The tour itinerary said we would be going back towards Dalanzadgad by the southern route and would take five to six hours of driving. Before we left, I took a couple of photos of the Gobi Erdene building which housed the restaurant. It is very large and the second story veranda was a great place to sit, both last night after dinner with a beer and friends, and this morning with a coffee before breakfast.
We set out on our six hour drive going generally in an easterly direction. After a couple of hours of bouncing along, we did see some antelopes. And we finally took a stretch break. We were surrounded by beautiful mountains of the Altai Range.
Just for fun, we took photos of our shadows and of the group with the van.
I was riding shotgun in our Russian made van. Notice how little leg room I had between my knees and the dashboard. Also notice how there is no padding or airbags, just a metal dashboard.
We drove on for a couple more hours, and it was clear that the driver and tour guide had become disoriented (actually, we were lost). We fortunately saw a van coming our way, so the driver stopped and asked that driver for directions. We made a u-turn, then after a while drove perpendicular to the carpaths and finally came to cliff edge - as we inched toward it, it was a steep decline down a large, long hill. This was one of several times we thought we were dead - but Munkh and his trusty van took us down the hill, we turned left and were on the right road into the mountains. The plan was that we would cross the mountains here to get back on the north side of the mountains. According to the tour itinerary and what I can find online, we "... cross between the crags of the spectacular Dungenee Pass ..." Spectacular is one way to describe it. Another location where we thought we would die is another way to describe it. The route follows what normally is a dry stream - but because of the recent rains, there is still water running in the stream. And the pass is so narrow at one spot, that as we inched upstream in the van, the driver's side mirror scraped against the rocks. When we got through the pass, Munkh pulled the van up onto land and we got out - I thought we were impossibly stuck. There is no way to turn around and since we are going upstream, it will only get narrower. WTF!!!! So I walked upstream less than 100 feet to see around the next bend in the stream and what do I see but a man and woman walking towards me. I said hello and asked where they were from - they said France. I said, no, where did they come from today. They had just had lunch at their van and were walking ahead. Sure enough, about two minutes later their 4WD van pulls up, they hop in and continue through the pass out to the south side of the mountains.
Here is a short video of another Russian made van coming through the pass.
It actually was a great place to stop. The tour itinerary said "... stopping for photography and possibly lunch ..." So here was the photography.
But where would we get lunch here in the middle of nowhere? Bayarmar removes a box from the back of the van (none of us had noticed it) and said here was our possibly lunch.
In a nice covered tray, we each had four Khuushuurs (pastry shells filled with ground beef, onions and spices), a sandwich and Mongolian cole slaw.
As we ate lunch, it turns out that there was a fairly continuous stream of vans and cars coming through the pass in both directions - we were not alone.
After we passed the upper end of the stream, the trail continued to widen. And there was even a gateway marking the high spot - my closeup photo of the gateway did not come out, but you can see part of it at the top of the trail.
There were spectacular views once we got to the top.
We drove on to the entrance to Eagle Canyon - no cars allowed, only hikers and horses.
There were also a few local artisans with their wares for sale.
As we hiked into Eagle Canyon, there was this pavilion - I assume it was used for meditation or religious services.
We saw many of these small rodents that we thought were marmots, but that I later learned were Mongolian gerbils.
Part of our group hiked into Eagle Canyon with our guide Bayarmar. I went part of the way, but since I was still sore from camel riding, returned to the parking lot where three of our group had remained talking with and bargaining with the artisans.
Here is a short video to give you a 360 degree view of Eagle Canyon or Yolun Am; it is so windy, you can barely hear my narration.
When I got back to the parking area and artisans, I finally saw a bird that was calm enough to get some photos.
We continued on to the north entrance (for us, it was an exit) for Yolyn Am Park.
There were more shops and a museum which had many stuffed animals and dioramas showing the local fauna and a few of the flora - I bought a small book that had info about the endangered and rare plants in the park.
Back into the van, we had another 30 minute ride to our lodging for the night - Gobi Discovery Ger Camp. They had an even larger restaurant and number of gers and permanent buildings than we had seen at the two other ger camps.
These gers were even more posh than the prior ones.
An excellent restaurant and bar with cold beer made for a fine dinner.
The restaurant was more than two stories tall and was constructed of logs brought in from the mountains of Mongolia.
Thai is a professional photographer, so using a digital camera with timer and Jonathan's tripod, he took a group picture of us in the waning light of day. I hope he sends copies to everyone. I managed to get this nice shot of the sunset (you can see the camera and top of the tripod just to right of the sun).
And so ended another exciting day of our adventure in the Gobi!
We set out on our six hour drive going generally in an easterly direction. After a couple of hours of bouncing along, we did see some antelopes. And we finally took a stretch break. We were surrounded by beautiful mountains of the Altai Range.
Just for fun, we took photos of our shadows and of the group with the van.
 |
| Munkh, Minh, Erika, Jeannie, Thai, Jonathan, Franz, Tom, Lara |
We drove on for a couple more hours, and it was clear that the driver and tour guide had become disoriented (actually, we were lost). We fortunately saw a van coming our way, so the driver stopped and asked that driver for directions. We made a u-turn, then after a while drove perpendicular to the carpaths and finally came to cliff edge - as we inched toward it, it was a steep decline down a large, long hill. This was one of several times we thought we were dead - but Munkh and his trusty van took us down the hill, we turned left and were on the right road into the mountains. The plan was that we would cross the mountains here to get back on the north side of the mountains. According to the tour itinerary and what I can find online, we "... cross between the crags of the spectacular Dungenee Pass ..." Spectacular is one way to describe it. Another location where we thought we would die is another way to describe it. The route follows what normally is a dry stream - but because of the recent rains, there is still water running in the stream. And the pass is so narrow at one spot, that as we inched upstream in the van, the driver's side mirror scraped against the rocks. When we got through the pass, Munkh pulled the van up onto land and we got out - I thought we were impossibly stuck. There is no way to turn around and since we are going upstream, it will only get narrower. WTF!!!! So I walked upstream less than 100 feet to see around the next bend in the stream and what do I see but a man and woman walking towards me. I said hello and asked where they were from - they said France. I said, no, where did they come from today. They had just had lunch at their van and were walking ahead. Sure enough, about two minutes later their 4WD van pulls up, they hop in and continue through the pass out to the south side of the mountains.
Here is a short video of another Russian made van coming through the pass.
It actually was a great place to stop. The tour itinerary said "... stopping for photography and possibly lunch ..." So here was the photography.
But where would we get lunch here in the middle of nowhere? Bayarmar removes a box from the back of the van (none of us had noticed it) and said here was our possibly lunch.
As we ate lunch, it turns out that there was a fairly continuous stream of vans and cars coming through the pass in both directions - we were not alone.
After we passed the upper end of the stream, the trail continued to widen. And there was even a gateway marking the high spot - my closeup photo of the gateway did not come out, but you can see part of it at the top of the trail.
We drove on to the entrance to Eagle Canyon - no cars allowed, only hikers and horses.
There were also a few local artisans with their wares for sale.
As we hiked into Eagle Canyon, there was this pavilion - I assume it was used for meditation or religious services.
We saw many of these small rodents that we thought were marmots, but that I later learned were Mongolian gerbils.
Part of our group hiked into Eagle Canyon with our guide Bayarmar. I went part of the way, but since I was still sore from camel riding, returned to the parking lot where three of our group had remained talking with and bargaining with the artisans.
Here is a short video to give you a 360 degree view of Eagle Canyon or Yolun Am; it is so windy, you can barely hear my narration.
When I got back to the parking area and artisans, I finally saw a bird that was calm enough to get some photos.
We continued on to the north entrance (for us, it was an exit) for Yolyn Am Park.
There were more shops and a museum which had many stuffed animals and dioramas showing the local fauna and a few of the flora - I bought a small book that had info about the endangered and rare plants in the park.
Back into the van, we had another 30 minute ride to our lodging for the night - Gobi Discovery Ger Camp. They had an even larger restaurant and number of gers and permanent buildings than we had seen at the two other ger camps.
These gers were even more posh than the prior ones.
An excellent restaurant and bar with cold beer made for a fine dinner.
 |
| The three oldsters on the team: Franz, Tom and Jeannie |
The restaurant was more than two stories tall and was constructed of logs brought in from the mountains of Mongolia.
Thai is a professional photographer, so using a digital camera with timer and Jonathan's tripod, he took a group picture of us in the waning light of day. I hope he sends copies to everyone. I managed to get this nice shot of the sunset (you can see the camera and top of the tripod just to right of the sun).
Tweet tweet to your Gobi bird from me in America!
ReplyDeleteThere were a surprisingly large number of small birds in the Gobi. Not sure if they were just following people because of prior experience, or because there were a lot of them. Did not see eagles or other raptors.
ReplyDelete