Traveling the Gobi Desert

Megan & Agathe
24 oct. 2017
2 min de lecture

We leave Ulaanbataar the next day with on a 9-day tour around the Gobi Desert with Léa, Flore and our two great Mongolian guides Ikme and Gerlee. As soon as you leave the city, you are surrounded by incredible vast landscapes and that’s where it really hits you that you are in Mongolia! For the 9 next days we drive around to discover the many untouched landscapes of the Gobi Desert. Mongolians have a very close relationship with nature which transpires through in how they build their cities outside of Ulaanbataar: keeping them small and with little long lasting infrastructures. On our trip, we experience the nomadic lifestyle by staying every night with a different family in their Gers! The Gers are all nearly identical, with the main feature being the stove in the middle which keeps you nice and cosy before going to bed (sometimes reaching sauna like temperatures). However, in the middle of the night you get to finally experience what the real Mongolian cold means. As the fire dies out, the temperature in the tents drastically drop (-10C) and you may wake up freezing cold. Lesson learned from our first night: don’t be fooled by the stove, nights are freezing in Mongolia, even with a big sleeping bag!

Besides keeping you warm the stove is also essential for cooking. The food in Mongolia tends to have little variety, although not as bad as one might think; with the exception of the time we ate horse intestines, a ‘delicacy’ which for lack of other words tasted like horse shit! We have never eaten so much meat in our life, but this isn’t surprising when you know that for 3 million Mongolians there are 41 million animals. Another Mongolian ‘speciality’ is their ‘milk tea’ which is made from fresh milk and sometimes the added pinch of salt – interesting taste, it seems to go down sometimes better than others!

Although the car journeys tend to be somewhat long, we never find ourselves bored. The landscape is constantly changing, going from mountains to valleys, plains, deserts, canyons, sand dunes or waterfalls. Their only common point is their vastness and how empty they are – a real break from the 21st century!

Another highlight for us are the beautiful sunrises, sunsets and nights full of stars these landscapes offer. This is particularly true when we found ourselves, 4 unfit girls, having to climb a 250m tall sand dune in under 40 minutes to get to see one of the most beautiful sunsets we will ever see. An even bigger highlight was getting to run and tumble down said dune!

First 10 days down and we are delighted with all we have already seen in Mongolia and secretly quite happy to find a bed, shower and inside toilet in Ulaanbataar. We are now setting off into the north, the lake region, to work on a farm and hopefully not die of cold!

Day 1 - Rock Formation