Desert life

I know that it might not be everyone's idea of fun to go on a desert tour. But we hadn't quite found our inner nomads in Terelj, and thought that we should give it another go. So, we booked a tour that went to the Gobi desert for 7 nights and 8 days. All the nights would be spent in traditional gers (to me they look like big tents, but apparently there is a difference) with nomad families. Our tour group consisted of us two, Scott and Katie from the US, Claudio from Italy, and our driver Ekme.

Day 1

The first thing that we had to face was the long drive from Ulan Bator to the Gobi. The Roads in UB are bad enough, but the roads in the desert are absolutely awful. If you think of a dirt track that has been bombed every day for a decade you start to get the picture. Luckily our van was a sturdy Russian half-jeep, so at least it stayed in one piece.

The scenery was quite wonderful as soon as we left the city. Big mountains on both sides and pretty much nothing apart from infertile land in between. We could see some sheep, cows and horses. And above them hawks and eagles.



We spent the first night with a family who had one ger for themselves and another for guests. I thought that I should go and have a look what our hosts were doing in their place, and happened to walk right into a sight that you don't often see in a city: in one corner there was a tv with an American soap on (with Mongolian voice overs). In the middle of the floor the mother of the family was cooking our dinner, and in another corner the father and son were skinning and gutting a sheep.



Day 2

When we woke up the ger was pretty cold, and I had a sore throat. I decided to gargle with the Ghenggis Khan vodka that we had left over from Terelj and felt instantly better.

When we started to drive you could see that the scenery was already different from the first day. Bits of grass sticking out from the ground were becoming fewer and sand was taking over. We were now deeper in the desert and the sheep and cows were also starting to be replaced by camels.



Just before lunch we stopped at a little Buddhist stupa (at least that's what I think it was, Ekme just told us to walk around it three times). We walked around it to guarantee a successful trip, and I sprinkled a bit of vodka on some of the other offerings to ensure my throat was getting better.

In the evening we found our ger camp next to a small lake (I know, I didn't realise they had lakes in deserts either!). After a hike around the lake we went socialising with our hosts who entertained themselves by offering Claudio some snuff tobacco and watching him sneeze like hell afterwards.

Day 3

There is nothing quite like starting your day with a gentle camel ride. We took the camels (or rather, the camels took us, we had no control over them) for an hours walk, which turned out to be a lot more comfortable than anticipated. My throat was also feeling a lot better, so the vodka and offerings seemed to be doing their job.

After the camel ride we started driving towards a mountain range in the horizon. After a drive to the top of the mountains we got a glimpse of our next destination: the sand dunes.



Our camp was about 1 hour walk from the dune that stretched about 100 km in length and 200 meters in hight. After lunch we went to the dune to have a little look. It seemed that the highest point was a little further away and since we were staying here for two nights we thought that we would go and check it out tomorrow.



Day 4

We set off to the highest point of the dune in the morning. It turned out that it was about 10 km to the base of the dune, and then 200 meters climb up. The walk to the dune was easy but the climb was hard because the dune was quite steep, and the wind was blowing sand into our ears, eyes and mouths. We finally managed to get to the top and the view was totally worth the climb: on one side you could see the dune continuing until the mountains, and on the other side the desert stretched until the horizon.





Claudio thought that this walk was completely pointless because it was the same sand as yesterday, just a lot harder climb. He was cursing in Italian (I'm sure "mi chiano" and "madonna" were mentioned) most of the way but still came along. I think he actually enjoyed it.



After we returned from this walk we were pretty knackered and spent the rest of the day relaxing in the ger.

Day 5

After yesterdays walk on the dune we were all feeling very dirty and had sand all over us. That is why we were really looking forward to tonight with the first opportunity to shower since leaving UB.

Before showers we were taken to "Ice valley", which is indeed a valley with ice in it (for most of the year - but not just now). The place was lovely, a small valley in between huge mountains, a few mountain goats on the hillside, and horses eating grass in the valley. Claudio was a bit surprised though, "No ice, just a valley".

After Ice valley we drove into a small desert town, and finally got our showers. It was a glorious feeling, the showers were clean and there was hot water. After showers we went to shop and treated ourselves to a couple of beers. In the camp we had a good dinner, a beer, and a game of cards, and then went to sleep feeling full, clean and warm!

Day 6

In the morning we were slightly surprised to find a small Mongolian lady in our van. There also seemed to be some of her bags in the back of the van and the driver didn't seem surprised so we just guessed that we were giving her a lift somewhere. Strange things happen around here, and when you can only get a few words of English out of your driver it is often better not ask.

The drive was not particularly inspiring today (the token camels and endless desert), and we arrived to our camp quite early. After that the driver and the Mongolian lady disappeared and we decided to go for another walk.

After a long walk we arrived back to the camp for dinner. The food in the Gobi seems to consist entirely of rice, potato and mutton (sometimes with a bit of pasta, if you're lucky). The same was on offer tonight. For those who are curious about the Gobi breakfasts, it's also always the same: little bits of dough, deep fried in sheep fat (or mutton sticks, as we called them) and a flask of hot water that smells of sheep. Yum, yum!

Day 7

The mysterious Mongolian lady was still with us in the morning. We are now suspecting that she is getting a ride to UB.

Our first stop was a buddhist monastery, situated truly in the middle of nowhere. You just have to admire these people for their perseverance, to be a monk is one thing, but when the monastery is in the middle of a desert that is something else. Not that the nomads living here have it easy either. They have pretty much all their possessions in their gers, and the only means of transport is horses (and motorcycles in some cases). A simple trip to the nearest shop might mean an 8 hour drive. And that's just in case you have money to buy something, there is not exactly oodles of money to be made in herding sheep.

Our last night in the desert was spent in some luxury because our driver managed to find some firewood and lit a fire in the oven of our ger.

Day 8

The last day of the tour was a long drive back to UB. We only had one flat tire today (total of 4 on the tour), so it didn't take too long.



The time spent in the Gobi was something quite special, and after 8 days of simple life the city seemed even more chaotic than before. But there was a promise of running hot water, clean clothes, and fresh food.

I guess it's safe to say that we are not cut out to be nomads, we were missing our showers and fresh vegetables too much. But we really enjoyed our experience. It made a great change from city life, and there's just nothing like a clear starry sky in the desert night.