Road to Gobi Desert

Nomadic Road's August 2022 Road to Gobi Desert expedition was an eight-day, 2,000-kilometre overland trip across Mongolia's southern desert. The route worked south from Ulaanbaatar onto the dirt tracks that thread through the Gobi proper, with several days of off-track driving across open valley floor. August is summer at its peak in Mongolia: green grass on the steppe leading down to the desert, warm days, cool nights, and the country at its most generous. The 2022 edition came at a moment when international travel was just stabilising again, and the group reflected that. Participants were a mix of nationalities, with several first-time overlanders and a few experienced travellers chasing a specific kind of remoteness they had not found elsewhere. The convoy spent most nights in private camps, with one night in a traditional ger camp and several evenings spent sharing tea with nomadic families along the route. Driving days mixed dirt tracks and stretches of completely open terrain where the lead vehicle chose its own line. Camels appeared along the route, gazelles flickered at distance, and on one of the higher passes the convoy caught the kind of view that makes the long drives worth it. The Gobi's specific palette, beige plains, red rock outcrops, deep blue sky, defined the trip's visual signature. The August 2022 Road to Gobi Desert expedition delivered the classic Nomadic Road formula at a compact eight-day length: serious driving, open Mongolia, and the slow, generous rhythm of an overland trip far from anywhere. The August 2022 edition was part of the wave of trips that reopened Nomadic Road's international expedition programme after the pandemic disruption, and remains one of the more compact but complete Gobi routes in the catalogue.