Gobi Trip Part 1 - Three suns in the sky

The beauty of Mongolia does not lie in Ulaanbaatar. With the help of my hostel I found an organized tour which I could join, eleven days exploring Mongolia. I had hoped I could organize something on my own like my trip to Terelj. But actually most of the attractions are so far off that you will never get there without a good(!) driver, especially with so much snow.

Could be the beginning of a really bad joke, but it was the composition of our small group. Of course there was also a Mongolian driver, luckily he was able to speak some basic English. When I was picked up, the others were already seated in an old UAZ van. Could there be any other means of transport more suitable for this kind of travel? After my backpack and provisions were stowed away and I had made myself comfortable in the front passenger seat, the trip began. I destroy the illusion right away, that we got to see one highlight after another. Most of the time we sat in the car the whole day to arrive at the scheduled destination. On the rough terrain we only made slow progress. As a compensation the path and the landscape, we crossed, were an extraordinary experience for themselves. The vast hilly grassland were covered under a white layer of snow and only seldom disrupted by any signs of human existence. Our driver's sense of direction was incredible, there were hardly (actually no) signs off the paved roads. The way consisted of tire tracks that were mostly invisible under the snow. The driver scrutinized the hills on the horizon carefully to make a sudden turn left or right. For me all those hills looked exactly the same and still we (mostly) arrived at our goal directly.

Our first destination was the rock massif Baga Gazriin Chuluu, in the middle of which lies a small destroyed monastery. The ruins were not overly impressive but the surrounding rock formations of weathered granite were. Everyone was glad to get some exercise after the long, bumpy ride. But we soon had to go on to our accommodation. Luckily it wasn't far away. We will spend the next ten nights in gers, most of them without running water or electricity. First we went into the family ger to drink some hot milktea. The Mongolian people are very hospitable and enjoy receiving visitors. The driver cooked a hot and spicy soup for dinner, which was very good in this cold weather. During this time a fire was already heating the ger, in which we were supposed to sleep. Despite the good working oven we slept under blankets in thick sleeping bags. As soon as the fire burnt down it got pretty cold. It's no wonder with only -30° C outside temperature. When the driver was checking the fire for the last time, he even put a second blanket over me.

When I woke up in the morning I pulled my blankets all the way over the tip of my nose. It was so cold and I waited for someone to rekindle the fire, like they did every morning. Once the ger was warm we had a small breakfast and set off again. After stopping in the provincial town Mandalgovi for some shopping, we came across a huge herd of camels. Wild camels are very rare in Mongolia, but they are kept as livestock. They are used for transportation as well as for their milk, hair and of course their meat. Mongolia is a very tough country for a vegetarian. When we reached our day's destination, Tsagaa Survaga (or White Mountain), we could see another rock formation. But the wind blew so icy cold, that we didn't spend a lot of time outside. After a short meal in the van we arrived at our ger camp, but no one was there. To pass some time we drank beer in a small pavilion. It was so low that I hit my head twice, one time so hard that I fell backwards. This briefly caused some good mood. But when the beer started to turn to ice and we had to be careful that our lips didn't freeze to the can, we retired into the ger. Of course, the family served us hot milktea (this time with camel milk) and I took a piece of pastry or at least that was what I thought I took. It turned out to be dried camel yoghurt! The taste was a little sour, otherwise fine, but it was hard as rock. I had great trouble chewing it. (Again my fellow travellers were utterly amused!) 

The next day began with a seldom occurring weather phenomena, sun dogs also named mock suns or parhelia. They appear when it is very cold and the sun rays are refracted by small ice crystals in the air. It looks as if three suns would rise. After breakfast we could see how camels are milked. One young camel after the other was released from the enclosure. As soon as it started drinking from its mother, the women came with her bucket to get some of the milk. The enthusiasm with which we embraced this experience irritated our hosts a little, since it belongs to their daily routine. Another fascinating discovery for us was, how our driver defrosted the tank before we went on. On this day, the roads were mostly paved and we could drive fast and comfortable. So we reached the small city Dalanzadgad, which lies on the outskirts of Gobi desert, already in the early afternoon. There we could finally take a "public shower". It was fine, but my standards were lowered a lot since I started travelling: reasonably warm water, four walls with a closing door are already luxurious. In the evening the fire our host made went out pretty soon and I was allowed to rekindle it. I was jokingly crowned to the queen of fire. From this point it was my responsibility until the end of the trip.

The following day got very exiting. We would see a lot and had to say goodbye to one member of our group. Furthermore we weren't always sure if we were on the right track. If we really made it to our destination, I'll write the next time...