Best Tour
MONGOLIA - Gobi desert
horse trekking in Taiga

Duration: Whole trip days 25, part of it days 18, Gobi and Kharakorum days 10.
Best time: June - October
Number of people: min. 4 - max. 10

Characteristic of the tour:
During this tour the traveller will touch 2 different planets, especially under the ethnographic profile. From the desert to taiga, the adrenalin will touch the highest level, without forgetting the humanitarian slice donated to the tribe, a great support to the Dukha (reindeer herders) who’ll be really very grateful to us. This trip will have a privileged space in your travelling- record.

PROGRAM
FIRST PART:
Day 1 - Arrive in Ulaan Baatar (UB) and take place in a nice new hotel. Eventually visit temples, museum or others.
Day 2 - We’ll leave UB in the morning for Kharakorum, (KK) the ancient capitol (km370). It will take the whole day because the road is not in best condition. We stop on the way for lunch, we also take a break for tea in some nomad’s ger (traditional Mongolian tent). We spend the night in the old capital in ger-lodge-
Day 3-4-5-6-7 - In the morning we visit Erdenezu Monastery, the only one in the world surrounded by a wall carrying 108 stupas. The same day we start going toward the Gobi desert where we’ll spend the next 4 days touching the best spots as the ruins of Ongii monastery; Bayanzag, the dinosaur arena; Khongor Else, the highest and longest dune of Gobi; we’ll end our first part of the trip in the Volture’s Valley, 2500m above sea level where it seems to be in the Italian Alps, instead we’re still in the middle of the desert.
During the desert-crossing we’ll always overnight with nomads (those real ones) and we’ll see their life-stile in these hostile part of the country. We have the opportunity to be surrounded by thousands of animals like goat, sheep, horses and camels. We’ll be amazed by the majesty of Battrian camels that we also have the chance to ride in Bayanzag or in front of Khongor Else.
Once we left the Volture’s Valley we spend the last night with a nomadic family not far from it; the mountains behind our camp highlight the border with Inner Mongolia.
Day 8 - Flight Gobi – UB and stay at the same hotel for an infinite shower to get the Gobi’s sand off; rest of the day free.

SECOND PART:
We’ll completely jump into a different planet travelling through a high mountain area in the north-west part of the country.
Day 9 - Domestic flight UB – Moron, capital of the Xovsgol region; her we go to the local market and load a truck with about 4 tons of goods for the Dukha’s tribe. Overnight in ger-lodge.
Day 10-11 - Early in the morning after breakfast we leave Moron by jeep or 4wd van (the truck will follow us) and will head toward the White Lake (Tsaagan-uur) reachable within 2 days; stopping at Ulaan- uul for the night: small village located in a wide green valley at 5 hours drive from Tsaagan-uur. (stay with nomad).
Day 12 - We take- off early and if the rough road is dry we’ll reach the White lake within 5 hours, if the road is wet it will take longer. Surprises never miss; jeeps are quite agile but the loaded truck sometime might be stuck in the mud. In Tsaagan-uur we stay at the main ranger’s house which I know him and family for 15 years. He and others helper will unload the trucks and put the goods in the storehouse of his ranch. The Dukha will start collecting it the next day. The lake is rich on fish and the wife’s ranger will cook for us a lot of it. Overnight in the house.
Day 13 - This morning our breakfast will be enriched with home made blueberry jam. In this area blueberries are so abundant and all the families living in the village collect them during summertime. We jump on our vehicle and drive the last possible 25km. From here we only rite horses or eventually reindeer. Soon we enter the taiga area and will arrive at the Dukhas camp usually after 6-8 hours.
Day 14-15 - These nomads are reindeer herders and live in tepee as American Indians. They are not as comfortable as the Mongolian ger but it will be interesting to overnight in them. During these 2 days we have the possibility to relax but overall realize the spartan life this people live, how they take care of the reindeer and how close they are to them. They live in symbiosis with them!
They will be very happy to get some gift from us; I’m in touch with them since 1995 and I know what they really love….. they are hunters…… We’ll visit every family, sipping tea and eating something, listening their request and their problem. It will be really touching.
Day 16 - Today we saddle the horses again and will return to Tsagan-uur. Eventually take a bath in the lake, fish for dinner and overnight at the same place.
Day 17 - Late in the morning we go for fishing with the ranger on the northeast part of the lake and will have brunch at a spot overlooking the lake. From here we proceed toward east part of taiga where the other group of Dukha lives. We drive more or less 30km by jeep and stop at Hogrog: a very nice nomads place where we dine and sleep in a ger-lodge built by a family who breed horses.
Day 18 - Today we jump again on our horses and will head to the Dukha’s camp. Here it will be a special welcome for us because they are the first people I met during my first visit to taiga in 1995. After dinner we’ll chat with the charismatic Gombo, one of the elder leader of the group. He’ll tell us interesting things about the situation in taiga.
Day 19 - Late this morning we move to the second camp and will rite about 5-7 hours. In this part of east-taiga in fact , the 2 camps are faraway each other comparing with those in western-taiga. Here, usually live 5 families and they will be really happy to welcome us. Few people come up here. We are just a few miles from the Russian border and at the apex of our adventure. What a place!!!
Day 20 - Today we start going back to Hogrog where our driver is waiting for us and will take us to Tsagan-uur. I’m sure we’ll be tired and well tanned. Same place for the night.
Day 21-22 - We leave early in the morning after breakfast toward Moron but will stop overnight about 5 hours drive before it. The day after will proceed for Moron and relax for the rest of the day at the same ger-lodge.
Day 23 - Late in the morning we drive to one of the most interesting archaeological site in the country, Uushigiin Uver. Located 25km away from the city in a wide valley squeezed between steppe and rocks, this place is considered to be among the most complete and best preserved of all the Bronze-Age. We’ll have lunch in Moron and fly to UB in the afternoon or in the evening. Same hotel and good dinner. We deserve it after such a long time in a rough countryside.
Day 24 - You have got the whole day free, shopping, good food and of course the zax is a must: widest open market in Mongolia.
Day 25 - Transfer to the airport and fly back to your country.

The cost includes
For prices and further information contact the author. The tour includes everything. Full board from airport to airport (UB.)

The tour is focused on three main goals: tourism, adventure, humanitarian
In Moron, capital of Hovsgol region, we load a truck with almost 4 tons of goods (flour, rice, salt, soap, candles, sugar, stove, candies, ropes, tobacco, bullets (they are really skilled hunters) which will be distributed in Tsaagan-uur to the Dukha tribe (Tsaatan). A small part of the goods will be also donated to the 50 poorest families living in Tsaagan-uur. I like to highlight that I have a familiar relationship with the Dukha that last since 1995. They will go to Tsaagan-uur to pick up the stuff by horse and eventually by reindeer. We’ll follow them to their camps where we’ll have the chance to learn their lifestyle and problems.
The Dukha count 250 people, they are nomads reindeer herders and skilled hunters; they are located in 2 different part of taiga: west-taiga and east-taiga. Each group spread in 2 different camps, sometime close to each other, sometime faraway. The Dukha risk extinction due of their weak health and a reindeer sickness that hit them badly in 1996-7 and killed almost half of the animals.

The ambient:
Taiga: wild and almost unexplored environment rich in forest and high mountains, hot in summer and freezing in winter (-50°C. sometime) where lichens, musk and short-birch are indispensable for the reindeer.
It will be a full-immersion in a day-life of an extreme nomadism on the way to vanish.

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