Road to Gobi

Nomadic Road's September 2019 Road to Gobi expedition took a group of overlanders 2,000 kilometres across Mongolia's southern desert over eight days. The route worked through dirt tracks and occasional tarmac, threading south out of Ulaanbaatar into the Gobi proper. September is the shoulder month in Mongolia: summer fading, autumn colours starting to show, and the desert daytime heat dropping enough to make long driving days more pleasant. The 2019 edition followed the Gobi's classic 4x4 logic. Open gravel plains stretched out for kilometres at a time, with the convoy spread across the valley floor where the route allowed. Several days involved off-track navigation, with the lead vehicle setting the line and the rest of the convoy spacing out behind. Nomadic families dotted the route, and the convoy stopped several times to share tea and have the kind of conversations that overlanding makes possible. Wildlife encounters on this edition included Bactrian camels (the two-humped variety native to Mongolia), gazelles spotted at distance, and the occasional steppe eagle on the wing. The convoy camped privately for most nights, with one night in a small ger camp run by a local family. Evenings were communal, with shared meals, the occasional bottle of vodka, and the slow rhythm that the Gobi imposes on everyone who spends time in it. The September 2019 Road to Gobi delivered Mongolia at the end of summer: still warm enough to be generous, still open enough to feel limitless, and still empty enough to remind everyone why Nomadic Road keeps coming back.