Khan’s Revenge

The overnight power outage goes unnoticed, but I have a rough night courtesy of a howling wind and unexpectedly high temperatures. Having suffered with the cold mornings in Zimanga I have brought all sorts of cold weather gear for our dawn shoots, but the day dawns with the Gobi Desert at 26C. I don a T shirt, and suspect I have wasted half my luggage allowance. Sod it.

The dawn shoot echoes the evening one. We have the same herders (and quite possibly the same "lead" camels) in a slightly different location the highlight of which is that 4 out of 5 Land Cruisers get stuck in the sand and have to be towed out. I get more great shots, especially with a great dawn breaking behind the models, but it’s very much an extension of the previous session.

Back at the camp I am suddenly struck by what can most politely be described as "Khan’s Revenge", and have a difficult morning running frequently to the facilities. Fortunately things seem to settle down during the afternoon, but it’s all a bit ominous given the amount of driving and flying on coming days.

After lunch I have a kip, and then plan to catch up with the blog. However I’m stymied by yet another power failure. I have internet access courtesy of a local SIM (which if I understood correctly gives me 15GB for about £4), but no power to the PC. Oh well.

I decide that discretion is the better part of valour and opt out of the sunset shoot, which based on weather conditions looks like becoming an extension of the previous two. The night has also been tagged for possible astro shots, but with heavy cloud cover that looks increasingly unlikely. I therefore hide in the bar, waiting for power to be restored, and am rewarded with a cut-price beer because the lad behind the bar has opened one too many, and selling it to me half-price is the easiest way to sort out the stock position. Excellent!