I had managed to track down Ogie who guided George first in 2001/2 and then Ros, Catherine & Nickers in 2003 (I was too busy working to join them) and she now runs a guesthouse and tours with her family, described by the Lonely Planet as eccentric family! They are all lovely and have a friendly spot in the middle of town. She had arranged an 8 day tour with a guide Oogee( I know all their names sound the same, but they are all shortened from a long name that is difficult to remember, spell or pronounce), driver Pujee, his faithful Russian 4X4 (features in many of my photos), Tina & Lorenzo - a Swiss couple from train, Rishi & Miriam - Ozzie/Swiss couple. We were to spend a great deal of time in car and in close proximity to each other despite the wide open spaces of Mongolia (have I mentioned it's the least most populated country in the world). Our main destination was the Gobi desert - 2nd largest desert in the world (okay enough facts)! We would be staying with nomad families (in gers/yurts), tourist ger camps (gers + showers + long drop) and very basic hotels along the way. It would be basic in terms of accommodation, bathrooms (if any) and electricity availability. We were surprised that some nomad families had solar panels, satellite dishes and television but most only had battery powered lights, all cooking is done on central stove (fuel is cow/sheep dung) and toilets are all around in nature (which was preferable sometime to the long drop ...not so long...except when it was snowing)!We managed 3 showers/washes in 8 days - a mere dripping faucet at basic hotel (we were in dorm room with shared bathroom) a tourist ger camp with flushing loos (and cold beers) , and 2 1.5l bottles filled with cold water from well, sheltered by the truck and with gobi desert sand dunes as backdrop - the best!
Enough of the facilities, what about the tour! Oogee our English speaking guide was good on local knowledge, lifestyles and customs but lacked info on wildlife and environment. His biggest gift was his ability to create interesting and varied meals out of the most basic ingredients (potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, tomatoes, pasta, rice, etc, with odd tinned tuna, tomatoes, mushrooms & a cabbage!)and we were on veggie train as the 2 girls were vegetarian - I think we were all pleased to not have fatty mutton at each meal!
Enough of the food, what about the tour! We set off from UB and it wasn't long before we were off the main tarred road into the Mongolian countryside. Distances were long and road conditions (where we followed a road) were not good! We knew all this but we weren't prepared for it and we were more excited.
On our first day we passed a lake that was still frozen, had herd of wild horses and nothing much else, visited an old monastery built amongst the mountainous rocks - destroyed, but the site is still visited by buddhist worshippers especially nomad families. Our first night was at a nomad family sheltered from bitterly cold wind behind some beautiful rock formations. We had our own ger and after interacting with family, eating dinner on our laps, we settled on the floor for the night. It was cold despite the fire and woke up to snow in the morning - in a few hours the place was covered in snow and we stayed in doors until it cleared after lunch. We hastily packed and headed for the "big city'" of Mandalgovd with only a short stop for tea with a family. We stayed in a very basic hotel so headed out for a walk despite the freezing weather looking for a pub (none to be found) but we did find a shop selling beers and chocolate. It was actually a very enjoyable evening spent in the warmth of our dorm room with dinner on our laps, beer and chocolate, a slightly pathetic shower and electricity (luxury!) It was an early start the next day to make up for lost time from the snow with barely a few leg stretch stops until lunchtime. A stunning lunch spot - canyon like formations and a few birds to entertain us. Then onward to another "big city" name escapes me and we had vision of a comfortable hotel, but stayed in a basic ger camp (many of the tourist spots weren't open as season was not underway yet) but with a few beers, nuts and a sunset, followed by veggie dinner, card tricks and beds (no mattresses mind you), we were happy!
The next day we visited the National Park for a hike to the glacier - a beautiful setting with craggy mountains surrounding us, some remaining snow, an icy wind and few other tourists. A really beautiful spot! We headed up a riverbed as our road only to have to turn around when there was far too much ice - which should have melted by now and left a mere trickle which our trusty 4X4 would easily handled, but it was too dangerous with the ice, so we headed back and took another route (not necessarily a road) and after some precarious sections arrived at vast spaces where mirages played with your sight! We stopped to savour the moment before heading for a mammoth afternoon drive to the sand dunes. The scenery changed from sparse farmland (grass) and some brown mountains to more and more desert and dunes and as we neared the main sand dune area, we saw more camels, nomad families and tourist camps. We headed further to probably the last family in the area where we were to stay for 2 days. With no women around to greet us with milky tea, and the men occupied with fixing motorbikes, we grabbed warm jackets, beer and nuts and headed for the hills and a magnificent sunset over the sand dunes!
A day of no driving!!! We enjoyed a camel ride for a couple of hours in the morning which was quite comfortable and then after lunch headed off to climb the highest sand dune - very steep, sandy and stunning scenery - mostly of more sand dunes - only 3% of Gobi desert is sand dunes - still very impressive. Another glorious sunset with a bottle of Chilean red!
The next day we had a long drive, sad to be leaving the dunes, we were heading out of Gobi to Central Mongolia, stopping at Red canyon area with beatuiful rock formations (for lunch - it always had to have a good view and good opportunity for a wander around), and then onto a nother ruined monastery which used to have 300 buddhist monks but place was destroyed by Russians and many monks killed. A small monastery has been erected for worshippers and there are plans for reconstruction of the original buildings but that remains to be seen. Our overnight stop was also here and we had time for a nice walk and then another beautiful sunset, dinner and early night.
My last day with the team and a short drive to Karkorim, arriving just after lunch (another beautiful lunch spot) and interesting visit to Monastery which has some stunning remaining buildings of those destroyed (yes, by Russian). We stayed nearby in a lovely tourist ger camp with cold beers, hot showers and grand finale was a mini concert by a traditional throat singer - very entertaining!
I then left the group who were carrying on for a further 5 days of waterfalls, lakes and horse riding whilst I had to get back to UB to catch my train that evening!
Sad to be leaving Mongolia, but had a lovely time and would love to come back.
Sad to be leaving Mongolia, but had a lovely time and would love to come back.
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