Gorkhi Terelj National Park, Mongolia

I promised I’d share a favourite photo I have taken and provide you a bit of detail about it. This month I’m sticking to the travel category (again!) because I’m pining to travel again and it’s not happening in the next few months!

Mongolia will forever live in my memory as a remarkably special place. Possessing a last-place-on-earth allure, I felt privileged to visit and experience first hand, one of the last few places on the planet where nomadic life is still a living tradition. And it is still one of a few places of undisturbed beauty left on this earth. From its vast rugged steppe that seemlessly links land and sky, to its abundance of livestock - its horses, cashmere goats, sheep and bactrian camels - it is a most wondrous place.

​Landlocked between China and Russia, Mongolia is vast. With only 1.7 people per km², Mongolia has the lowest population density among all independent countries in the world, and it is this vast and majestic emptiness that is the country's enduring appeal. The country has a population of about 3 million of which, about half, live in Ulaanbaatar - it’s capital city. There are far more animals than people - about 20 times more!

​There are precious few roads and until Mongolia broke free from the Soviet orbit in 1990, it was virtually closed to the outside world.

​It is a country of extreme climate. There has been known to be up to a 100°C difference between the lowest winter and the hottest summer temperatures. The temperatures vary from 45ºC in the summer to -40ºC in the winter. Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital on the planet, with an average temperature of -3ºC. As a result of this extreme climate, Mongolia is the country with the northernmost desert and the southernmost permafrost in the world. On the bright side it is also known as the "Land of Blue Skies," as there are about 250 sunny days throughout each year.

After a 30 hour train ride on the Trans Siberian Express from Beijing, we finally arrived in Ulaanbaatar. The drive out of UB was long and tedious due to being peak hour. The driver and her daughter spoke zero English so communication was non-existent. There was so much construction in UB and together with poor roads and no freeways, made our ride very dusty. The traffic rivalled Sydney’s peak hour any day. Soon, well it wasn’t soon if truth be told, but some time later, we finally entered Gorkhi Terelj National Park, and our accommodation for the next three nights. 

Our 3 night stay at Gorkhi Terelj National Park was definitely among our most memorable. Our list of highlights includes:

• sharing a lukewarm shower where the water trickled through a hose which was a quarter the size of a regular garden hose. I even managed to wash my hair.

• chopping firewood for 30 minutes before breakfast.

• eating a breakfast of scrambled egg (not eggs!), homemade cheese, muesli, yoghurt and fried bread.

• hiking the forested hillside and collecting firewood for the evening’s blaze.

• observing and having a go at milking a mare, followed by drinking said mare’s milk, which had a surprisingly mild and sweet flavour. This was in direct opposition to the airag, fermented mare’s milk, which was quite vinegary and a bit tough to tolerate. It is certainly the drink that best symbolizes Mongolia.