Into the Gobi

Well, after 7 days of dust, bumps and shall we say monotonous food, it actually felt nice to be back in UB. We actually decided to stay at Khongor guesthouse, since they had a room available (and we had been very happy with their tour). We were quite keen to head back in to the countryside though, so put up some posted notes asking for people to join us on a trip to the Gobi. We ended up spending one day in UB, which allowed us plenty of time to do some souvenir shopping, rest, shower, and eat some food which didn’t contain mutton.

For the trip to the Gobi, we were joined by a cool French-speaking Belgian couple, Simon and France (never met a person called that before…) as well as our equally cool driver Gamba, and tour assistant Zaya. So off we headed in Gambas Korean Hyunday minivan, which is described by Mongolians as follows: “more comfortable than Russian minivan. No break down easy, but when break down stop. No go everywhere”. So basically, more comfy and modern, but not good for off-road conditions. And since it’s not Russian built, everything can’t be fixed with a hammer and a screwdriver. We were a bit nervous, as we were going to the Gobi, where the roads are rough and the facilities far in between…

We needn’t have worried – we were as impressed with Super-Gamba as with Super-Togoo (in fact, Gamba is best mates with Togoo’s big brother, apparently). The first day was a long drive, with very little in terms of scenery (that’s the thing about being in the desert, there ain’t much there…). The first lunch we had was a big surprise for us – I could actually choose anything from the menu (so I picked a steak and a beer, obviously!). (we were brought down to planet earth pretty quickly, we quickly went back to mutton again). We stopped for the day at Baga Gazrin Chuluu, a.k.a. flaming rocks. The scenery was nice enough – surrounded as we were by dramatic, reddish rock formations. We also observed that the ger camps are more basic in the Gobi compared to central Mongolia – no beds in the Gobi typically. (on the other hand it’s warmer at night so at least it’s not too cold to sleep on the ground).

The next day, we carried on through the arid desert, and noticed a couple of other things. First of all, there are VERY few people in the Gobi. You can driver 50 km there easily without seeing a soul. As a consequence, the towns are even farther apart – which presents some interesting challenges – such as refuelling (first you cross your fingers that there is some fuel, then you pray there isn’t a blackout – so they can operate the pumps). Also, the Gobi isn’t actually all sand (apparently, only 3% of the Gobi is sand dunes) – and most of it is covered by bushes and little patches of grass. There are also mountain ranges, valley and even a couple of lakes (which are dry for most of the year). Anyway, we eventually arrived at the destination for the day, which was near Bayanzag (more about that later). The ger camp for tonight was in a nice enough spot, near a river, where we watched camels fill up their humps at dusk, quite a sight… We even got to go for a ride – which was pretty nice (it may be my imagination, but Mongolian camels seem to be more even-tempered than Egyptian ones).

The following day we headed out to Bayanzag. An impressive place, reminds me of some of the scenery you see in the old westerns from monument valley – if a bit less grandiose maybe. Baynazag is actually famous because an American called Roy Chapman Andrews (apparently, Indiana Jones was based on this guy – well at least he also always seemed to wear a hat!) found dinosaur eggs and fossils (including 100 dinosaur skeletons) in the area in the 1920’s over a period of two years. Well, he must’ve found loads, since people were still selling fossils and eggs near around there. After a quick visit at the local museum, we carried on through the desert.

By this point we’d also been joined by a vanful of Koreans, also from Khongor guesthouse. Seems that their Korean minivan was a bit less reliable than ours (then again, they didn’t have Super-Gamba for a driver) – they had already lost two days due to flat tires, getting lost etc. Do together we headed towards the next stop of our journey, the Yol valley. We nearly got worried that Gamba may be lost, as we were driving in terrain most definitely unsuited for non-4WD vehicles (mind you, all of the Gobi is that!) – but he came through in the end. The Yol valley was quite revelation – it’s like an alpine, tree-covered valley, all set in the middle of the Gobi! What’s most amazing – some of it’s ice-covered. The hiking we did there was definitely a welcome change to the heat and dust of the rest of the Gobi. And what’s best – we saw an Ibex (in addition to all the cute rodents – whatever they are call – that were running all over the place). In the evening we played football and basket ball with the locals – hard work, I’ll tell you that (especially since we were at an altitude of 2000 meters). One of them gave us some dire news – apparently Chinggis Khaan will be reincarnated in UB this august (but apparently he will be head of some institute instead of conquering the world – so we may be safe after all). I also wrestled Gamba – we both won one round.

Then it was back on the road again – once our two vans managed to refuel and patch up the broken tires. The next stop on our journey was Khongoryn Eels – or Khonor sand dunes (like our guest house ;-). They are the biggest sand dunes in Mongolia – 12km wide and 100 km long (and 300 meters high as well!). Obviously they had to be climbed. And hard work it was actually, the sand was not very accommodating at all. Coming down was easier, and more fun! (basically, we rolled down). The dunes are also called the singing dues because of the sound sand makes – although I didn’t hear anything. We also made friends with the local camels – they were easier to befriend than the Koreans (it was a funny old group, they were all dressed with face masks, gloves, caps – it was over 30 degrees Celsius for god’s sake! And all armed with at least two cameras – I mean they were worse than me!).

From there the plan was to leave the Gobi and head towards Orkhon waterfall. Yes – we had already seen that, but our Belgian friends wanted to see it so we thought “why not” since it was kind of on the way back anyway. However, as it was too far to get there in one day, we had to stay the night in a town somewhere in the Gobi, the name of which I can’t recall. Nothing special, this town, really. We got to sample the joys of a Mongolian provincial hotel – and came to the conclusion that they are about as comfortable as Gers (which for a hotel room is not really a compliment), and a lot less cozy. The mattress felt about as hard as the bed, put it like that. But anyway, we did get to shower, and found a nice enough place to have a couple of beers and a decent meal.

So the next day, on we carried to the waterfalls. The road was not easy, as we started experiencing flat tyres as well – thankfully Gamba was quite adept at quickly patching them up. After a very extended lunch break in another non-descript town (during which the tyres were “properly patched up”), we got on the road again, and finally arrived at the waterfalls. It was nice to be back! The cooler weather and lush surroundings were a welcome change to the dust and toil of the Gobi. And this time we got to go horse riding – which was nice enough (except that my damn horse didn’t seem to give a damn where I wanted to go and at what pace – it went where it wanted to).

After a one of the coldest nights of my life (the warm nights of the Gobi had lulled me into a false sense of security – and I foolishly left my sleeping bag in my ruck sack, thinking the silk cover would be enough – how wrong was I…), we got up bright and early and hit the road again. After a stop at Erdene Zhuu Khiid (the temple we also visited on our other tour), we headed on to where we were planning to stay the night – a nomad family near Lun (~150 km west of UB). The setting was nice enough, near a river, but we were once more assaulted by flies to such a degree that we decided to hide in our ger. Once the sun set things got better, and we had the opportunity to observe a nomad family at work (I particularly enjoyed watching the granny milk the cows). For the evening were treated to a feast of grilled meat (mutton – but nice) prepared by Gamba. And, since this was the last night of our trip, some drinking games and Chinggis Khaan vodka was obviously called for!

Nothing much to say about the journey back to UB the next day – except that we could once more appreciate the relative comfort of UB after 8 days “in the wild”… But for all the dust, mutton and heat, those days were very enriching, and provided us with yet another insight into the unique lifestyle of the Mongolians. But I have to admit, I felt quite lucky to be born in western Europe rather than Mongolia, all in all…

More photos here.