Journey to Bayankhongor

We have just returned from a five day trip to Bayankhongor – 400 miles west of the capital, Ulaanbaatar. It was an incredible drive across (part of) the country through stunning scenery of grassland plains and mountains – with the road on many occasions just disappearing into the distance. I’d heard Mongolia referred to before as the “Land of Blue Sky” and it didn’t disappoint – the views were massive and the skies were even bigger. 

As the miles fell away we passed herds of camels, yaks, cows, sheep and goats – nothing to pen them in yet they never seemed to stray far. Mongolians have revered falcons for hundreds of years and it was easy to see why as we passed many of these impressive birds sitting on posts close to the road or soaring high over the grassland. Apparently Mongolia even supplies many of the falcons to countries in the Middle East where the sport is so popular.

We came across what appeared to be a memorial to horses in the middle of nowhere. Columns upon which plates had been nailed naming the donor and how much they had contributed surrounded a large statue of a horse. Then most bizarrely a long line of horse skulls was laid out in a neat row behind the memorial. With all the signs in Mongolian it was hard to understand exactly what it was all about it did seem to back up what I’d heard before – horses play an important part of peoples lives in rural Mongolia.

Situated along a seemingly deserted stretch of the road (as much of the road was!) we found a man with two camels – hiring them out for short rides over the sand dunes that were not far from the road. It was too good an opportunity to say no and I got to have my first camel ride. They were surprisingly comfortable and as we headed back towards the car the man passed me up a small stick and indicated that I needed to encourage it gently on it’s behind and shout “choah”. Well, it seemed to work, and as I held the rope to Kaylene’s camel in one hand and the stick and my camels rope in the other we started running off back to the car. Fortunately I learnt to steer the camel pretty quickly (away from the road!) and when needed the camel stopped by pulling on the rope – not too different to horseriding! I was then impressed by it’s obedience as it knelt down to allow me off after I pulled back on the rope and shouted “zuugg” a few times. So if you ever find yourself riding a camel – at least you know a few commands that Mongolian camels understand!!

We’d been warned that it would be a 9 hour journey and as it turned out it wasn’t too much more with some stops along the way. After leaving at 10:00 we finally made it into Bayankhongor long after dark 12 hours later – what had started as an exciting adventure felt more like it was being endured as the last three hours were covered in darkness along rough and bumpy dirt roads that prevented any sleep from being had along the way.