Mongolia 2018

We left Beijing late in the evening and arrived in Ulan Bator nearly at midnight. As we decided to go on a small group tour, we were relieved that we would be met at the airport and whizzed to our hotel without having to think.

We had a whole day to check out the city before we met up with the group and tour leader. We visited Genghis Khan Square there was a lot of activity there with groups of locals visiting the city, wedding parties, associations etc many in the local costumes, from there we went to the National History Museum which was well worth the visit, then we found the Lama Temple Museum originally built in1904 it is worth a visit but has a hefty fee if you wish to take photos inside.

Genghis Khan Square

In the evening we met the tour leader and the rest of the group (12 in all including us). We discovered we were having an extremely early start the following morning as we were flying to Dalanzagad it seemed quite a large but unremarkable town, though we had no time to explore much as we shopped for snacks and water then into one of the three four wheel drives and we then sped off to explore the Gobi Desert. We stopped for a short hike at Yolyn Am /Vulture Canyon. It was really an easy stroll and I saw a cute native rodent, birds and interesting flora. We arrived at a slab of thick ice between the walls of the canyon rocks that looked like it could have been part of a glacier, but it’s just the remnants of the ice field. After this we had lunch then headed to our first ger camp (Gobi Mirage). We were allocated our gers, I learnt very quickly to bend low to enter and leave due to low doorways.

Vulture Canyon

The following day we drove to our next camp, the drive through the Gobi Desert was fascinating, it is not sandy but made up sparse shrubs and gravel there were a number of wild horses that look very emaciated some on the verge of death. We also saw many herds of goats and sheep, however goats predominated as there is more money to be had from there cashmere fleece.

Cashmere Goats

We arrived at our next ger accommodation at the Khongor Dunes we had a packed lunch then we were on our way to visit a nomadic family.  The family we were set up to visit had moved on our drive we went in search of another family. We literally saw a ger with children playing and asked them to get their parents and our guide asked if we could visit. The 12 of us plus our guide shuffled into their ger sat around while the woman made us a milk tea with barley then dried meat cooked in it. We all had a taste not wasn’t as bad as it sounds. Our guide had bought supplies on our behalf to give the family as a thank you.

The next day we had a camel ride. The Bactrian camels have an ideal place to sit between their humps, unfortunately it’s on the spine and the saddle was not comfortable so the whole ordeal was very painful. I have ridden both types of camels and neither has been an enjoyable experience (never again). We arrived at some of the dunes and in front of them was a stream and the area was green with a number of families with their flocks camp by.

Sand Dunes

The Khongor dunes are beautiful and extend 180km along the north side of the mountains and due the prevailing winds they don’t encroach into the countryside. We climbed the dunes which was not too difficult but nearing the top it seemed one step forward two back but eventually made it with a little help from those already at the top. We then had a free afternoon to wander around the countryside near our camp.

The next day off to Bayanzag, The Flaming Hills where the first fossilized dinosaur eggs were found. It’s a stark brilliant russet red landscape similar to Central Australia. I was exhilarating to walk around the area imagining the excitement of making that discovery.

We then headed off to a rather nondescript town for lunch followed by a long drive to our next ger camp (Gobi Mirage).