Gobi - Days 1 & 2

So, I have returned from my week long venture through the Gobi Desert. I'm not really sure how to tell the story in a way that will give an accurate representation of such a trip, but I'll give it a shot.

Day 1 - UB to Erdenedalay

We started our trip when our driver, Dava, and our guide, Nora, picked us (Andrew, Maureen, Cat and I) up at the school at 9 AM. We made our way to the tour office, and picked up some last minute things at the State Department Store. We were initially had a 7 hour drive that day, but it was full of excitement. The landscape changed every 20 minutes or so (this was the case throughout the journey). We were amused for the first hour or two by the thousands of mice that would scurry from our path to their holes along the side of the road. The roads of course were what Mongolians call "natural roads", which basically means that they have been carved out by hundreds of cars that have travelled these paths over the years. Our first lunch found us parked on the side of a low mountain. We walked to the top for our first real photo-op before sitting down to our first experience of Nora's fabulous cooking. When we were back on the road, we began noticing the vast number of eagles and hawks that were sitting, watching the steppe for food. This was not our only wildlife experience, as Dava chased after a couple of foxes in the van so we could try to get some pictures. We arrived in Erdenedalay slightly before dark, but our arranged accommodations had decided to travel to UB for the night, so Nora spent the next hour finding us a place to sleep. In the middle of the afternoon we stopped at a mountainside lake for a little climbing and some magnificent pictures. We ended up sleeping in a ger with an older woman who was the mother of another driver for Tseren Tours. She was a lovely lady, who was kind and welcoming, and happy to have company.

Our van, named Vladmir, at our lunch stop on the side of the mountain.

The road ahead.

A mountainside lake. Wheels & I climbed the side of the mountain.

The monastery at Erdenedalay. There are no monks here currently.


The bustling metropolis of Erdenedalay. It's a town of about 2000 people.

Day 2 - Erdenedalay to the Flaming Cliffs

We were on the road around 10 after a simple breakfast. We had a very long stretch of nothingness, where we stopped for lunch. I loved the though that I was the tallest thing as far as the eye could see. The roads were a little rougher that the previous day, and Dava seemed to choose the most roller coaster router possible. As the driving for the day was getting close to an end (another 7 hrs) we started to see the incredible beauty of the Gobi. First, we drove by the Gobi Forest, which sadly will disappear in the next 15 years if nothing drastic is done. This is tough, since the nomads depend on the wood, which burns for a very long time, and very warmly, as we found out later in the trip. We arrived at the Flaming Cliffs about an hour before sunset. The cliffs are aptly named, as the glow red with the sunrise and sunset. There was a souvenir shop at the cliffs where I purchased a dinosaur bone and a piece of petrified wood for a total of T 3000 ($2.50). We wandered through the cliffs for a while to take some incredible pictures, which resulted in me almost sliding off of one cliff. Dava had parked at the edge of the cliff, so when we piled back in the van, Cat said something to the effect of, "Please don't roll forward at all." In response, Dava drove over the edge and down to the bottom of the cliffs. This convinced me that the Russian van that we were in, while not designed for comfort, could kick the snot out of any North American vehicle. That night we camped in the middle of the cliffs, something that would never be allowed in North America for conservation reasons. WE set up our tents, with some difficulty. Andrew and I decided to climb the cliffs in the dark with the aid of a headlamp.

Watering the goats at a roadside stop.

In the middle of nowhere... or maybe the egde of somewhere.

The Gobi Forest.

Me and Andrew at the Flaming Cliffs.

I almost died taking this picture, so I insist that you enjoy it.

A small portion of the Flaming Cliffs.

Our crazy awesome campsite inside the Flaming Cliffs.

A small sample of the amzing rock formations.

To Be Continued...