Mongolia Golden Eagle Festival

Our adventure starts in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital city. There are no activities planned for today to allow for different arrival times. If you have time to explore some of the sites we recommend visiting Sukhbaatar Square, the National Museum and the landmark State Department Store. Around 6pm, say hello to your tour leader and fellow travellers, when we gather as a group for the first time to get to know each other and learn more about the adventures ahead. Your tour leader then ensures a big welcome by arranging a group dinner at a nearby restaurant. Want more time in Ulaanbaatar? Secure pre-tour hotel nights through your sales representative.

After breakfast, we transfer to Terelj National Park (approximately a two-hour drive), home to fascinating rock formations and green meadows carpeted with wildflowers. On the way, we visit the Genghis Khan statue. Standing 130ft (40m) tall and made of stainless steel, it’s the tallest equestrian statue in the world and quite a sight. We spend the day exploring these and visit the Aryabal Meditation Temple, which offers great views over the park. After lunch at our camp, we make a short trip to visit a local nomadic family to see how they live and hear about the nomadic way of life. Here, we also enjoy a tasting experience of homemade dairy products, such as yoghurt, cheese, curds and traditional salty milk tea.

We have an early morning flight to Dalanzadgad, the capital of the South Gobi province, then proceed to the Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park. Gobi Gurvansaikhan means ‘Three Beauties of the Gobi’ and this range marks the eastern end of the Gobi Altai mountain range. The park landscape is extremely varied, with rocky and sandy desert plains, precipitous cliffs, ravines, saltpans and oases. We visit a spectacular natural sight of this region: Yolyn Am, which is approximately 31mi (50km) or 1hr 30min drive each way. Yolyn Am means Vulture’s Mouth and is a canyon so deep and narrow that winter ice can remain on the valley floor even in the height of summer. This region is also renowned for the diversity of its wildlife and many endangered species roam here, including Mongolian wild asses, ibex, argali sheep and snow leopards. We explore the canyon before transferring to a nearby ger camp for dinner and our overnight stay.

Today we drive 45mi (70km) to Bayanzag, popularly known as the Flaming Cliffs, and hike among colourful sands of red, yellow and orange. Bayanzag is a renowned dinosaur fossil exploration site, discovered in the 1920s by Mongolian and American palaeontologists. We are free to explore the region and may even be lucky enough to spot dinosaur fossils. After a picnic lunch, we head to our camp for the afternoon.

We have a five-hour drive (125mi/200km) to the Khongoryn Els dunes, which stretch for 125mi (200km) and are as high as 985ft (300m) in places. They are known as the Singing Dunes, because of the beautiful sound that resonates through them on a windy day.

We have a full day to explore the dunes and surrounding area. We have the opportunity to visit a camel-breeding family and learn about the life of the local nomadic herders.

Our journey continues through classic Gobi Desert scenery of flat stony plains with small rocky outcrops and patches of sand across the Khatan Suudal Steppe. We stop for a picnic lunch and then continue our drive to the Bayan mountains to view the Bichigt Khad petroglyphs. The rock inscriptions and pictures here date to 3000 BCE; we see paintings including depictions of ibex, argali and men riding horses. It is possible to see some of these from the vehicles (better with binoculars) but, for those who wish, it is also possible to hike up to the cliffs for a closer inspection of these Bronze Age works of art (the main cliff is a steep climb for 195ft/60m and walking poles are required so we usually visit the smaller cliff, which is more accessible). We are in the vehicles almost all day today and cover approximately 240mi (385km).