Overnight stops (in date order): 20km north of Zamin Uud; 44°48.8’N/110°20.5’E; 44°37.6’N/108°40.5’E; 44°03.5’N/106°46.4’E; 43°42.7’N/105°5.7’E; 43°34.2’N/104°05.9’E; 43°34.2’N/104°06.0’E; 20km NW of Dalanzadgad; 44°23.1’N/103°48.0’E; 45°31.7’N/104°05.2’E; 46°25.0’N/105°18.7’E; Ulaanbataar (x5); Khustain National Park; 20km east of Kharkhorin; 40km west of Tsetserleg; Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur; 20km west of Terhiin Tsagaan Nuur; Tosontsengel; 20km south of Asgat; 30km north-west of Baruunturuum; Ulaangom (x2); 49 24 15.6N/90 27 02.9E
It took seven hours to complete the formalities of leaving China and entering Mongolia. Although no more efficient, unlike the Chinese officials, the Mongolian immigration and customs people were friendly and welcoming giving us an instant warm feeling for the country. The roads are a different story. The 700km from Beijing to the border is smooth two-lane highway
(albeit with frequent toll booths). On the other side, the asphalt ends a couple of kilometers after the border to be replaced with an interlacing series of dirt tracks through the sand, tussock, dust, dirt and rock of the eastern Gobi Desert
(the road atlas of Mongolia marks this as a major national highway).
We spent our first night within sight of the train track from China to Russia where it connects with the Trans-Siberian railway.
The next day we had our first encounter with a Mongolian family
who continue to live a semi-nomadic life with their flocks of goats and sheep, their horses,
cows
and camels.
The two-humped Bactrian Camel is not looking its magnificent best at this time of year – the early Summer – when it moults.
From Saynshand we headed west into the Gobi. For out first few days we continued to travel with Christian and Sandra (with whom we crossed China);
taking advantage of their clever iPad App which operates as a sat-nav. After that, navigation was by compass,
GPS coordinates
and quizzing of the locals.
The Gobi desert is most of southern Mongolia. It is big
but not all featureless. Near Dalanzadgad there are gorges and canyons
that even at this time of year (early Summer) contain ice
(and what else would you encounter in such a remote place but a flock of British twitchers!).
As with all deserts, the Gobi teems with life
(this perfect tree is no more than 12 inches tall) – especially at this time year when it sometimes rains –
We saw both the hunter
and the hunted
and many types of hardy flowering plants.
One evening the cloud, blown sand (it is nearly always windy) and distant rain collaborated to create a spectacular sunset.
At Dalanzadgad we turned north passing Byan Zag, famous as the site where palaeontologists first found fossilised dinosaur eggs.
When the communists controlled Mongolia they attempted to suppress the practice of Buddhism. Ongiin Khiid, a monastery near Saikhan Ovoo founded in the 17th Century, was one of Mongolia’s largest temples until it was destroyed, and 200 of its monks killed, in 1939.
Since the fall of the Communist regime in 1990, a few monks have returned to the site.
At Eredenedalai a small temple survived the purge because it was converted to a store-house during the Communist era.
Outside of the capital most Mongolians still live in a ger, the round tent of the nomad,
which comprises a wooden frame
insulated with felt
and wrapped in canvas (in place of the traditional animal hides).
Gers, which today are transported by truck rather than by camel, are not confined to remote country areas; being a feature of the ‘suburbs’ of (the unattractive) provincial towns.
We followed the tracks north
over dusty hills for our first sight of Ulaanbaatar, the capital.
In the Gobi desert we might have passed a half-dozen cars in a day. In contrast it took us more than two hours to crawl through 10km of solid traffic across the city.
The Mongolian people do not lack self-esteem and are proud of their past. They still revere Chinggis (Genghis) Khan
whose Mongol hordes
founded the largest contiguous empire ever; stretching from Korea to Hungary. Chinggis sits in front of the Parliament building in Sukhbaatar Square; the centre of Ulaanbaatar.
The Square is named after the leader who liberated the country from China in the 1920s (here on his horse)
paving the way to domination by the Soviet Union. More than 20 years after the fall of Communism, Buddhism has made a comeback.
Beyond its own brand of Buddhism (which is influenced by Tibet), wrestling (the national sport) and anything horse-related, Mongolian culture – or at least as served up to us tourists – includes its own forms of dance – reflecting animism and shamanism –
the chracteristic sound of throat singing
and the eye-watering manoeuvres of contortionists
(please don’t try this at home).
We spent our five nights in Ulaanbaatar
camped in the grounds of a hostel that caters for overland travellers.
Most were German-speaking, the notable exception being Dimitri;
a Frenchman whose travel plans make our journey sound like a weekend in Margate. He started his ’round the world under your own steam’ trip by hauling a sled across the frozen Bering Straits from Alaska to Russia (spending 55 days in detention at the Russian end for not having the right papers – he tells me that to secure his release he had to make a televised apology to Vladimir Putin). He is now cycling across Asia towards the Atlantic and currently planning the best place to start rowing to the Americas.
From UB we started our journey towards Mongolia’s north-west border with Russia. Our first stop was at the Khustain National Park
the home of the Takhi, the world’s only true wild horse – as distinct from domesticated horses that have gone feral. The Takhi were declared extinct in the wild but then reintroduced into Mongolia by breeding from animals surviving in the world’s zoos. We waited and scanned the hillsides for several hours for a fleeting and distant glimpse of this rare and elusive animal;
only for one to wander across the track in front of our truck as we drove back to the park entrance.
For comparison here is a domesticated Mongolian horse (which, just to prove it is an entirely different species, has two fewer chromosomes than the Takhi).
The road west to Kharkhorin took us through the northernmost part of the Gobi Desert.
Nothing remains of Kharkhorin, which was the capital of the Mongol empire founded by Chinggis Khan. The building material from the city, which was deserted when the Mongols ruled China from Beijing, were used to construct Erdene Zuu Khiid, a walled temple founded in the sixteenth Century (all but four of the 50 or so religious buildings inside the compound were destroyed by the Communists).
The guide who showed us the temple insisted that their particular form of Buddhism had not incorporated elements of the animistic and shamanic beliefs that pre-dated its adoption by the Mongolians. However, alongside more familiar Buddhist images
there was evidence to the contrary in the form of masks
and ritualistic objects used by the Lamas, such as a trumpet made from the femur of a female virgin
and a vessel formed from the top of a human skull,
and murals that reflect the life of nomadic people.
As we continued north and west, the desert gave way to uplands with pine forests, gorges
and grassy valleys that flocks of goats and sheep
shared with herds of yaks.
We camped by the lake at the Khorgo-Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur National Park
(you can see the truck in the second photo; by the lake on the left).
The following morning I took a wrong turn and the truck became bogged in mud.
After eight hours of unsuccessful digging,
Jacking
and filling with gravel from the nearby river,
the cavalry arrived and provided the anchor for my winch to haul us out.
The recovery team
celebrated Mongolian style with a beer
and we were invited by one of our rescuers to his ger to meet his family and for supper.
The same evening my camera stopped working (nothing to do with my having dropped it!) and most of the photos that follow are taken with an iPad.
‘Roads’ in the north-west of Mongolia are tough going. The last 1200km of our journey to the Russian border was almost all on un-paved surfaces (although much of our route was marked on the map as a ‘national road’). As well as mud,
we experienced rock,
pot-holes,
corrugations, fords
(we got stuck in this one and had to use the winch and the help of a passing truck to escape), snow (even though this is mid-Summer)
and sand. We were driving in the latter when a tyre blew at the end of the day.
We were lucky that the only people who passed by that evening
stopped to help with the tyre change (which is a major undertaking because of where the spare wheels are kept).
The guys were happy with Whiskey by way of thanks
though I had some trouble separating them from the Scotch bottle at the end of the evening.
The track surfaces are brutal and by the time we reached Ulaangom, it seemed unlikely that two of the remaining tyres would make it to Russia. It seemed impossible that we would find new tyres to match in a provincial Mongolian town (population c.20,000) until we met Ganbaa,
a truck driver who was born in and who lives in the town,
who, in yet another demonstration of Mongolian friendship and hospitality, not only tracked down the tyres but spent the whole day helping with the job of fitting them.
The scenery north-west Mongolia was ample compensation for the bad roads.
However our lasting memory of Mongolia will be the people that we met along the way.
Responses
Sharon Larsmon says: Blimey, nice arse ( camel obviously), and such natural hope in those flowering plants in the middle of the desert. Does this work for humans ? Bottle it, sell it, ‘cos we’re worth it.
Georges et Chantal says: “Nous serions heureux d’avoir de vos nouvelles. Comme nous vous l’avons dit, nous sommes toujours à Almaty, Kazakhstan. Aurons nous une chance de nous revoir? Cordialement, Georges et Chantal
pauldanielleandtruck says: Hello. We are in Mongolia and will be entering Russia on 28 June. Our plan is to cross Russia to either Estonia or Finland. We hope all is well with you and your vehicle. Best wishes, Paul and Danielle
Paul Faithfull says: Russia the last leg? Are you far enough east to see a Siberian tiger? Great photo’s as usual. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed them all. Spasebo tovaritch!
Lise Beausoleil says: Hi Paul, All my best wishes for a very happy birthday. Best regards to you and Danielle. Lise
Sharon Larsmon says: Happy belated birthday wishes – hope you had a Fab Day. Now, more importantly, you must introduce me to Dimitri, I could probably teach him English – or something. How’s Margate ?
Simon McIlroy says: Just returned from a spectacular cruise. 40 minutes, anti-clockwise around Derwent Water, Cumbria. Susie declined this trip on the grounds that the water was too choppy and there was no duty free. We stayed near Sellafield, one of the worlds biggest microwaves. Everywhere we went the ghost of Wordsworth was not far away-but we did not spot a single daffodil. Have you managed to play a game of polo yet? If so, did you play with the traditional ball? Safe journey and look forward to your next dispatch.