Desert Days

The road less travelled

Early this morning we flew with our guide, Nara, to Dalanzadgad, the main city in the south Gobi Desert region of Mongolia. At the airport we were picked up by our driver, Gumbolt. Our vehicle for the next 5 days was a grey Russian jeep. Although quite utilitarian on the outside, it was pretty comfy on the inside.

Almost immediately after we left the airport carpark, we turned off the paved road and started driving along a narrow dirt track. As far as you could see there was nothing man-made except for a solitary row of electricity towers marching across the plain. One of the few road signs seen on the whole trip was an arrow painted on the side of one the towers. I’m not sure how the driver knew which track to take, but he always got us where we needed to go. Driving on these tracks meant that we covered only a few dozen kilometres each hour.

Our first stop was at  the natural history museum at the entrance of the Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park. The museum contained stuffed animals and birds of the Gobi, as well as dinosaur fossils and eggs discovered in the region. In addition to the predictable camels, ibex and small rodents were wolves and snow leopards. We learnt that wolves are protected by law but hated by the nomadic people for the destruction they cause to their animals.

Valley of the Vultures (Yolyn Am)

Next stop was at Yolyn Am (Valley of the Vultures), which is a deep and narrow gorge in the Gurvan  Saikhan mountains that has such a deep ice field that sections of it remain through most of the summer. So, you can be in the desert and walk on ice! The valley is green and wide. We walked along a path that wound across the valley floor, criss-crossing a small but fast flowing stream. As the valley narrowed vultures that give the valley its name could be seen gliding on the currents above the cliffs.

Soon we could see chunks of ice clinging to the sides of the cliff and a few hundred metres further on the valley was so narrow that the sunlight did not reach the floor. It was here that the floor changed to a sheet of ice about  150cm thick. Underneath you could hear the stream moving slowly and the drip drip drop of slowly melting ice. We climbed carefully onto the ice and after a few slips and slides realized that walking on the dirty ice gave the best grip. After about 100m holes appeared in the middle of the ice and we decided not to continue further. Earlier or later in summer you can walk all the way through the gorge to the wide valley on the other side.

Darren accepting the welcome drink of milk

We walked back through the valley to where our jeep was parked and drove to our camp for the night: Gobi Mirage. The camp is on a plain in the middle of nowhere – flat, rocky ground that stretches all the way to the horizon on three sides and a distant range of hills on the other side. As we arrived a lady in traditional clothes greeted us at the gate to the campsite with a bowl of milk presented on a sky-blue silk scarf. Each of us drank from the bowl of milk – a traditional welcome for guests and travelers. Then we walked to our ger – a traditional Mongolian tent made from felt, wood and canvas. On the floor we had vinyl and embroidered felt rugs. There were three single beds against the walls of the ger and a small table with three stools in the centre. It was very cosy.

A ger is a circular tent with a lattice framework forming the walls and dozens of poles that form the roof supports. The wooden framework is covered by layers of felt (more in winter to make it warmer) with a cotton canvas cover on top. Everything is held together by ropes – in some places the ropes were synthetic and in other camps traditional camel-hair ropes were used. The door of a ger always faces south. In the middle of the roof is a small dome over which is an additional covering which can be opened or closed to control the ventilation and temperature inside the ger. For more photos and information about Mongolian gers, look at this page on the Blue Peak Travel Photography website.

We ate a late lunch of traditional Mongolian food (mutton, bread and a couple of vegetables) in the larger dining ger. After lunch we sat in recliner chairs outside the ger and soaked up the view and the sunshine.  Rowan commented that he felt as if he was inside a snow globe: the blue sky arched above us and the ground was so flat and bare. We lazed away the afternoon, recovering from our 5am start, and enjoyed some cold beers.

Mongolian girl with her pets

After dinner we were able to drive to a local family’s ger about 1km from our camp. We were advised against approaching on foot because of the guard dogs that each family has to protect the livestock from predators. Our guide and driver came with us and we were invited into the ger and offered cheese (which tasted a little like feta), milky salt tea (tastes exactly as it sounds), then home-made vodka. The family produces milk products – mainly cheese – and the woman was constantly boiling fresh milk on a pit fire in the middle of the ger. Heated milk was then ladled into cloth bags and hung from the roof and allowed to separate. The whole time we were visiting the woman did not stop working. Her two young children – a girl and a younger boy – were curious and kept popping inside to have a look. One time the girl brought in a day-old goat to show us. It was a silky black kid with legs like a marionette’s – very cute!

The ger was set up in the typical way: to the left of the door was the man’s stuff – horse riding gear – and to the left was the woman’s stuff – cooking equipment and eating utensils. At the back of the ger, opposite the door, was a family shrine decorated with photographs and religious items. Next to that was the flat-screen TV and mattresses.

We ended the visit as the sky was beginning to darken and we had planned to walk back to the camp. Back at our camp, we waited for it to get fully dark as the kids had been promised a game of torch tag. In Mongolia the days are long – the sky begins to get light around 4am and twilight extends for a couple of hours after sunset – and I struggled to stay awake until the stars came out. Nara said that the altitude often makes you tired until your body adjusts to it. I thought that was a great excuse and went to bed, where the only sound I could hear was the soft sound of the desert wind against the side of the ger.

one of the centre supports in our ger decorated in traditional colours and patterns