Border Post 0309.
I've just returned to Olgii after 3 nights in Altai Tavan Bogd national park at the far western tip of Mongolia.
The first day's drive was interesting. Our driver wanted a place to stop and eat (he wasn't interested the usual tuna sandwiches we've been eating on the road) and kept following directions that seemed to be taking him further and further away from his usual route. In the late afternoon we found a Kazakh family that offered us lunch (they wouldn't take any money for the food but wanted to buy a few liters of gasoline which we happily gave them in trade instead).
By this time it was snowing pretty heavily which made it nearly impossible for our drivers to navigate since they couldn't see any of the familiar terrain features. Our driver implied we actually crossed into Kazakhstan during this time but I'm not sure I believe him. After a couple more hours of guesswork we finally stumbled upon the border post that marked the entrance to the park. The soldiers told us all the tourist gers in the camp were closed for the winter but were happy to put us up in a room in the barracks for a couple dollars each. So we ended up living at the post while we explored the park. The base commander and his wife were extremely friendly and, strangely enough, more solicitous than the staff of any hotel I've stayed in on this trip.
Anyway, enough of that. Here are the pictures from the drive into the park.
The next two days were much nicer weather and we took the cars as far as allowed the park and took short hikes from there. The scenery was nice although we weren't able to get close enough to any of the 4000+ meter peaks to get any great pictures of them.
And finally, here are some pictures from the drive back to Olgii today. We pretty much came back the way we went in (minus the aimless wandering) but had much better scenery due to the weather.
Tomorrow we start heading back towards Ulaan Baatar through the north of the country. No idea if I'll have any Internet access for the rest of the trip but we should pass through a couple large towns so I'll post if I get the chance.
The first day's drive was interesting. Our driver wanted a place to stop and eat (he wasn't interested the usual tuna sandwiches we've been eating on the road) and kept following directions that seemed to be taking him further and further away from his usual route. In the late afternoon we found a Kazakh family that offered us lunch (they wouldn't take any money for the food but wanted to buy a few liters of gasoline which we happily gave them in trade instead).
By this time it was snowing pretty heavily which made it nearly impossible for our drivers to navigate since they couldn't see any of the familiar terrain features. Our driver implied we actually crossed into Kazakhstan during this time but I'm not sure I believe him. After a couple more hours of guesswork we finally stumbled upon the border post that marked the entrance to the park. The soldiers told us all the tourist gers in the camp were closed for the winter but were happy to put us up in a room in the barracks for a couple dollars each. So we ended up living at the post while we explored the park. The base commander and his wife were extremely friendly and, strangely enough, more solicitous than the staff of any hotel I've stayed in on this trip.
Anyway, enough of that. Here are the pictures from the drive into the park.
The next two days were much nicer weather and we took the cars as far as allowed the park and took short hikes from there. The scenery was nice although we weren't able to get close enough to any of the 4000+ meter peaks to get any great pictures of them.
And finally, here are some pictures from the drive back to Olgii today. We pretty much came back the way we went in (minus the aimless wandering) but had much better scenery due to the weather.
Tomorrow we start heading back towards Ulaan Baatar through the north of the country. No idea if I'll have any Internet access for the rest of the trip but we should pass through a couple large towns so I'll post if I get the chance.
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