Wind in the Sand Dunes of the Gobi Desert
The subtle sounds of wind and dunes singing in the Gobi desert.
Exploring the unearthly landscapes of the Gobi feels a bit surreal, almost like a dream. At times it feels like I’m floating, with no sound except my soft footsteps in the sand and heavy breathing as I climb the sand dunes. It can get a bit dizzying, especially in the first few days of a trip like this.
Then the wind picks up. Since there isn’t much for it to interact with, it can be pretty quiet even at high wind speeds. I first see the wind gusts as they approach, blowing sand around the dunes. It takes a while until I can hear them, and these gusts can stop and resume very abruptly.
With more sustained wind, the dynamic range of the soundscape gets crushed upwards. At times I have trouble hearing my companions because of the endless buffeting on my ears. Wearing a wool hat does help, similar to how windjammers protect microphones from wind hitting the capsules directly.
Wind that is quite constant at high speed can create another interesting sound in the desert. This is known as the song of the sand dunes, and it happens rarely but reliably in certain dry sandy deserts around the world. It’s not 100% clear what conditions need to be met for this to happen, but I think it’s a combination of the right temperature, humidity, wind speed and angle towards the sand dune. I had heard this sound on previous journeys but I was not very sure this would happen the extreme cold of the Gobi.
To my surprise, I could hear this easily and often while exploring the sand dunes at Khongoryn Els. It seemed to happen at high wind speeds when the angle was parallel to the dune face, creating the illusion that the wind was playing the sand dune like an instrument. Capturing a few recordings of this phenomenon was not easy as it was impossible to tell where the sound was coming from, and the wind that would make this happen also tended to overload the capsules of my mics immediately. There was quite a bit of trial and error involved but I finally managed to do it on the last day of the trip.
Oh yes, and temperatures dropped way below zero. Working with gloves was not always possible and my fingers were numb in seconds with the gloves off. It was one of my toughest expeditions but well worth the effort.