Count down progresses

Gobi trip on target for October 9th 2009 - watch this space

    K. Constable Maxwell,         
        kit@kitmax.com

Taklamakan desert
The Taklamakan is a vast desert plateau with an average elevation of 4,250 feet. It is the largest expanse of barren sand in Central Asia, covering 200,000 square miles. Stony desert forms an outer ring at the edge of the basin; a soil-covered plain dotted with occasional vegetation forms another ring between the stony desert and the vast sandy interior of the basin. The basin is the most remote place on earth from any sea. Climate is extremely dry with annual rainfall less than three inches. 85 percent of the interior Takla Makan is composed of sand dunes from 300 to 600 feet high. In some places a growth of tamarisk stabilizes dunes. Groves of poplar grow along rivers that cross the basin, and forming a striking contrast to the surrounding hot, dry sandy desert.

Thank you 'spacecowboy2006' for this interesting post - we shall enjoy scrambling up those 600ft dunes

Gobi Desert 2009

My next desert trip starts in October 2009 in Kashgar, North West China.

We drive across the Taklamakan Desert to Dunhuang and visit the 'Cave of 1,000 Buddhas' .

We enter the Gobi and travel to Khara Khoto, the 'Black City', lost for 700 years and now engulfed by desert sands.

More to follow...