see the last few hundreds wild horses left;
3) watching how to slaughter a goat before tasting it on a traditional Mongolian barbecue;
4) watching the sunset from the top of the highest sand dune in Gobi, one of the most beautiful things I`ve ever seen ;D
5) sharing sniff tobacco with a real nomad;
6) enjoying vodka party with friends in traditional nomad tents (with no heater, running water, toilet or any similar comfort);
7) big empty spaces in all the directions, something difficult to imagine.

I want also to spend some words about the people that shared with me this adventure: they mainly made this experience so enjoyable. Traveling in desert with boring people can be deadly boring, but for god`s sake this wasn`t the case. It has been one week of fun, will be nice to remember all the jokes and parties we had in that rugged environment.
Last day in Ulan Bator, our way splits.
But the memory remains.