OK over the next couple of posts you’ll get random snippets from our 7 days in the desert, written on the road…..

So, I’m travelling with a group of people, most if not all of them are veteran group holiday people – all like travelling to out of the way places and are used to fitting in with a group and I am very much enjoying their company – they don’t seem to mind my propensity to linger at the back so I can be alone in this incredible landscape and just revel in being here.

We’ve had very long hot days driving across miles of steppe and desert. Our bus is Russian and our tour leader assures us its the best for this sort of trip because its a good old fashioned bus built to last and can be fixed on the road – he pointed out that a modern computer controlled vehicle is no use to man nor beast when it conks out in the middle of Mongolia with not a garage in sight and no phone signal. All of which is to the good as we had several unscheduled stops for engine tinkering. Fine by me – a chance for a pee and for me, another chance to stand and stare. I can’t get enough of this place.

Its vast – we drove through huge plains, rolling hills, flat hard sand and gravel desert, past and through desert cliffs all under the widest skies you have ever seen, mostly blue, sometimes lowering grey clouds, occasionally overcast and windy. HOT!

And the very lovely thing is the smell – some places are more green than others but there is very little grass, its all herbs and wildflowers. the main smell is lovely and fresh and I am assured its wormwood, we”ve had camomile, thyme, sage (I’d better stop there being useless at plants before somebody points out that these things don’t grow in Mongolia! But I assure you the smell is lovely)

Lunch and loo stops was just a case of driving off the road and stopping. We peed behind the support van if there was no other cover.

There were tarmac roads for a bit of the way and then just dirt and sand tracks. Our driver got us there every time, there are virtually no landmarks and although he was following tracks how he knew which track is beyond me. Our tour leader said he just drives and the road appears before him….

We stop to take pictures of eagles, enormous vultures, cranes looking just like big herons, herds of grazing cattle, sheep, goats and horses – and camels.