Warning: Mongolia is stunning and the photos will not reflect this. (Except perhaps the quantity of photos!)
Reading Rock Maps
On the
first day of our big Mongolian trip began we met Bimba, our guide, and Batar,
our driver then hopping into our Russian van, we set off. We had already met
Sarah, fellow Australian, online and in Beijing. Again leaving UB, we were
surprised at how quickly the city shifted from buildings to gers and were
content to stare out the windows, podcasts reserved for future days.
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| Our van, Rob stretching and Bimba |
Aside from
some stunning cliff sides, almost being crushed by a rock and sleeping with fox
skins and wolf hides hanging over my head in our first ger experience, our
favourite moment was when Bimba and Batar left us in the van to check out the
“map” we imagined was on the rocks they examined. You see, in Mongolia you
aren’t driving on a road most of the time. There is no signage, no obvious
landmarks (well, to us) and at this point we were already wondering how on earth
Batar was navigating. It is still a bit of a mystery really, however we can
confirm that they were checking for rock paintings, not roadside directions!
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| Our first day amongst the beauty of the Gobi |
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| Top of the world |
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| This hapenned |
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| Roadside directions (or rock paintings) |
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| Dreaming of foxes and wolves for some reason |
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| Camel dung to fuel our fire |
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| Looking for open spaces? Come here! |
The White Stupa
On the
second day of our tour we met Tasha, a lovely Canadian, who after teaching in
South Korea was joining our Monoglian trip before heading back home. We were
also lucky enough to meet some beautiful camels before visiting a spectacular
cliffside that was named the white stupa due to its shape. We arrived
relatively early to meet the family we were staying with on our second day.
This allowed us time to have a desert tea party and enjoy the beautiful blue
skies and the superior Mongolian clouds (they are surely the best in the
world!). It was also here that we first appreciated the fun that can be had
with the country kids and the miraculous views of oncoming weather that the
Mongolian landscapes afford you.
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| Woolly wise camel |
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| Camel and his teeth! |
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| The White Stupa |
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| The White Stupa from the top |
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| Tea-party (toilet in background) |
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| Cheeky child we stayed with |
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| Fun and games |
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| Sunset...as midnight approaches |
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| Rob with a fair bit of walking ahead of him! |
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| Animal sunset |
TO BE CONTINUED...
