Oh, my God, will this dirt road never end!
But let me start from the beginning. We started about 9 am,
after hearing the good news that the last half of the road to the western
depression was “black road” (in other words, it was paved). We just had to get
to the town of Songino ,
and from there on it should be easy going. In high spirits we started
meandering our way down from the mountain massif of central Mongolia (the
Hanngayn Nuruu massif). It was not a bad road, but we still had to go slowly
through a landscape a lot less spectacular than what we saw yesterday. There
are still small copses of trees, but basically we are back to the steppe, but
with a lot less people and herds of animals.
All of a sudden we see, no more than 50 feet from the road,
an enormous bird standing on the ground. It was a Golden eagle! Yes, the iconic
raptor of Mongolia
was right there, allowing us enough time to take pictures before it
majestically took off. A little odd seeing an eagle on the ground, but in a
land with few trees I imagine even the might eagle has to rest from time to
time.
We were so excited, and our excitement rose to a peak after
a second and third sighting of Golden eagles. There are people that pay small
fortunes to go in bird watching tours to see the great raptors of Mongolia ,
and here we were, having then wait by the side of the road for our pleasure.
This is a lonely landscape, with a myriad of tire tracks, so
from time to time we had to scratch our head trying to decide where to go next.
But we are not the only ones who have such trouble. Zoe was driving when a
truck came over the horizon and approached us. “Great”, we thought, “the driver
will confirm our direction”. But no, the dark and craggy Mongolian driver
flagged us down and asked blue-eyed Zoe if he was on the right way to Numrug,
to which the little imp confidently answered in the affirmative, with the
confidence of someone who has grown in the steppes. The man was delighted and
climbed back on his truck to resume his way. (Note: We had just come from
Numrug, so that is why Zoe knew she was right).
Goodness, another three eagles and a hawk sighted in the
next few kilometers. We are in heaven.
So we finally made it to Songino, sometime around noon. Here
we will pick the paved road and the rest of the trip will be a breeze. In the
best of spirits we stopped at a small shop, bought some pate and a spread
between soft butter and cream cheese (delicious), carrots, chips, bread, and
beer, and had a delicious lunch in the central park gazebo. The breeze was
delightful and life was perfect. Morale was high.
Back on the road we sighted, maybe a kilometer ahead, the
straight alignment of the new road. Unfortunately when we got to it we found
out that the gravel base had been laid down, ready to receive the pavement, but
berms had been built across the road at regular intervals to prevent people
driving over the recently graded and compacted surface. Rats!
We followed the track that ran roughly parallel to the new
road, expecting to see the start of the pavement at any moment now. But Zoe ran
through her hour and a half driving turn (two more eagles admired along the
way), and then Horacio took his hour and a half turn (an eagle and a hawk
dutifully photographed along the way), and then came John’s turn to drive. My
God, will this torture of seeing the paved road as a mirage never end?
And then John drove, head on, into a wallow filled with loose,
powdery silt. It was like we had been engulfed by a tsunami, and the cabin of
our trusty jeep was immediately filled with clouds of fine silt, completely
obliterating visibility. Flying by instruments John got us out of the dust
trap, and we rushed out of the car like so many clowns in a circus act. The car
was covered in fine dust, and Zoe and John had to work hard to partially clean
out the windshield so we could continue. We laughed a lot about the incident,
but there is no question that morale was at its lowest point when we resumed
our way.
And then came the high
point of our bird-watching trip. By now we had lost
count of the many opportunities we had of seeing the magnificent Golden eagles,
but imagine our delight when Zoe sighted, on top of one the berms built across
the new road, a nest where Mama Eagle was feeding three hungry chicks. It was a
once in a lifetime sighting and we stood in awe for several minutes seeing the
incredible scene. The photographs we took, alas, do not make justice to the
beauty of this family scene, but the memory is etched in our minds forever.
As if the sighting of the chicks had been a good omen within
five kilometers we finally reached the beginning of the paved section, and five
minutes later we were happily traveling along Mongolia ’s
newest road, heading for Hyargaas Nuur, a vast lake in the axis of the western Mongolia
depression. Even though the sun was low on the horizon we had the plan of
driving along the east coast of the lake, to a tourist camp located close to a
rocky promontory where cormorants nest, by the shore of the lake. Our
information had it that the camp was about 15 km along yet another dirt road,
but what are 15 stinking kilometers to veterans of the 300 km between
Tosontsengel and the edge of the paved road?
Well, 15 km in the middle of nowhere can look like a long
distance, particularly when there is no end in sight. After about 20 km, and
several anxious stops to scan the horizon with binoculars, we had to conclude
that there was no evidence that anyone had come this way in months, and that
the tourist camp was probably no more (keep in mind that a ger camp can be here
today and gone tomorrow). So we turned around just as the sun was setting over
the lake, which in magnificence and setting has nothing to beg from Mono Lake
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