River Canyons & East Gobi

ULAN BATOR

To orient yourself in Ulan Bator we suggest a stroll to central Sukhbaatar Square. Visit to the National Museum of Mongolia to admire its ethnographic collections of nomadic culture and examine the history which led to the imperial era of Genghis Khan. From there we divert to the Gandan Monastery, the busiest Buddhist site in Mongolia. Mongols share a strong religious affinity with Tibet. leader. After lunch at a local restaurant, we continue to the Winter Palace of the Bogd Khan.

Float Trip

Domestic flight to Mörön in Hövsgöl province and 3-4hour drive to the river canyons through jaw-breaking scenery. Arriving at the first of the river camps. For the next two days you will float through picture-perfect river canyons between cliffs of granite and limestone that soar hundreds of meters above the wild river. Our team of professional river guides use top spec US-manufactured rafts equipped with full safety gear. Choose to take the oars on the raft, pilot your own inflatable kayak, or simply sit back and let our guides do the work. Each day on the river is divided into half-day floats to allow stops for streamside photos and to hike up to scenic lookout points for glorious landscape vistas. Each evening you will float into a new 360° camp, furnished with all the amenities of an African tented safari, but deep in the heart of remote Mongolia. Two full days of inspiring, untamed adventure.

Hustai National Park

Rising early, you will return to the capital by plane. At Ulan Bator you will be met at the airport for a one-hour transfer to the Hui Doloon Hudag plains, a steppe area west of the city where the famous horse races take place every July. Here you will recharge in the comfort of mansion-like, modernized gers with windows and a terrace at HS Khaan Ger Resort. Evening time is your own. The next day we will do a game drive through Hustai National to see wapiti deer and Przewalski horses, called takhi in the Mongol tongue. The takhi, a truly wild horse closer to zebra than horses, became extinct in Mongolia in the 1960s but were successfully rehabilitated after animals were donated from zoo parks across the world.

To East Gobi

You will return to Ulan Bator and have an early lunch in the city before departing on a five-hour drive to Ikh Nart Nature Reserve. The tarmac road runs beside the Trans-Mongolian Railway towards Beijing, as the grasslands gradually give way to arid Gobi plains. Beyond the town of Choir, the true Gobi reveals itself, crowned with labyrinthine rock formations as you reach the Ikh Nart uplands. Rich in wildlife. Your private 360° Wilderness Ger Camp will be ready and waiting at Elst, a pristine pitch in an isolated section of the reserve.

Ikh Nart Nature Reserve

On the first day we will spend it exploring the Ikh Nart area on foot, or if you prefer, by horse, camel or mountain bike. The rugged, rock-strewn topography harbors a rich panoply of wildlife. As well as Argali sheep, you might encounter Siberian ibex and many bird species including enormous cinereous vultures and graceful lesser kestrels, the subjects of ongoing scientific study here. You’ll probably encounter local herding families, hardy and hospitable Gobi herders who frequently migrate in and out of the area with their livestock. The following day we will move camps, travelling 13km eastwards to the Ikh Nart Rocks Ger Camp. To do so, you can travel by jeep, camel or on foot. Jeep permits wider exploration of the reserve on route, whereas by camel or on foot will require the better part of a day to navigate through the other-worldly landscape of granite rock formations, many looming as high as multistory buildings.

To Beijing or Ulan Bator

After breakfast we will drive 80km north to the small town of Choir and prepare to catch the overnight train into China, which rumbles out of the small station on at 11:37am twice per week. Alternatively, you may wish to drive to Ulan Bator and stay the night at a hotel before departing the capital by plane or train. Two hours before arriving in Beijing, the train skirts its way through the Great Wall, the world’s largest monument to the perpetual incompatibilities between pastoral and sedentary peoples.