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Crossing the Gobi Desert

Crossing the Gobi Desert
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18 September 2016

 

Dalanjargalan

Mongolia

 

45°50'N
108°50'E
1600m ASL

 

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WE WERE awoken at around 1:00 AM having reached the border of China at Erlyan. For the following hour we went through Chinese immigration before the train was wheeled into a large shed, each carriage disconnected and jacked up to have their bogeys replaced for the narrower gauge railway used by Mongolia and Russia (apparently a deliberate act on Russia's part to prevent invasion). Once the new bogeys were in place, the train was connected up again, and the Chinese authorities gave our passports back before travelling a few kilometres to Naushki on the Mongolian side. Following extensive immigration procedures, we were finally on our way and able to get back to sleep.

We awoke later in the morning to see the barren countryside of the Gobi Desert. In stark contrast to China's overpopulation, Mongolia is the most sparsely populated country on earth, especially around here where we only saw the occasional farmer herding double humped camels or native horses to see out the sparse pastures. It was while passing through the desert that one of the guys I met yesterday, a young backpacker Charlie from USA was interviewing as many people as possible on his go-pro for something to do, and to cut some videos from the trip when he eventually gets home.

He was keen to interview me, having found out some of the places I've travelled to in the past. Here's a picture he took of me from where he was filming. I'm not sure how the lighting would go on his go-pro - I suspect it won't be too good. Anyway he had asked me several questions about my reactions to this trip, and the awesome adventures I've done in the past. Then he asked me what I liked least about travelling. My answer was along the lines of whenever I tick off something on my bucket list, there seems to be another ten places added to it since ticking off the previous one. I'm not getting any younger, and still the list grows.

Blogs from today:
The Trans-Mongolian Express

Pyongyang to St Petersburg by train
Coast to coast across Eurasia

Superblog from today:
Terelj

 
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