Mongolia | Gov-Altai Aimag | Bayan Tooroi to Tsagaan Burgasny Bulag

After a memorable night enjoying the delectable delights of the Bayan Tooroi Oasis—a description of which I will omit here, since it lies outside the boundaries of the narrative of our journey to Ülzii Bilegt—we moved on to the ger of a man named Tsogoo from whom we intended to rent camels.

Tsogoo and two of his magnificent camels

Tsogoo’s ger is 18.3 kilometers west of Bayan Tooroi and 23 kilometers east of Eej Khairkhan Uul, in an area known as Zakhuin Gov, much of which covered with ders, a kind of grass which grows in thick clumps reaching heights of over six feet and which is much beloved by camels.

Tsogoo's camels with Eej Khairkhan Uul in the distance

Tsogoo, forty-five years old, is a locally well-known camel herder who we were told by usually reliable sources knew the route from here to Shar Khuls and on to Ülzii Bilegt like his own jugular vein, or the back of his hand, or some other equally familiar body part. With him was a thirty year old man named Sükhee who has also agreed to come with us. He normally works as a ranger in the Gobi Protected Area A, the huge nature preserve which begins just south of Bayan Tooroi and extends south the whole way to the Chinese border. (Gobi Protected Area B is farther west, in Khovd Aimag, in case you’re wondering.) With him along we would not have to worry about unpleasant encounters with rangers in the nature preserve—a reoccurring theme during my previous visits to Gobi Protected Area A—since he himself was the ranger, if you grasp my point. He also claimed to knew the way to Shar Khuls and even claimed to have visited Ülzii Bilegt five or six years earlier while accompanying some people doing research on mazaalai, the extremely rare Gobi bear found only at certain oases in the south Gobi, including Shar Khuls. A mazaalai used to hang around Ülzii Bilegt, Sükhee told us, but he was unable to say if it was still there now.

We spent the morning picking out camels—we would need eight, five and riding and three for baggage and water—and preparing saddles, bridles, lead ropes, and whatnot. I also bought a sheep and a goat which were quickly dispatched and reduced to manageable sized pieces. I was told that it had been quite warm in the Gobi and there was some danger of our meat spoiling during our two-week trip. Hence the goat, the meat of which will keep much longer than sheep meat. We would eat the sheep first and then move on to the goat.

It was soon decided that instead of beginning our camel trip here we would drive by jeep to the Bear Research Station at Tsagaan Burgasny Bulag (bulag = spring) on the north side of Edriin Nuruu (nuruu = mountain range), thirty kilometers south of Tsogoo’s ger. Tsogoo and Sükhee would proceed to here with the camels and the next morning we leave for Shar Khuls.

Tsaidam, or salt flats

From Tsogoo’s ger we drove south across vast salt flats to the northern foothills of Erdriin Nuruu and up a canyon to Tsagaan Burgasny Bulag. Here the administration of the Gobi Protected Area A maintains a tidy little guest house for researchers who come here to study bears and other fauna and flora of the Gobi Desert. Indeed, upon arriving here we encountered a van load of Mongolian and Chinese scientists from Inner Mongolia in China who had stopped by for a quick look around. They quickly departed.

Guest House at Bear Research Station

A young man and woman and their small daughter live year-round here in a ger and serve as caretakers.

Wife and daughter of caretaker at Tsagaan Bugasny Bulag

The man explained that the Gobi Protected Area A Administration hoped to capture a Gobi bear and bring it here so scientists could study it in captivity. They also hoped that paying tourists would come to see the bear and stay in the guest house, thus providing funding for further research. This sounded like a hare-brained scheme to me, but since Gobi bears were outside of my field of interest I did not pursue the matter. The man also confirmed that from here south to Ülzii Bilegt—a distance of exactly 200 kilometers—there was no people whatsoever. We would be completely on our own. Water was available here, but the next water would be at Otgonii Bulag, 38.7 kilometers south of here.

When we were shopping in Altai I had expected camp boss and cook Uyanga to buy noodles, a staple of any trip into the countryside. She had not, explaining that she, like any self-respecting Mongolian housewife, would make her own kherchsen guril—noodles freshly made from flour. After tea (Yunnan Gold) we retired to the cook shed to prepare three kilos of kherchsen guril and four kilos of bortsog, or fried bread, another staple of the countryside. I mentioned to Mojik that I was surprised Uyanga would go to all the trouble to make noodles when we could have easily bought them ready-made in the store. Mojik informed me that both she and Uyanga do not approve of store-bought noodles. They have a tendency, so Mojik claimed, to linger in the intestinal tract for three or four days, often with unpleasant results, while freshly made noodles move right on through with admirable dispatch. I was completely unaware of this. The things you learn on a camel trip!

Mojik making kherchsen guril

The waning gibbous moon rose at 7:23 and the sun set ten minutes later at 7:33. The moon was high in the sky by the time we finished preparing the noodles and bortsog. When we turned in at 10:30 the camel men had still not arrived.

Mongolia | Gov-Altai Aimag | Biger to Bayan Tooroi

The town of Biger, near the bottom of the Biger Depression at an elevation of 4404 feet, or some 5095 feet lower than Dütiin Pass, is famous for a number of things, including vodka made from yak milk and vegetables which thrive in the nearby oases.

Yak milk vodka made at local distillery. Heart your heart out Smirnoff!

Careening into the small town square we were surprised to find a small fair in progress. People from the various bags in the area—an administrative area very roughly equivalent to an American township—were in town to show off and hopeful sell their various products.

Local produce for sale
Nice display of aaruul—dried curds—from Bag #3

We were immediately struck by the huge potatoes for sale. Local boosters claim the Biger Depression is home to the largest potatoes in Mongolia. We had already bought potatoes in Altai but could not resist adding five more kilos of these gargantuan tubers to our supplies.

Uyanga and typical Biger spud

There were also saddles for sale. Forgot to ask the price of this one.

Interesting as the vegetables and whatnot were I was eager to track down Namsum, the local retired school teacher with whom several years earlier I had ascended Burkhan Buudai Uul, and question him some more about Dambijantsan. When we asked for directions to his house, however, we received the disconcerting news that he had transmigrated two years ago.

Namsum on the way to Burkhan Buudai Uul, several years earlier

Namsum with a snow leopard skull we found on Burkhan Buudai Uul

With no reason to linger any longer in Biger we headed south, climbing through the Gov-Altai Mountains to another pass oddly enough also known as Dütiin Davaa, the same as the pass on the northern side of the Depression. Although it had been quite balmy in Biger at 4400 feet on the 9428-foot pass there was fresh snow.

Valley leading through the Gov-Altai Mountains to Dütiin Davaa
Fresh snow near Dütiin Davaa

From the pass we dropped down to the small town of Tsogt, which as mentioned earlier was the beginning of the Tsogt–Gongpochuan caravan route mentioned by Shukee in Shinejinst. Beyond Tsogt we climbed to Üreltiin Davaa and then began the long descent down through the Üreltiin Canyon to the Gobi Desert. In the distance, from the floor of the desert, soared Eej Khairkhan Mountain, the most famous landmark in the area. The mountain is named Eej Khairkhan (Mother Dearest) supposedly because its twin peaks resemble two breasts. By early evening we arrived at the oases of Bayan Tooroi. Here we would spent the night before meeting our camel guys the next day.

The magnificent mammaries of
Eej Khairkhan thrusting into the azure sky