Our journey to Mongolia began waking up in a tent, on the Great Wall a few hours from central Beijing. A bit tired and dusty we packed our tent and marched down the wall to meet our driver. Beijing traffic was at a standstill and we were glad we gave ourselves a few extra hours to make it to the train station. A quick baby-wipe shower in the toilets at Beijing central station was all we could muster to ensure we didn’t overpower the other passengers on the train with our aroma. Finally the train arrived and we began the first section of the Trans-Siberian. Little did we know that we would have the whole 4-bunk cabin to ourselves so were able to have a second baby-wipe shower in the privacy of our cabin – a bit nicer than the train station toilets!

As the train slowly made its way through the Chinese country side we had our dinner and talked with the other passengers before heading to bed. A few hours after nodding off we were woken at the Chinese/Mongolian boarder by a Chinese official pointing a thermal camera at us and shouting something about passports. While the passports were taken care of we got to witness the ‘swapping-of-the-bogies” where the entire train is hoisted up and the undercarriage swapped (The Chinese train tracks are a different gauge to the Russian gauge tracks used in Mongolia). 6 hours after arriving at the crossing we were able to trundle off again, passports stamped and ready to go. The next morning we woke up to views of the Gobi desert. Initially it was a bit of a shock, the contrast to the Chinese country side was huge, where before there had been rice paddies and gardens there was now dirt, sand, dirt, sand, with the occasional camel. After 30 hours on the train we eventually made it in to Ulaan Baatar, capital of Mongolia.

We were greeted by our guide Enny who spoke impeccable English and directed us to our hostel. We had two days to explore Ulaan Bataar before we set off on our ‘Wild Nomad’ adventure. We used that time to take in the city sights and do some shopping before our departure.  We quickly found out how highly the Mongols regard Chinggis Kahn – We saw the Chinggis Kahn statue that overlooks Chinggis Kahn square, which is off Chinggis Kahn Road, obviously, that night we would drink Chinggis Kahn beer and Chinggis Kahn Vodka at the bar the Mighty Kahn. Ulaan Baatar reflects the varied political history of Mongolia, with a number of ultra-modern cement and glass style buildings that have been made since the country became democratic in the early 90’s, contrasted with soviet style government buildings and apartment blocks that serve as a reminder to the communist period from the late 30’s to the 90’s. On the outskirts of town there is the Ger district, where Nomads who have moved to the city to try their luck set up camp. 

We had a memorable dinner in Ulaan Bataar at a North Korean restaurant (located very close to the North Korean Embassy) where we were had traditional North Korean cuisine. Midway through the meal the Waitresses took to the stage and performed various North Korean songs and dances, something that has to be seen to be believed.

An early departure from Ulaan Bataar with the Landcruiser packed and our guide and driver at the ready we headed into the steppe. The scenery quickly changed as we headed towards our first camp in Amarbayasgalant. The drive was mostly paved roads until the driver took a sharp left and we headed into the hills. When we asked how the driver knew where the camp was with no signs or obvious road Enny replied “These guys just know”. This set the standard for the rest of the trip. Having arrived at camp one we were shown to our first Ger, slightly excited we took a few photos. That afternoon we took a short drive to a Monastery built in 1727 that is still in the process of being repaired, we saw some ‘Monklettes’* and Enny was able to guide us through the Temple. *NOTE, Monklettes - not the actual term for Monks in training. 

Making our way north the following day we found ourselves in the picturesque area of Unit, we arrived quite early that day and after lunch decided to go and climb a volcano that had been staring Pete in the face since we arrived. We dragged Enny and the driver up the short climb which provided us with a few laughs. There was an awesome view back over the Steppe and we watched a few nomads attend to their herds. That night Enny taught us a few traditional games of knuckle bones and Pete taught her the NZ game of knuckle bones.

Next up we woke early to make the long drive north to Khovsgol Lake where we had heard two days prior there had been a 2m snow fall. I think Pete and I were a little too excited to see some snow, as the locals were less than impressed. We ran into some rough driving as we made our way out to the lake, there was melting snow and thick mud to contend with, luckily our driver was a pro. The lake was picture perfect and the weather was warmer than the previous few days so we threw our things in the Ger and went for a wander. That night we had our first of many card nights, we were periodically stopped by a herd of Yaks that had entered the yard. Every so often we would out in the snow and run around attempting to chase them away, lets just say the owner was not too impressed with our herding skills.

The clear afternoon in Khovsgol gave us the opportunity to attempt horseriding, when a local nomad bought around a few horses for us to take for a ride. The ride was an interesting one, Ennys horse refused to budge about half way through the ride and stood on a nice piece of grass and just munched away, while Pete's got tired and decided to sit down while he was still on the horse! My horse ‘Spot’ was well behaved and I had no problems navigating back to camp.

After Khovsgol we began our route south with a long day of off-road driving where we stopped at a half way camp in Jargel Jiguur. There wasn’t much there but we did manage to find the camp hot pools which Pete and I happily spent the afternoon lounging in.

It was another rough morning of driving as we wound our way through the mountain pass to Terkiin Tsagaan Lake, known as ‘White Lake’. Today Pete and the driver decided it was a great Gopro opportunity, so they constructed a mount on the front of the car and filmed as we drove past Yaks, Sheep, Goats, Horses, some amazing scenery and local nomads. I don’t know who was more excited the Driver or Pete. We arrived at ‘White Lake’ and were greeted with a very chilly breeze, it quickly became apparent why it is known as the white lake, as there was a solid layer of ice remaining in the centre. The clothing layers were put on and we ventured out to Khorgo Volcano. We hiked up and around the volcano which overlooked a snow capped mountain range and the lake.

Leaving the lake and volcano we continued south into Gobi country. Due to the long drive we stopped off along the way for another night in a Ger camp. The family run camp still had a few Gers to construct so that afternoon we helped out, but mostly just got in the way. Mongolians take great pride in their ability to put up Gers and will proudly boast that they can do it under 30 minutes... Maybe these guys needed a little more practice because after 2 hours the Ger still wasn't up, and it wasn't until our driver got sick and tired of the smack-talk he could hear from the construction site that he came over and started directing things - the Ger went up very quickly after that! 

On the road again and we finally hit the Gobi within 10km the scenery changed from flourishing rolling hills and green grass to rock and sand with grass patches. There wasn’t many places for Enny and I to relieve ourselves and we got quite good at finding the biggest bushes possible. We pulled up for lunch at an oasis surrounded by flat country. Back on the road and a short time later our driver had spotted something in the distance, heading over to investigate we found it was the Spring Naadam (festival) for the Gobi district of Saikhan Ovoo. We pulled up to take a close look, and were lucky enough to have arrived in time to see a horse race. The desert race was for horses under 2 years old, and was 10km long, all the jockeys were around 6 or 7 years old, many riding bareback!. We asked the local police if we could follow the race in our Landcruiser, and the cops said it would be OK so long as he was allowed to ride shotgun! It was one of those “how do we find ourselves in these situation” moments. We were driving next to the only other car in town that was able to handle the rough terrain (The Mayor, in his Lexus), we had a policeman hanging out the window yelling at the horse owners chasing the pack on their motorbikes, with Pete standing through the sun-roof taking photos. The horse races can be notoriously dirty, so between our cop and the Mayor there was a fair bit of shepherding required to make sure none of the kids snuck off early on their horse to get closer to the finish line. Once the race started we saw a motorbike take off out the front of the pack, with a guy on the back waving a Mongolian flag, this was what the horse riders would aim for, as the motorbike determines the track they take. The kids yelled and whipped their horses across the course, kicking up a huge dust cloud, chocking the horses and riders further back in the pack. Excitement was boiling over by the time the pack reached the finish line, back at the Naadam. There were screams of encouragement as the winning horse crossed the line. Everyone rushed to the horse to rub it, the sweat of the winning horse is good luck. Looking around the crowd we saw smiles from those whose horses had done well and tears from those who had lost. The race was probably the highlight of our journey in Mongolia, something we happened on completely by chance, and were able to be involved in.

That night as we settled in to our Gers we were still recounting various stages of the race, our driver had been the most excited by the whole thing, he didn’t let the fact that he didn’t speak a word of English stop him from joining in talking about the race.

The next day we drove for hours through the Mars-like plains of the Gobi to the Khongoryn Els sand dunes. The dunes are over 40km long and a few hundred metres high. Naturally something like that is just asking to be climbed, so despite the heat we crawled up on all fours to one of the highest (and steepest) sections. Once we had regained the ability to breath at something like a normal rate we enjoyed the view, before enjoying skidding down the steep slopes. From the sand dunes we headed over to a Nomad family that our driver knew and had some traditional milk tea with the family in their Ger and sampled some of the old boys snuff. The family had a heard of camels and the patriarch proudly showed off a large collection of medals and ribbons on display in the Ger from the various races his camels compete in. His eldest son had just come 69th out of over the 1000 camels competing in the biggest camel race in the world. The man’s son took the two of us for a ride on some of his camels across the desert. Being spring time the camels were shedding their thick winter coats, making them look a bit patchy, but the fur was soft and they didn’t smell too bad, so we held on to the front hump, leaned back on the rear hump and enjoyed the ride.. Well, somewhat enjoyed the ride, we had sore butts for a week afterwards! 

The next day we had a short drive to the famous flaming cliffs, the place where fossilised dinosaur eggs were first discovered in the 1920’s. Pete hunted unsuccessfully for dinosaur fossils while Hayley and Enny gossiped on the hill. That night in the Ger camp a bottle of Mongolian vodka appeared and we found ourselves playing Chinese poker with the workers from the camp until 4.30 that morning. Surfacing from our Ger a few hours later, we faced an uphill battle to achieve anything, but managed to get our act together enough to leave camp and head to the Yol Valley, home of mountain goats and Ibis. A glacier snakes its way through the bottom of the Yol valley, so we went to investigate. Decked out in our best Glacier-hiking gear (Jandels and t-shirts) we got a few looks from the other tourists and the locals alike. After the glacier we drove north to middle Gobi and spent our final night in a Ger and then headed back to the bright lights of Ulaan Baatar.