We were warned it would be a “long day” as we expect to travel some 290km (180 miles), mostly “off-road” as we head further south toward the Gobi desert area. Normally in the USA we would say that 180 miles would take about 3 hours. However, when you are on dirt roads most of the way we were told it would take about 6 hours to cover the same distance.

 

As part of an “unplanned” adventure Maggie May was hoping to find a nomadic friend (a widow) of hers who lived “somewhere” in the area. As we drove she told us how one year she tried to find her friend after receiving general guidelines of where her ger was located -to no avail. She is hoping we have better luck now.  And about one hour after leaving the main paved road we did, indeed, come upon two gers located in the middle of a beautiful grassy plain with her herds of sheep and goats feeding nearby. As is the Mongolian tradition we were warmly welcomed into her home and entertained lavishly for the next 1.5 hours with food and stories about nomadic life, their food and customs. It was quite a visit and a real highlight to our Mongolian adventure.

 

Unfortunately about 45 minutes after leaving her home we stopped for lunch as it was the only available stop in the area.  It was unfortunate because the stop was at a Mongolian BBQ and we were not that hungry after the food we consumed earlier. Somehow we managed to still eat more before moving on-you never know when we might get stranded and miss a meal!

The rest of the afternoon was spent traveling on the dirt roads, often as fast as 40mph, as the dirt roads were surprisingly smooth with out much “wash boarding” or potholes. Once the roads become hard to drive on the driver simply moves over and creates a new road. Normally one would say this is bad for the environment, but this region is so vast that it hardly makes a dent in the local terrain.  The other amazing thing is there are absolutely no road signs to guide you. It is simply the knowledge of the drivers that gets us to where we want to go.

After a long day “on the road” we arrive at our ger camp  for the night around 4 PM where we got to relax before dinner and a fairly early bedtime. It had started to rain lightly about the time we arrived and continued late into the night.

Tomorrow we will visit the nearby Ongi Monastery. We were supposed to visit it today but our detour to visit the nomadic family threw us off schedule. No problem; we are on vacation!