Gobi Desert

After some discussions in UB about how best to see Mongolia (in short, it's a big country and it's very difficult to travel around) we came to a compromise. We don't like tours as a general rule, because you are completely at the behest of what someone else thinks you want to do for 24 hours a day, but we found a phone number on the internet for Nyamkaa who lives in the Gobi desert, and who seemed friendly, like she wasn't trying to scam us, and could show us round for a few days.

We took the 11 hour endless bus to Dalanzadgad which was our first real sight of the absolutely endless steppe. There were gers dotted here and there but mostly it just gradually turns from green to brown.

We spent a night in Dalanzadgad and then drove to the Yoliin Am National Park which is an ice field within a gorge, and a surprise set of mountains in the desert. It's Mongolia so obviously we rode horses down the gorge.

Then a long drive through more desert to the Khongoryn Els dunes where Nyamkaa lives with her family. They run a small ger camp and do camel rides, and live there half the year - in the winter they move to their winter camp on the other side of the mountain. They made us tea in their ger and her father in law offered us snuff in a slightly intense Mongolian ritual. Mongolian don't really do personal space or knocking so we spent a few days with the kids running in and out of our ger whenever they liked but it was an amazing place to stay. We woke up at 5am and watched the election coverage with the sun rising over the desert.

We rode their camels through the desert - even more painful than horses, and they really do spit a lot - and went to the nearby springs which are a bizarre oasis. Mostly it doesn't rain much but it rained twice while we were there - apparently it means we are auspicious guests!

Did an evening hike up the sand dunes to see the sunrise and they are an exhausting climb with Korean tourists falling down all around us but the reward at the top is one of the most extraordinary views I've ever seen over the dunes. We carried boards up with us and surfed all the way back down, which is amazing, and didn't feature any broken bones.

More long drives back to Dalanzadgad through expanses of nothing while Nyamkaa taught Elli Mongolian. All round slightly mind blown at the Gobi and very happy with our life choices and our incredibly lovely guides.Les mer