Tour the first: out in the Gobi

Ready for a tour into the Mongolian wilderness? Ready for 14 days far away from civilization and from the matters of the world? Then here we go!!! Our fun group, with whom we set out into the adventure, was: Jesper from Denmark, Ian from England, and our wonderful driver and guide Shaggar! Our best friend: Shaggar's reliable Russian minivan that made the best milkshakes out of us by throwing us up and down and right and left and that got us over the most terrible "roads" I have ever seen (there is only one paved road in this huge country), through sand and dust and through mood holes and rivers! And where did those roads lead to? Our first destination was the Gobi desert and that was quite an experience! I mean, I have been to the borders of deserts before but actually traveling through one and living in one changes the whole perspective! The roads led through nothing but flat land as far as the eye could see, the ear couldn't capture but the sound of the wind howling through nothingness, and the sun burnt down on us mercilessly. Very rarely we had some signs of life, some birds, some sheep, but mostly camels. Have you ever taken a closer look at those animals? They really do look stupid, particularly when they are losing their winter fur and look like rasta-camels!



I am not sure when we did feel the vastness and emptiness of the desert most, when driving through the never-changing flat country for hours and hours in a row, when trying to find a hiding place where to pee, or when stopping at the side of the road and pitching up our tents in nowhere. Most of the time that is how we lived during those 14 days, in our dear old tent that we set up wherever there was a spot that seemed particularly lovely and inviting. No water, no toilet, no nothing, only our tents and our dear old cooking stove! Can you imagine the night skies??? A couple of times, however, we also took refuge with local families and stayed in their gers. Those are the traditional round tents the nomads use to travel with their animals and even though they do not offer much more luxury than some mattresses on the floor and maybe an oven, they do offer protection from the extreme heat or cold and from the terrible sand storms that make your teeth crunch even days later. Thus, those gers became our second (luxury) home and we enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of the Mongolian people and their varied cooking of boiled mutton (or mutton fat) and rice-noodle soup or boiled mutton and rice-noodles. Particularly nice were also the frequent visits of either the family's children or other friendly inhabitant of the region - as the pic shows.

Well, of course we did not only drive all day long or sleep in tents and gers, the first place we actually went to visit was a stony "mountain" range in the middle of Gobi's flat desert plains and those forms were a welcome change to our tired eyes and shaken through limbs. We had fun climbing around on them, exploring small caves, getting baked by the heat and being impressed by the non-existence of old monastery ruins (that were supposed to be there).

Our second destination, however, was not only some fun but truly amazing! We had been driving through the desert for about three days when we got to Yolyn Am, a gorge in a rather hilly region of the Gobi, known for its almost year-round ice cover. Yes, you have read correctly, there is an ice gorge in the middle of the Gobi desert. I have no idea what it's doing there but it was definitely our greatest surprise! We went for a day hike there (sweated a lot and got sunburnt!!!) and when we saw the first traces of ice, we ran to touch it, walked on it, and took a picture of all of us on it - very proud, as the picture above shows. Well, then we walked on and found the true ice tongue winding through the gorge forever and ever and I have to admit, we felt a little stupid looking back at our first picture then! There was truly a lot of ice there and we spent the whole day walking along the gorge, exploring the crevasses, and admiring the contrast between the blindingly white ice and the black-green of the mountains. An amazing spot!



Well, and before I do end this post about our tour for a while, there is a last destination in the Gobi we visited that I just have to share with you. It's called Khongoryn Els, and it's what most people would associate with a true desert: Sahara like sand dunes! For us, it was a great and a terrible place to stop by because we got tormented by incredible heat - there was no leaving the ger during the hottest hours of the day (11am-16pm) because the sun would have burnt your brain right away - and also by continuous winds that blew the fine sand into our eyes, actually into every opening of our bodies, into our sleeping bags, into our food...! Seriously, who would want to live in a place like that voluntarily?!? Anyhow, we nevertheless had the time of our lives there! For a special treat we went camel riding because, after having seen them on the roadside for such a long time, we just had to find out what it was like to see the world from their backs. Well, quite an uncomfortable way of transport, I'd say, particularly, when they start spitting and you take an involuntary shower... Besides that, we did, of course, climb the dunes and that was very, very special. The whole landscape was
rather strange, with a small stream separating the dunes and the "desert" (where the heck does the water come from?!?!), then a strip of swamp with small green bumps, and then the actual sand dunes. Have you ever tried climbing those? It's quite a challenge not to slip further down than one step takes you up but we made it in the end even though our shoes were transformed into sand boxes. The reward for all this trouble: the most amazing landscape with the wind blowing beautiful patterns on the sand and an incredible sunset. Enjoy the pics and imagine it yourself!



Even though the landscapes were spectacular, after about a week, we did have enough of the monotony, heat, and hostility of the desert and we longed to see some living green and some water. Thus, we started our route back up North, towards the lake regions. This is, however, the story for another day....
Ah, und das hier ist ein spezieller Zusatz fuer dich, Suse. Mitten in der Wueste, in der Trockenheit und Leere dieses Ortes, treffe ich auf ein Mal auf ein kleines geschuetztes Tal mitten in kargen Steinen und dort - das sanfte Gruen der Birken. Das musste doch photographisch festgehalten werden!