July 28, 2005
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So, I’m here in Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian capital. Things went well this field season, and I’ll be back in the US for the last few hours of July.
So, I will tell you all the worst story of the trip, since it is vurtually pictureless. It was the suckiest suck that ever sucked.
On July 14, I decided to go a little far and check out a sight about 50 km north of camp. This may not seem far, but consider we can’t go much faster than 25 km/hr on most roads, other roads are more like 10-15 km/hr. So, the day went well, and we headed home.
At 4PM, our car died. We tried to fix it. Well, I didn’t, but the others tried. By 8:30, the driver went to walk to a local ger to get help. He came back at 10:30 with no help (no one was home). By 11:30, 3 of us (the driver stayed) decided we would walk back to camp, which was 19.8 km (~12 mi) south of us. It was a quarter moon, and setting fast. We thought we could make it to camp and get the other vehicle in 4 hours.
One big issue was we had little water. So, 3 of us set off at 11:45 PM with 2 L of water between us. We rationed it and only took sips every few hours. The moon was set by 12:45, and we had to walk through the Gobi without light, over much shrubbery, and seemingly hundreds of E-W trending ridges which had ~100+m topography each.
Let me just say that I am embarrassed on how I acted. I’ve never been so tired and thirsty. It does not help that I breath with my mouth and evaporate water quickly by basically panting when I am out of breath. By the end, I was delerious. I was seeing things, I was staggering instead of walking, I could not walk in a straight line. I tripped over many bushes because I could not lift my legs very high. I had no sense to anything I said. I wanted breaks, but the others pushed me to be faster so we couls get there faster. I’ve never been that bad. It was a sad “moment” in my life for sure.
We got to camp 6 hours later, at 5:45 AM with dawn breaking. I immediately drank 1 L of water, and tried to go to bed before the sun came up too high. At 6 AM sharp, the van DROVE INTO CAMP. I couldn’t believe it. Turns out an early morning car came to our driver’s aid. I feel like I almost collapsed, passed out, or died. Certainly not the way I wanted to spend that night.
I did manage to get about 1 hour of sleep. Luckily, the next day was not afield day, but a travel day, so I did rest up.
So, that’s the worst story… it only gets better.
Comments (8)
glad you’re alive! and you made it! can’t wait for the pix and more stories!
Woah! Crazy man. Ah…you need the field stories for when you’re the crazy old prof who has walked 600 kilometers through Mongolia and been to the past 48 GSA meetings.
You learn a lot about yourself in moments like these. I had a similar experience once involving snow, a conoeing accident, and the Northwoods of Wisconsin. It’s amazing what you don’t want to admit to after the fact. This is a story to tell your grandkids some day, although you will probably leave out the less charming parts.
You’ll be the Mongolian Hero!
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Peace,
Darwin
Woah, that really does suck. I would have volunteered to stay with the car in case someone tried to steal it.
Like you said, it can only get better for you in Mongolia from here on out. Good luck with the rest of your trip. Just came back from mine the other day.
Okay, that was only one story. You were in Mongolia. You only have one story?!
From looking at your pics, Mongolia looks awesome. Your pictures tell a story…. Anyway, I don’t think i’m going to GSA this year, but I do thank you for the offer.