THE CAR EXPEDITION TO MONGOLIA “UNKNOWN MONGOLIA” IN MAY-JUNE 2017.
Expedition route: Barnaul — Gorno-Altaisk— Kosh-Agatch village — “Tashanta” checkpoint —Tolbo Nuur Lake — Hovd— Altai village— Great Gobi Reserve — Shinejinst village — Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park — the Nemegt Basin Valley of the Dragons — Gurvan tes — Khongoryn Els sand dunes— Dalanzadgad — Mandalgovi — Ulaanbaatar (1st stage) — Mongol Els sand dunes — Kharkhorin — Orkhon River valley – Tsetserleg — Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur Lake — Khar Nuur Lake — Khyargas Nuur Lake — Ulaangom — Ureg Nuur Lake— Dund Nuur Lake — “Tashanta” checkpoint — Barnaul ( 2nd stage).
We travelled seven thousand kilometers in Mongolia! The first and the second stages of the expedition differed drastically from each other…
The first stage passed in hard-to-reach, seldom visited, remote places of Mongolia, while the major part of the second stage we travelled in densely populated touristic districts of the country. The first stage included mostly mountain and plain deserts; the second one included mountain and plain forests, meadows and steppes. Thus we met with the animal world representatives in a different way…On the first stage we enjoyed observing goitered gazelles, onagers, Siberian ibex, tolai hares and other representatives of the desert fauna, while on the second stage we mainly saw just traces of vital activities of red deer (maral), white hares and others. On the first stage we were delighted by unordinary saxaul and calligonum forests, groves of fanciful Asiatic poplars…On the second stage we admired colourful larch forests with blooming orange globeflowers, raspberry-red peonies, blue irises and plenty of other flowers… In combination with numerous picturesque lakes, impressive mountain ranges, and big amount of unique historical and archaeological monuments – all this made an indelible impression on the expedition participants… The expedition team consisted of a zoologist, botanists, a mycologist, geographers, an ethnographer, sociologists as well as travellers and wild nature lovers from different cities and towns of Russia. Great! What an amazing and wonderful country!