Once a year the herders of the southern Gobi bring their two humped camels to a single valley for two days of racing, polo and parades. A thousand camels in full winter coat, dressed in their best saddles, with riders in embroidered deel. It began as a way to protect the Bactrian camel, whose numbers were falling, and it has become the Gobi's biggest gathering.
The Gobi in March is cold, clear and empty of tourists. The camels are at their most handsome, the light is low and gold, and the herder families who host us have time to sit and talk, which they do not in July.
We fly to Dalanzadgad, drive to the festival ground and stay with a camel herding family nearby, then take the days after for the Flaming Cliffs and the dunes with nobody else on them.
