Mongolia is an incredible country – rolling hills and meadows of wildflowers, snow capped mountains and arid desert. The nomadic way of life still thrives here, with many people living in traditional gers (yurts), and livestock (horses, goats, sheep, yaks and camels) roaming freely. We spent six days exploring lush central Mongolia on horseback, and six days in the southern Gobi desert.
We completed this trip through Zavkhan Trekking. 99% of tourists who visit Mongolia will opt to do a trek through an organised tour company. Other than a handful of paved highways, all of the ‘roads’ in Mongolia are invisible to anyone but a local driver, public transport is non-existent outside of the capital, and it’s at least seven hours drive to get anywhere.
We started the horse-back portion of our trek in just out of Kharkhorin, which was an eight hour drive from Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia’s capital). There, we met with a local herder, who had lassoed eight of his seventy-ish horses, ready for us to ride the next day. June is early springtime in Mongolia, so there was fresh grass and flowers everywhere. It also meant that the horses had only been ridden for a week or so, after a whole winter of being left to fend for themselves. We were a little unsure whether our six riding lessons had adequately prepared us for riding a near-wild horse.
But we shouldn’t have worried. These small Mongolian horses were honest, hard working, fast and fun to ride. We rode with the reins held in one hand (if we were Mongol warriors, we would have held our swords in the other hand… instead, we just rested the spare on our leg.) We rode for 25-30km per day, through terrain that was so vast and beautiful that it almost looked computer-generated. You can see so far in any direction, and because there’s no roads, houses or fences, we had an amazing sense of freedom. We occasionally bumped into a local herder but we saw no other tourists for the duration of our six day ride.
At the end of each day we would set up our tents (which had been carried in an accompanying support van – we only had small saddle bags on our horses), and sit around the fire for a mutton-based dinner. Our team had purchased a sheep at the start of the trek, killed it (in the Mongolian way, which causes little distress to the animal and no blood is spilt), and butchered it. Mutton is a staple of the Mongolian diet, and is the primary source of protein. There were potato-based meals made for the vegetarians in our group though.
Most of our group were beginner riders (like us), but by the end of the trek, we were all galloping. We did have one woman in our group fall off, but she was quickly whisked off to a local clinic, and had only suffered bruising. We personally never felt unsafe – it didn’t take long to feel as if you and your horse were working as a team, and both of us just wanted to have a good time.
The gobi desert portion of our tour was a total contrast, but no less fun. We had traded our mounts for two modified Japanese vans, which we would spend hours in each day, speeding across the arid landscape. There are some amazing sights in the Gobi – the Flaming Cliffs are brilliantly red, deserted and (apparently) full of dinosaur bones. The Yolyn Am glacier in Vulture Valley was an unexpected slice of Antarctica (and yes, there were Vultures) and the Khongoryn Els sand dunes were completely untouched and magical.
Each day, we would make our way to a new place, with a few hundred kilometres between each stop. The car ride wasn’t a chore though – by this time, our whole group (luckily comprised of really nice people) were close and we would just chat and play music.
We were also camping for this portion of the trip, though we only successfully pitched our tents on half the allocated nights. The second night, our campsite was blocked by a wall that ‘wasn’t there last year.’ The third night, it was pouring down and the fifth night we were buffeted by a sandstorm. On all of these nights our guides found us accommodation at ‘tourist camps’ – small collections of gers (yurts) available for rent. Each gear was basically a large room with 3-5 beds inside. Toilets were always outside long-drops.
Overall, it was an incredible experience – one that we’re keen to repeat in the near future. Mongolia is an amazing country, and at the moment, is largely untouched by mass-market tourism. The whole trip has a special place in our hearts.
