Magical Mongolia

We didn’t know what to expect when we signed up for the Mongol Rally. All we knew is that it was going to be a great adventure driving a car 1/3 of the way around the world from London, England to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

The fact that I had never changed a tire in my life and that Dave hates everyone’s driving but his own, didn’t faze us one bit when we signed on with two other people to cram ourselves into a tiny inappropriate car to drive across two continents.

That, however, is ThePlanetD. We jump head first into each adventure before giving ourselves the chance to talk ourselves out of it. If we chickened out of cycling the continent of Africa in 2008, we wouldn’t be here sharing our Mongolian Adventure with you today!

It took us five weeks to reach the final nation of our 14-country route and it was the most exciting, beautiful and welcoming destination of the entire trip.

Crossing the border from Siberian Russia, the landscape instantly transformed into a beautiful display of rolling mountains. As we chose a path from the dozens of trails leading east, we knew that this was going to be the most extraordinary leg of our drive.

Following our compass and map, we spent the next 7 days navigating through the Central Asian Steppe and the Western Gobi Desert, passing herds of Bactrian camels (the two hump kind) and packs of horses. The Mongol People have an almost mystical relationship with the horse and the animals are left to roam free when not being used for work.

Mongolia is something out of a dream. It’s a destination very few travel to and the welcome and warmth you feel from the locals makes you never want to leave.

Each evening as we set up camp, families stopped by the side of the road to say hello. We didn’t speak the language, but all felt the camaraderie. They brought us Airag (fermented mares milk) and dried cheese and we shared our meals and showed them the photos that we had taken.  Having our route displayed on hood of our car helped to break the ice as everyone would study our map pointing to Russia, Kazakhstan and finally Ulaanbaatar. They shook their heads in disbelief. Who are these crazy foreigners driving from so far away?

The days were long and our little car was as hot as an oven. We broke a shock, put our exhaust back together with fencing wire and changed many a tire by the side of the road. Our gearshift was held together with duct tape and we barely survived countless river crossings.  But with the help of friendly locals, we found our way, followed them through deep waters and made new friends.

There are countless things that you can do in Mongolia. From staying in a traditional ger to trying your hand at archery, trekking on horseback or witnessing the Kazakh tradition of hunting with eagles. But it will always be the people that we will remember and we are glad that we could help in our own small way.

Handing our car over to Adventures for Development to auction it off for charity was an uplifting experience. Mongolia is developing and that little car will be put to some very good use.

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