After a few miles of paved road, our driver suddenly got off the road and started driving on dirt road. And I am being very generous when I call it a road. Our camp for the night was nowhere visible – in fact we drove for over ten miles of sheer nothingness before we could spot some gers. The driver kept driving like he knew all the small pebbles and animals and carcasses (actually there is one if you carefully notice) around in the next hundred miles.

We got into our vehicle from Dalanzadgad airport and hit the road. It was hot. After picking up some water from a super market, we headed towards the desert. For the first couple of miles we were on paved road. I suddenly noticed some water on the road – complete with the reflections of the object nearby. I had barely finished asking Sara if there had been rains in the area recently, when all the water vanished from the road.

Fooled by a mirage!!

Learning Mongol is not for the weak of the heart. First, there are lots of sounds they make thru there nose that sound guttural. Most of the time, when our guide Sara was talking to our driver Hurle, I could not figure out if Hurle was clearing out his throat or saying “Yes”. Turns out he was saying Yes all along. Which made Roger and I a little wary of clearing our throats not knowing what we might land up saying Yes to!!!

Before we boarded our flight to Gobi, Sara threw a curveball at us. She showed us her boarding pass and asked

“Can you say my name?”
Me: “It starts with three consonants. I am out.
Roger studied it up and down and asked “Is that where we are going today?”

🙂

These three horses took turns to dive into the ground and roll over and over from side to side …

… but finally we saw some wild horses in their natural habitat. We entered Hustai National Park after driving thru dirt for fifteen minutes.

There was so much dust in the air that we were advised to go deeper into the mountains. We drove thru dirt again for quite some time. Could not find any horse in their regular places.

Started heading towards the river and as we went around the corner of a mounrain, we saw a majestic group of horses trotting along the mountain on the other side.

They looked absolutely majestic. Spent about 45 minutes watching them and another smaller pack that came along.

This picture was shot from about half a mile away across the valley…

… by running along with us by the highway…

When it came to domesticated horses, they are everywhere… moving in great big herds. Here’s a part of the pack that was walking along the highway…

… what did that one guy do to be thrown out of the village 🙂