Touring the Gobi Desert in Mongolia

After our first meeting with the nomadic families of Mongolia we head towards the south. There awaits the pristine Gobi Desert; a rocky semi-desert stretching from Russia and Kazakhstan, through Mongolia to China. The Gobi only exists of a “sandbox” for a small part, the landscape that you expect in a desert. Vast steppe and rocks define most of the view.

Breaking down

We travel with two Russian minivans through Mongolia, each bus carrying five passengers, a driver, tour leader or the cook. We are driving on uncomfortable dirt roads full of holes, but the view makes up for it. Until we are abruptly stopped and our Russian minivan has a flat tire. A large nail pops out of the tire, probably lost by one of the nomadic families while transporting their ger. These nails are used in order to keep the ger into place. Unlucky, because we already had a blown engine and already changed minivans because of that.

Not much later there is delay number three when the other minivan tries to free itself from a mud puddle with a roaring engine, but instead is digging itself in deeper. July is the rainy season in the Gobi and the last few weeks the water has been pouring from the sky in this part of the desert. The dirt road has turned into a slippery mud mass. Fortunately, we drive in convoy and ‘our’ minivan pulls out the other van without difficulty.

That evening we arrive in the dark at the nomadic family where we spend the night, after driving off-road for about 10 hours. After a late meal, including sour yogurt sweets made from mare’s milk, we fall asleep in our ger.

Dinosaurs and the Flaming Cliffs

The next morning, we can actually see where we are because of the daylight; The Ger Camp is right next to the red rocks of the Flamings Cliffs. This “canyon” is known as fossil paradise for palaeontologists (you know, like Ross from Friends); here, adventurer Roy Andrew Chapman (who was the inspiration for the Indiana Jones movies) found numerous dinosaur skeletons, eggs and fossils. They say that even today you can find remains of prehistoric dinosaurs as you walk through the area and keep your eyes wide open.

We go deeper into the desert, and after a few days there are no more traces of the heavy rainfall. Gobi has five different climate zones, right now we are clearly in a dryer zone. As we drive across the steppe roads, groups of camels or horses occasionally cross the trail. Every now and then we spot a lonesome ger in the landscape, with a small herd of animals around it. An isolated and simple life for sure, for the nomads. But they do have the biggest backyard you can imagine; the mighty Gobi reaches as far as you can see.

Climbing sand dunes

We arrive at the only piece of sand in the Gobi Desert; the Khongor Sand Dunes. The stunning dune landscape is about 900 km2 and about 300 high. We climb the steep sand dune that night on our bare feet, just before sunset, exactly at the highest point. Once we reach the top we find a breath-taking view of the sloped sand dunes on one side and the powerful steppe landscape on the other side.

As we watch the sun disappear behind a dune peak, some paragliders circle right above our heads. These fanatics climbed the high sand dune with their full equipment in the scorching heat and then jumped from it, but are now hovering above one of the most impressive landscapes that we can imagine.

The nomadic family where we sleep, has set up its camp right next to the sand dune. They are camel and goat herders and they have by far the largest herd of animals that we have seen within in one family so far. This is probably because they “work in tourism”. Accommodating travellers in their gers provides a welcome additional income for these nomads. It is a coincidence that our group arrives at the same time as another group of tourists, so there are not enough sleeping spots. With the result that we sleep on the floor in the family ger and we find out that the family itself is sleeping outside next to the tent in a sleeping bag that night. Fortunately, the nights are not cold in this climate …

Riding Camels

The camels of the family are used for all sorts of purposes; they are being bred, slaughtered for meat, milked for milk and yogurt candies (very acidic) and they are ridden. We also get the chance to sit between the humps of a camel and ride across the steppe, right along the dune.

Slowly rocking we move across the plain, while the camel occasionally sniffs or gets startled by a sudden movement. It feels uncomfortable, even after years of riding horses I am thinking to myself that I have no idea what to do when the giant beneath me starts running and I can’t control it. At the same time, I also understand a little better how Ydwer and our fellow travellers felt when they sat on a horse for the first time…

Travel companions

We share the bus with Miroslav, a giant Croat with an equal giant sense of humour. Miro is a geography teacher and telling stories is one of his hobbies, a winning combination. Therefor, now we know everything about population numbers, soil layers and the entire history of Mongolia and countries far beyond.

Also the London couple Lucy and John share our minivan. Like us, they quit their jobs and went traveling for a year. And there is Baz, our tour leader. A Mongolian boy of 24 who actually studied computer technology. Next year he wants to do his Masters in Canada, but this summer he is trying to save some money with this part-time job.

The other bus has a French couple (he conducts a research internship in Mongolia, she came to visit him), a French girl from Lille who travels around the world, two Taiwanese girls who speak little English and Falua, the Mongolian cook. Falua is a lady of forty years old who has just been given the job of ‘traveling cook’ and travels outside the boundaries of the capital for the first time in her life. She is absolutely amazed by the wonderful nature of the Gobi.

I remember a TV episode of the travel show “Floortje to the end of the world” in which the host visits the reindeer herders in northern Mongolia. She meets a married couple; she grew up in a busy town in America but now chooses to live as a nomad with her family – that is where she met the man of her life; he had lived in the secluded woods for all his life, until she took him to the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar. In a department store, he saw an elevator for the first time in his life and spent the rest of the day in that elevator; going up and down and then going back up and down again.

Falua the cook is an exact opposite; her entire live she lived in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, and has never seen how pristine and vast Mongolia really is. It’s nice to see this woman getting acquainted with the versatility of her own country.

Yol Valley

Meanwhile, the dirt roads take us to the edge of the Gobi Desert. During one of the lunch stops we get the chance to shower in a local bathhouse before we head to Yol Valley. The ger camps at the nomadic families have no shower (tourist camps have them, but there you do not sleep at a local family).

This surprisingly green valley is being surrounded by high cliffs where huge birds hover in the sky and patiently wait to spot their prey.

We walk through the valley, where we occasionally cross the small river, climbing over rocks and slide of a piece of ice. Despite it being 24 degrees Celsius in summer, the ice from the harsh winter still remains.

Just outside Yol Valley, the bumpy roads suddenly changes into a brand new paved roadway. Here you find some important Mongolian coal mines. To transport the coal to China, the government is investing heavily in the new pavement. Quite different from the bouncy roads from and to Gobi.

Mongolian BBQ

On the way to Ulaanbaatar we spend the last night at a nomadic family who lives right next to the White Stupa; a brightly coloured cliff with a unique structure, created by erosion. On the rocks, the various colours of different geological eras are clearly visible.

The nomadic family gives us a warm welcome in their own family ger with camel milk tea and Mongolian donuts. The dinner consists of a traditional Mongolian BBQ, where meat and vegetables are simmered together in a big pot on a fire with hot stones between the ingredients. A feast to conclude an outstanding tour of the mighty Gobi Desert.

The next day we drive back to Ulaanbaatar. We process our impressions of the past week, while staring at the endless long motorway which is paved straight through the steppe landscape.

The sun is shining, no cloud in the sky … until we suddenly heard a bang and swing to the side of the road. Breaking down on route part 4; a flat tire. After all, this is still Mongolia.