This was a last minute destination as a friend has suggested going to look for snow leopards. We decided not to rough it out and it turn out to be one of my best holidays.
Dispite the weather turning to winter, we were very comfortable as the lodges had heating and our guide arrange for the host to like the fires in the morning. Our guide was a local herds girl who started riding horses at 3yrs old and got a scholarship to University in Hawaii. So her English was very good. We had 2 Land Cruisers for the 3 of us and accomodation was much better than we had been warn to expect. Three Camel Lodge is excellent. The drivers were locals and the vast driving terrain was really pleasurable as it was very smooth competent driving.
And they even showed us dinosaur bones! The scenery was pure awesome. We did the camel rides in the Gobi, horse riding to the glaciers, stayed by the Gobi, climb the dunes and ate and drank with the locals.
Our guide Uka seem to connect very well with the local drivers so we had extra bonus of visiting farmers and discoveries. She definetly make the trip more fun with her entusiasm and passion. I definetly will go back again and ask Uka pronouce Okca email: Lots of wildlife , beautiful scenery and great photo opportunity. Was just here last week of September and it seems the lodges close in winter as the pipes freeze. We did a 7 day tour from UB, with 4 days or so in the Gobi Desert.
We went to the flaming cliffs, singing sand dunes and eagle valley or Bayanzag, Khongoryn Els and Yolyn Am. Each one is different, and all spectacular. We stayed in family gers along the way, food was included and whilst we were told it would be basic, it was plentiful and very good - we didn't go hungry and came home with most of the packs of noodles we left with.
