Imagine for a moment you are swamp frog. Bear with me here. You decide you need a vacation. You decide to go to a warm, sunny, dry place. What do you pack? Well, that's obvious. Some sunscreen, your swimsuit and sunglasses. What do you leave at home at the swamp? Your raincoat and umbrella, right?

Wrong !

I met a Frenchman in desert. I never asked him, but I don't think he was a legionaire. Anyway, he told me this story. He had always wanted to take a camel trek across the desert. Well, the opportunity presented itself while he was in Dunhuang, Gansu Province of Western China. That's were we met.

A local outfit provided everything a tourist needed for a desert trek. So, he embarked on his 3 day trek. The first day was without event. Just dunes, dunes and more dunes. However, things changed that night. The outfit, chose a camp next to a dry river bed. That night it poured rain. The dry river bed turned into a raging river. When he woke. He was on one side and the camels were on the other. He had to wade across. I didn't ask why the camels couldn't cross, but I think camels can't swim? What do you think? For most of the morning, he had to dry his clothes. By the way, he had no sleeping blanket. He slept under a tree. By afternoon, his stuff had dried and the camels still couldn't swim ! That night they choose a more favorable spot. But guess what - it poured again. Remember, this is the Gobi desert. After three days and two wet nights..............

These were his words to me - in an Inspector Clouseau accent,

"Mon ami, zee dezert, she haz weather, no' ?"