life, upside down: Mongolia

Naran Dats (or Naran Daats) is a spring in the middle of the Gobi. We had driven from Khongor Els sand dunes, left the standard tourist route and ventured deeper into the desert, camped in the proverbial middle of nowhere, and continued driving. A map of our entire trip shows how we made a giant clockwise loop:

(As you can see, I started keeping track of more
landmarks towards the second half of our trip..)

This is where we are at this stage of our trip, in Naran Dats:

From Ulaanbaatar to Mandalgovi to Dalanzadgad to here: Naran Dats.
Further stops on our trip on this map: Bayankhongor and Kharkhorin

And this was only the en route stopover on our way to Khermen Tsav. We would keep driving further west for one more day, away from Ulaanbaatar, camp the night, and then start making our way north and northeast.

It was an overcast day and when we arrived at the "Motherland of Baatar" ger camp, where we were to stop for the evening, it was drizzling. Still, we wanted to explore: we had seen some incredible sandstone rock formations on our way which continued in this area and we very much wanted to investigate. We could see there was a statue or some kind of monument atop the hill above the camp, which was a bright verdant green because of the spring: such a contrast to the rest of the scraggly desert! There was a small herd of cattle in this valley as well, which we had not seen since we started our trip into the Gobi. Other than the elderly couple which ran the ger camp, we did not see anyone else. It was quite a developed camp as well with a large 'dining room' ger (closed while we were the only ones there of course) as well as shower facilities (also closed), a gazebo and paved walkways between the gers lined with pieces of petrified wood. Somehow I didn't take any photos of the ger camp itself.. which I regret now.

Bleak, cloudy Gobi.

Walking around in this area was really amazing: it ended up being one of my favorite stops on our entire trip; if only it was a little easier to get to so that we could go back and explore some day! The sandstone gullies and canyons, carved by rain, and all the different colored rocks on the white sand: from purple and red to green and gray. I could have spent hours, days walking around here. There was so much to explore, and there were so many amazing rocks! My favorites were inevitably too big to bring with us, but there were a lot of really fascinating striped rocks of different shades of green.

Another reason this was such a highlight of our trip: just before dinner we saw a huge double rainbow over the desert. I don't know if I have ever seen the full uninterrupted arc of a rainbow before, from horizon to horizon, let alone a double rainbow. It was incredible, the setting sun turning the yellow sandstone hills gold, the rainbow, and the utter stillness and quiet. Definitely the best rainbow I have ever seen!

The next morning we got up early, as was our custom, to take a walk before breakfast. The skies were clear and the sun was shining. The ground was wet from dew and the air was cool, but the sun was bright and warm. We walked in a different direction from the day before and climbed to the top of a hill, low clouds in the distance obscuring the mountains. It was almost too bright: it was hard to see the canyons and the different layers of the rocks. We saw some different desert flowers and a lizard, and on our way back we saw the old man of the camp wave us over. We followed him to a distant hill where: much to our surprise, dinosaur bones were laid out in the sand. The past day we had felt we were in a landscape where you could just turn over a rock and find a fossil, and here they were. After we had looked and taken some photos, the man covered the fossils up again: waiting for the next time some tourists might wander through.

All in all, it was unforgettable, and like I said: I would love to go back here and explore more of this part of Mongolia. I wasn't expecting the desert to be so beautiful and so fascinating, but it truly was.