Flaming Cliffs and Flaming Flat Tyres

Pretty steppe
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I have long been fascinated with the Gobi desert, it's just so remote and it's also where they made some amazing dinosaur discoveries near the flaming cliffs.

We, along with the people we'd met in Irkutsk - Cindy, Marieke, Justin and Zoe, booked a six day trip through our guesthouse south to the Gobi desert.

Nomads have a habit of moving on, and we had no means of telling them we were coming.

The first day we loaded up the van - a Russian type of minvan, which we quickly named the mystery machine (for those Scooby Doo fans).

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We had a driver who we quickly nicknamed Van Bataar or Van Hero. He arrived with a bobble hat and a bleeding finger (result of some altercation with a garage door).  We soon found out the guy was an ace mechanic and could get us out of anything.  We had a guide too, Dawa who was lovely and whose main job (for us) was to ensure we got mutton free meals. This was quite a challenge, and she coped brilliantly.

Our first destination was to be Malangov, with is an aimag (province)capital.  We trundled out of Ulan Bataar and quickly ran out of road - that was the last bit of tarmac we were to see for about 5 days.  About 2 hours into our journey we realised just how big Mongolia is and how little there is there. It's endless steppe with every type of animal there - we passed yaks, horses, goats and sheep.  There's not a lot of grass this time of year, it's mainly dust and scrub, so you wonder just what the animals are eating. They wander all over the place too - occasionally we would pass a herder on horseback with his animals, there are no fences or boundaries of any kind.

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A full and bumpy day's driving, with a few stops to fix the doors, which kept opening. Van Bataar used pieces of elastic and bits of metal knocked off from the bumper to do this job, but it worked. We arrived at Malangov and checked into our hotel.  If you've ever seen The Shining, just try to imagine it taking place in a dusty town and you get the picture. This place had just run out of water so no showers to be had. We ordered dinner - rice and salad for us and went off in search of beer. We found a "karaoke bar" sign but the door was locked, we found someone to open the door and headed off a dark corridor into an improbable disco area.  We asked for beer and coca cola and only beer and vodka was to be had, both warm. Anyway, we were so thirsty we bought them and then went upstairs to the restaurant to await our meal. An hour later no food, but staff carried a bucket of water towards the kitchen. A family of Mongolians were just staring at us. We were staring and goggling at the incredibly cute kids. All Mongolian kids are gorgeous we were to discover. Another hour and our food arrived, we devoured it and headed for bed.

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The next day after a breakfast of rice pudding, we headed off for Dalangazad where we were to stay in a traditional ger. A ger is a canvas and felt tent, which are very common in Mongolia in the country, it can be packed up and moved. Particularly useful for the nomads who follow their animals around.

The scenery on this day was beautiful, again endless steppe with dusky pink mountains in the distance. We stopped again in a canteen, Guanz, for lunch (I had crackers and cheese from our supplies, couldn't face mutton scented noodles). We then drove for several more hours including through a firing range. The army boys seemed surprised to see us, we were a bit abashed but Van Bataar just laughed his evil laugh, his bobble hat bobbing up and down. We arrived in a small dusty town and found our ger. Gers are very warm, and there are a number of traditions associated with them. Each one has a stove in the centre for heating and a wooden wheel at the top for light. (sometimes this is covered over, sometimes it's open to the elements). We managed to let the fire go out during the night and we woke up to freezing weather. An ice storm.

Van Baatar to the rescue. He was fixing the door with bits of metal here.
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We headed off but soon had to turn back again, visibilty was about half a metre, and with no roads, signs or anything it would have been stupid to continue. A few hours later it all cleared up and we headed out again in bright sunshine for Yolyn Ann, the ice valley. This was going to be a St Patrick's day to remember.

The landscape changed rapidly with mountains rearing up on both sides, big rents in the earth from earthquakes. We reached a pass, and entered the Gobi proper. We spent about an hour walking the ice valley, which is a frozen river. It's really beautiful, lots of wildlife - eagles, mountain goats, foxes, hares. We piled back into the van across the mountains. It was very difficult terrain and I was glad to be wearing a sports bra. One slope proved too much for even the four wheel drive and we all had to get out and walk. We rounded a bend and saw our mystery machine stuck in the mud. All hands to the shovels and a bit of pushing got it out and we were back on the "road" again.

One of our first views of the Gobi
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Just as we were enjoying a spectacular sunset (see pic) we reached Konghur Els, the sand dunes. It was completely dark by the time we reached the site where the family we were to stay with usually camped and they were nowhere to be found. Nomads have a habit of moving on, and we had no means of telling them we were coming. Half an hour later we found them but they had no camels to ride the next day so we headed off across the dunes again to find another family. How Van Bataar could find them I will never know. It was pitch black, there was no discernable track, he didn't use a compass and had no map, but find them he did.

Gers at our first Guanz (canteen stop)
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We gratefully entered the herdsman's ger, he was alone with his daughter who was asleep on the bed. Two tiny baby goats were in a cardboard box near the door (wolves are a big problem). Dawa, our guide, cooked us rice and some pleasant but odd tasting pickled desert herb (a bit like tiny asparagus).  The herdsman had satellite (the dish was the size of the ger, and he and the driver watched a war movie on the TV, electricity provided by solar panels. Cathal and I went out to look at the stars, which were amazing, I've never seen so many.

Random dog
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When we woke up it was about sunrise and we scampered about just looking at the landscape stretching as far as the eye could see and no sign of habitation anywhere, apart from where we were staying.

We played with the little girl, who was full of beans, and waited for camels to arrive. It looked like a scene from Lawrence of Arabia, the camels coming over the dunes. I chickened out of the camel riding (they smelled really bad, worse than I did after 3 days without a shower) but Cathal went ahead.  I opted for a walk up the sand dunes very hard work, but worth it.

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I then started to cook lunch, but managed to set fire to myself with the gas stove. I rolled around, put myself out and then chucked water all over the ger. My hair's shorter on one side now, and my fleece a bit blackened but no lasting damage done, to myself or the ger.  Cathal arrived just after this incident and I'm not allowed to touch the stoves again.

We ate, and then headed off to Bayanzag, the Flaming Cliffs. This is where a chap called Andrews made all sorts of amazing dinosaur discoveries.  We spent a happy hour wandering around, getting covered in red dust. It's hard to describe just how beautful it is, the cliffs glow red against the blue sky. There's nothing to be seen for miles around except desert. The cliffs are cracked and weathered and are made of very soft dusty rock. The ground is dotted with tiny chips of hard green rock, but we couldn't work out where this had come from.

Zoe and Cathal bonding.
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We weren't staying far away so headed over there to meet our hosts and have some milky, salty tea. I was getting to quite like this, but still wasn't sure about the fried cheese curd we kept being offered. It's rude not to accept it, so I would scrape some off with my teeth and then pass it to Cathal when they weren't looking!

In the ger, Dawa decided to show us how to make a type of Mongolian pasty for dinner - Khuurzuur. We all helped, Cathal proved a dab hand at rolling pastry and we had a lovely meal. It was also a festival called Man's day so she'd bought the boys some local alcohol made of a special herb only found in the Gobi. It was lovely, like mead almost, and we put away quite a bit of it.

This was the arrangement of napkins at our hotel whilst we were waiting for dinner. You can't see it, but the cloth was flourescent orange
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The next morning we left to our final ger. We had a puncture along the way, but Van Bataar managed to have a pee and change the wheel in nine minutes (we were timing him!).

We arrived at another driver's ger for lunch. They'd just killed a goat and were in the process of butchering it, so the meat eaters got fresh goat for lunch. We'd brought some leftovers from the previous night for us. They insisted that we all, including Van Bataar have some vodka and we unsteadily made our way towards our ger for the night.

Dinner arrives.
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The woman who owned this one had done a lot of work in nomads rights.  She was very lovely and it was the most beautiful ger we'd seen. She taught the girls how to make bracelets and the boys were manfully filtering our water so we'd have something to drink the next day.  After a very chilled out night it was time to head back to Ulan Bataar.

We visited a temple en route (Van Bataar had to fetch someone to open it for us). We had two more flat tyres (Cathal helped to pump these ones up) and we had a picnic lunch of rice salad on the steppe.  We arrived dirty and dusty to Ulan Bataar and had showers and take away pizza. Bliss.