Baikal - Part Two

With no hurry to leave the area yet we drove south along the coast of lake Baikal for some more relaxing days and nights. At least that was our plan, didn't work out entirely 😆

At lake Baikal

Back in the USSR

Leaving Mongolia we crossed our fourth time into Russia, which was a bit of a hassle as they wanted every document filled out twice. I guess to safe on photocopier costs? 🤷‍♂️

Goodbye Mongolia!

Turtle Rock™️

Sadly our time in Mongolia was coming to an end as our visa was running out.




Before heading north to Russia we did a short trip to the east of UB.
In the mountainous forest we did a quick stop at the turtle rock (quite the tourist trap) and then headed further into the wilderness.

Around Ulaanbaatar

After our venture in the south we turned around to Ulan Bator as our time was closing. We stayed in the lovely River Point run by René from Austria. He arrived in Mongolia 25 years ago and has witnessed the growth of its capital with all its problems, more on that later.
As a perfect host he has always time for his guests and a story up its sleeve. Also worth mentioning are his perfect Wiener Schnitzel! We couldn't believe it when we laid eyes on them on the menu and nagged René until he himself manned the stove for us!

🤤🤤🤤

Through the dunes

Following the route further south we soon encountered the mighty Khongoryn Els. This giant strip of dunes is an amazing sight! One moment there are bushes and even green patches along the tiny stream and then the sand rises to huge dunes!

Tiny-Planet 🌏

The strip runs east to west for almost 100 km and can reach heights up to 80m!
There is only one small kind of pass/saddle where you can cross the 6 to 12 km of sand to get to the south. But before crossing over we followed it for a while looking for a nice place to camp.


Fun Fact: If there are green patches amidst a huge swat of sand it is always used for grazing. Which in turn means its usually full of goat shit 💩🤣