The Gobi Desert

On a cold friday morning we packed into a very old Russian looking van, that looked like it was in the war, and begain driving accross the desert with two Finnish guys and our lovely driver Norra who didn't speak a word of English. The drive was very difficult and bumpy and at one point we got stuck in an icy river. Luckily there was a tractor nearby that was able to pull us out! We stopped for lunch and entered our first ger of the trip. It belonged to a local family who cooked us a very nice meal of mutton, veg and noodles. It was lovely food and at this point we didn't realise we would be eating this same dish everyday and would be sick of the sight of it by the end!!

We soon realised that breaking down and the van getting stuck was going to be a regular occurance but luckily Norra always knew how to fix it. We eventually arrived to the ger which we would sleep in for the night. It was snowing and very cold but it luckily had a fire to keep us warm. The lady looking after us didn't speak a word of English but as she came in to light the fire and we were all wondering what she was using she just pointed to the bag and said "shit"! She was burning camel and sheep dung! The ger was very basic with no running water or toilet and the fire would burn out in the middle of the night. We had to drink vodka to keep us warm!

The rest of the week was also spent driving off road accross the desert before arriving at a ger each evening. The landscape was amazing and changed drastically. One day we would be driving through snow and white sky and the next would be sand and blue sky. A couple of activities we did were walking in an ice valley and riding a camel by sand dunes. I didn't realise how big camels were and was pretty scared when it stood up!

I was ready to get back to the city and a shower by the end of the week but the trip was still amazing. Mongolia is definatly the most different place I have ever been. We spent one more night in the capital to have a cheeky hamburgur, pint and a good warm nights sleep before getting on another 36hr train to Irkutsk to Russia.

xxx