20250902 Tuesday, September 2, 2025 Three Beauties of Gobi National Park, Life of a Mongolian Camel Herder

20250902 Tuesday, September 2, 2025 Three Beauties of Gobi National Park, Life of a Mongolian Camel Herder

While the bathroom tied to the Ger looked nice, there was a problem with the shower valve and hot water.  It would only trickle hot water through the shower head.  If you tried to increase the flow, it immediately became a cold water shower.  The plumbing and electrical codes may be a bit contrived in southern Mongolia.  

Shortly after turning in for the night, it sounded like a wild storm was going on outside.  We opened the door and it was just a strong wind blowing.  Within an hour that subsided as quickly as it had arose.  The beds were comfortable and the temperature inside the Ger was comfortable at night even without heating or air conditioning. There is a heat pump that provides both heating and cooling, but the instructions are all in Chinese.

Janet was most annoyed by finding lots of small black beetles crawling around the Ger.  But we had a good night’s rest.  There was basically a continental breakfast set out on the buffet area of the dining room, but after we sat down, they brought out a western styled breakfast to us with scrambled eggs, bacon and avocado toast.  There was an automatic espresso/coffee machine but they had an attendant operate it because it was a little finicky.

We got into our stead’s (Lexus LX470’s) and headed off for our scheduled hiking tour to Yolyn Am, a valley within the Gobi Gurvansaikhan/Three Beauties of Gobi National Park.  It was an hour’s drive by 4x4 through 2 tracks that crossed over several dry washes.  Aside from having to climb down into the dry washes and gullies and back out, it was a reasonably comfortable trip in the Lexus SUV’s.

 
We did run into a heard of goats on our way to the National Park.  The herder was riding a dirt motorcycle instead of a horse.  Fortunately nobody actually ran into any of the goats.

Our first stop was the South Gobi Natural History Museum.  This was a modest museum with a collection of taxidermy with animals of the area.  There were also exhibits on some dinosaur bones and eggs that have been found in the nearby Flaming Cliffs area.  These made Roy Chapman Andrew’s a famous paleontologist for discovering the dinosaur fossil beds there.

There was an opportunity for a toilet stop, where we discovered the public facilities to be a pit with a plank floor.  The central plank has been removed to create a 8” gap in the floor into which you are supposed to do your business.  After seeing that, most people decided it could wait until we got back to the Gobi Nomad Lodge.

The area we hiked into was a valley between volcanic mountains.  The walls were mostly basalt which in places had a shiny smooth surface texture that almost looked wet when the sun reflected off it.  There is a spring fed creek which runs down into this valley.  The trail required us to jump over this creek several times.  

Some of our party who have Parkinson or other issues required a fair bit of assistance to make the first crossing.  The guides from Viking were very helpful and made sure everyone made the hike successfully.  There wasn’t a lot of elevation gain, but the surfaces were broken and uneven.  We hiked about 2-1/2 miles into the valley to where it narrowed and became more of a slot canyon.  

At the end of the trail was a Mongolian artist selling his wares.  He had carved images of horses on pieces of white stone and also made tiny figurines like chess pieces.

Our drivers took us back to the Lodge for lunch.  The beef has tended to be overcooked and chewy.  I had a ribeye steak, which looked good and was a large portion, but there was a lot of gristle and it was a bit chewy from being cooked to well done (over done).  I tried another Mongolian beer, but found it had the same metallic astringent aftertaste as the last Mongolian beer I had tried. I guess I’ll be sticking to Heineken or Corona for the rest of Mongolia.

 
There was time for a brief nap before we mounted our Lexuses and rode about an hour to visit a family that raises camels.  For a while, all the cars were in single file, but then they started heading off in different directions.  At one point, we came to a stop and there was a lot of radio chatter.  We were afraid we had gotten lost, but it turns out these drivers were all looking for better roads to the camel location because the main road is severely and legendarily afflicted with washboarding.  We eventually converged again and all ended up at the camel place.

The gentleman who owns the camels owns 150, which is a lot of camels.  This gives him significant prestige.  There are a couple of gers on the site, as well as what looks like a storage container behind, and also a large flat bed truck parked nearby.  There is an outhouse a respectable distance from the gers.  

We learned that most nomadic Mongolians don’t bother to build latrines or pit toilets because they usually only stay put a few months at a time.  So they do their business outside just like the camels do.

This gentleman has a dedicated guest ger, which we were invited into.  There, we were offered fermented camel milk, camel milk “vodka”, and candies made from camels milk whey.

The fermented camel milk tasted like yogurt with a shot of vinegar.  Fortunately, we were each poured on a small sample.  The camel milk vodka is made by distilling the fermented camels milk.  This looks clear like vodka, but tasted  more like Soju or Sake that had been diluted by 50% or more.  The whey candy tastes like the Norwegian brown cheese, which is made in a similar way by caramelizing whey.

  
After the greeting, we were invited to go on  a camel ride to visit a nearby dune.  We learned that less than 3% of the Gobi desert is covered by sand dunes.  The vast majority of it is tundra with grasses and shrubs.

The Mongolian camels have two humps, and there are two species.  The domesticated species has a slightly larger head and darker colored coat than the wild Mongolian camels, which are lighter in color and have a smaller head.  The wild camels are extremely skittish, and are rarely seen by tourists.  The domesticated camels are still considered half wild, so camel herders need specialized skills to attend to them and to ride them.

The saddles they used were no more than a wool pad, blanket and stirrups.  You had to hang on to the forward hump while riding.  Because of the width of the camels, the straps holding the stirrups tended to chafe the inner calf and ankle.  We ended up riding about 4 miles in a half hour to the sand dunes where we dismounted. Everyone got to scramble up to the top, although one lady managed to topple over backwards onto the dune.  Fortunately, she wasn’t injured.

  
From the dune, people had a choice to return to the camel owner’s ger by Lexus, or by camel.  About half opted for the Lexus.  We rode by camel.  
The drive back to the lodge took us past some horse herds and goat herds.  
Dinner was pretty much identical to last night’s fare.  Ben did try the salmon, which was a nice thick fillet of Atlantic salmon.  Janet opted for roasted chicken, which was a bit dry.  The best part of the dinner was the ice cream dessert.

Before retiring to bed, Ben ducked outside to see if it was possible to see and photograph the Milky Way.  Materials from the Three Camels Lodge boasted it to be a dark sky site, but there was a lot of pathway lighting at the Gobi Nomad Lodge.  Without walking a long distance in the dark to get to the outskirts of the fenced parking lot area, it was difficult to get a good shot of the Milky Way, although it was just visible.  We have about the same visibility of the Milky Way from our rural Whidbey Island neighborhood.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.  In the morning, we can hike to see some petroglyphs in what is being described as a strenuous activity.  Only about half our group will do this with us.  Those staying behind can sleep in and see an archery demonstration, and watch videos on Mongolia.