Nomadic life

The start of my trip to the Gobi region. It’s very difficult to travel there independently, mainly because the roads are dirt tracks that don’t appear on any maps and aren’t signposted so you need a driver with local knowledge of the terrain and a vehicle suitable for driving over rocks, sand and through rivers. So I joined a small group for a week’s tour. We had a driver from the Gobi region and a guide with us.

The trip started out with us heading west from Ulan Bator into Central Mongolia before turning south into first the ‘Middle Gobi’ then the ‘Southern Gobi’ area. Before the trip when I thought about a desert, I just thought ‘sand’. But the Gobi is extremely varied and I was surprised how different the landscape was over the course of the 7 days. (There was also sand!)

My blip is of a nomadic father and son we met on the drive to Central Mongolia. Most nomadic families stay in the same area. They move between 2 and 4 times a year, with the seasons. All have a ‘summer place’ and a ‘winter place’, the ‘winter place’ being in a more sheltered location. Some also move in spring and autumn too. Mostly they move within a relatively small area and go to the same locations – sometimes the distance between their different sites is only a few kilometres. These two are different. They were over 300km from their home location and were taking their animals (goats, sheep, cows, horses and camels) back there.

When we got to the place we were staying, we got the chance to go for a short horse ride. Horses are a very important part of Mongolian culture. I was told that the vast majority of Mongolian songs are about one of three things – horses, love or mothers! I’ve heard numerous songs on buses which include horse neighs! Mongolian horses are relatively small but our guide described them as ‘semi-wild’! The owner of the horses made sure that those of us who didn’t know how to ride (like me) were looked after and confident to walk and trot. And he took those who could ride galloping across the steppe. The horses were obviously well looked after and I was happy to get a chance to ride a Mongolian horse but one hour was enough!

(The map location is where we stayed that night, not were the photo was taken.)