Mongolia Trip: Orkhon Valley

Day 5 - Friday 12th August 2016

Another long day of driving! We were now moving up north towards Central Mongolia for the second half of the tour which - like most days - involved covering a very large distance. The landscape started to change from the desert to the iconic steppes! The Gobi was so flat and barren and it was beautiful to see the difference in the landscapes.





Visiting a large town! We had lunch of noodles, fat and meat! You can definitely start to see the trend in meals.







Our final destination was the Orkhon Valley. We had to cross the river multiple times and I was very worried that the van would get stuck in the water.






After crossing the stream, water got into the engine and this photo is of the driver inspecting the situation. It all turned out okay though!

We arrived at the ger camp relatively late again (once again a lot of bitching by my tour members were involved). By this stage, I was quite frustrated with the people on the tour. This was also the first opportunity to have a shower at the nearby tourist camp! Success! After 5 days I was very excited to wash the desert dust and sand from my hair and body. We were told it would cost 5000 tugrik which equated to $2.50 USD / $3 AUD. Once again a lot of whinging came from the American and Canadian about whether they would get reimbursed which was just ridiculous.


It was the best shower ever and it felt amazing to wash my hair! Little luxuries. I also washed my clothes and my bandana and it was disgusting to see the dirt come out from the cloth. I was quite excited when I left my shower as there wasn't anyone to collect my money (which I was willing to pay). This joy was short lived as on my way back to the camp which involved jumping the stream (maybe 1.5m wide), I landed on the wrong part of the bank which was super muddy and sunk knee deep into the mud. D'oh! When I pulled my foot out, my flip flop / thong broke since the mud was pulling it down. I washed myself in the cold water in the stream which was a little ridiculous and hobbled back to the camp with a broken flip flop / thong.

All in all, I got a free shower but ended up knee deep in mud. Ha!

This was my ninth trip as part of #take12trips. To see previous trips please click here.