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Inner Mongolia's Lost Water

By Carole Herdegen

My second Earthwatch project was another unique and fascinating adventure, traveling well into the Badain Jaran Desert, a section of the larger Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of the Republic of China.

This desert has the highest sand mountains in the world with a relative height of 1,640 feet,

however, reaching an above sea-level altitude of 5,900 feet. Our designated mode of transportation would be camels.

The trip could never have been made if it were not for Professor Wei-Zu Gu, Director of Nanjing Institute of Hydrology and Water Resources and his lifelong research into finding the causes of the rapid loss of arable land. His research became an Earthwatch project for which the Chinese government provided permission for us to travel where very few foreigners and even the Chinese are not permitted to go.

Just as my Australian Marsupial Rescue project was classified as "long term", so too was the Lost Water project. That is, both were studies involving more than a decade of research. One of the many long-term goals of the Lost Water project was the restoration of desert areas to facilitate the return of vegetation. 2000 years ago great cities stood where there is only desert today. What happened? These cities ran out of water and the land turned to desert.

Our team of seven would travel across the desert for 19 days. With only four of these days did we perform vital research. Our camp site was located next to a spring-fed lake surrounded by high sand mountains and shifting desert sands.

Our initial meeting place was Yingchuan, the capital of Ningxia Autonomous Region in the eastern part of Northwestern China. From there we traveled by bus to Alxa Youqi, a Mongolian city on the edge of the Gobi Desert.

We then were driven by jeep to a small community in the desert where a camel train was organized to take us to our final research destination, our base camp.

The round trip was 1,048 miles. Add to that another 70 miles

by camel. Prior to our arrival at the desert, we stayed in small hotels where it was possible to taste regional cooking. Then came the true adventure. -- being part of a camel train.

The first part of the train consisted of eight camels roped together. These were the "beasts of burden" designated to carry all our supplies, tents, food, and research equipment. Behind these were another 2 camel teams of researchers, our professor, his staff and the Mongolian camel guides.

Our typical day in the desert on camels began at 6:00 a.m. when the morning was still completely dark. Until 7:30 a.m., we would be packing up, breaking down our tents and then enjoying a breakfast around a Mongolian style campfire. Between 8 and 9:00 a.m., we had to patiently wait while the Mongolian guides gathered the roaming camels that sometimes grazed far from the campsite. They were then loaded up with all our gear and equipment.

We rode our camels about 10 hours a day, stopping every two hours to stretch our legs, have a snack or "dine" on our packed lunches. These stops were extremely important to us because straddling a broad camel for 10 hours a day is a most painful experience, almost disengaging our hip joints. But we survived - barely. Only one in our group was thrown from a camel. Fortunately, there were no broken bones but unfortunately, some bruising. These desert animals are wild and could become very nervous by loud noises. Even a sudden shout from any one of us could spook the camels resulting in riders landing on the ground. This is why this is one of the few Earthwatch expeditions that require emergency medical evacuation insurance. With the nearest hospital being 8 hours away, an injured researcher would have to be air-rescued by the Chinese Air force at a cost of more than $20,000.

We normally arrived at our new campsite at about 7:00 p.m. or sometimes earlier if a sand storm was imminent. I can now legitimately proclaim that I know how to single-handedly

set up a tent in a sand storm, having had to do so on several occasions. After setting up camp and having dinner around the camp fire, I would take some hot water back to my

tent to wash up before going to bed. Water continues to be the most precious commodity in the desert. We made certain there was a sufficient amount carried on the backs of the camels along with our food supply. Actually, I can't think of a more dangerous place of being lost than in a desert.

I do not intend for the reader to think that this project is comparable to the more than 100 other Earthwatch projects. Why? Because it isn't. The expedition briefing booklets on all Earthwatch trips are very clear and concise.

They are structured and intended that there be no surprises upon arriving at a designated meeting point. Each booklet contains a written breakdown of a project's physical demands, such as those to be encountered on the Lost Water Project. The briefing booklet envisages the worst possible scenarios such as:

Climbing:	on camels - up to 1,300-1.900 feet high for an average of 5 hours a day; however sometimes as long as 12 hours a day.
Walking:	on average, 3 to 6 miles per day ranging from 1 to 5 hours.
Sitting:	traveling to and from field sites in buses and jeeps for periods of 3 to 4 hours, however, sometimes up to 12 hours a day.
Carrying Loads:	we all had to be physically fit to carry all of our personal items.

My four days of research at the campsite were very rewarding. Our concentration was on the formation of the desert sand dunes and lakes. One of my tasks was to measure the size and depth of the lake from a plastic dingy.

We also had to measure the water's salinity and get a profile of water temperature and then construct a water density profile of the lake. What interested me most was finding microliths, pottery, and stone implements which proved the existence of pre-historic human settlements. This meant that there was a good water environment during the Paleolithic period through to the Neolithic period (6,000 -10,000 BC). Finding bits of pottery also proved that these early tribes were not entirely nomadic but lived in more permanently structured settlements.

The Lost Water project was difficult and physically challenging. However, there was not a single day that went by during which I didn't pinch myself to realize and fully appreciate that I was really in the middle of the great Gobi desert, riding a camel and experiencing a journey that few seasoned world adventure travelers would ever know.

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