Day 1 - Arrival
Riding: No riding.
Your English speaking translator is waiting for you at Ulan Bator airport at the arrival of Turkish Airlines flight TK236 usually landing at 07:15am for a grouped transfer. Immediate departure for the Mongolian Steppe!
A 2h30 drive takes you to the famous Hustai National Park, home to Przewalski's wild horses, also known as Takhi. You set up camp and enjoy a lunch prepared by the team.
Your driver will take you on a 4x4 safari in Hustai National Park, in search of Przewalski's wild horses, as well as deer and marmots, which abound in this protected area you will then enjoy dinner and night in tents.
Day 2 - Khustai National Park - Khogno Khan / Bayan Gobi Park
Riding: No riding.
After breakfast at the camp, you continue your journey by 4x4 to Khogno Khan Park, also named the Bayan Gobi Desert, the
rich Gobi’, where the first part of your horseback trail through the dunes and steppes of Mongolia will take place (approximately 2-3 hours’ drive depending on traffic conditions).
You will meet the nomadic herder who will be your equestrian guide for these five days of trail riding in the Bayan Gobi Desert. First contact with traditional Mongolian nomadic life: how each family organizes life in the yurt, how horses, goats and sheep live freely in the surrounding steppes...
Dinner and overnight stay in a guest yurt close to the nomadic family (up to five people per yurt - shower tent available).
Days 3 to 7 - Trail Along the Sacred Mountain
Riding: 4 - 6 hours
After breakfast, we begin the first part of this epic horseback adventure in Mongolia!
For 5 days, we will ride horses between cliffs and dunes, along the sacred mountain of Khogno Tarna. This region is rarely visited by tourists, who tend to stay in the southern part of the Bayan Gobi Desert, where roads and yurt camps make it easier for travelers to access.
Our horses allow us to head north, keeping the cliffs of the mysterious Khogno Tarna Mountain on our right. This mountain is steeped in historical legends, as it was home to the great Buddhist monastery of Ovgon Khiid, which was destroyed and all its monks killed by the troops of Galdan Boshigt Khan in 1640. The monastery was later rebuilt, but destroyed again during the communist period in 1937. At the end of the communist era, in the 1990s, it was rebuilt in a more modest form, and we will have the chance to visit it on our first day on horseback, in the magnificent setting of a valley with a geological landscape tortured by erosion.
This 5-day trail ride is full of variety, as several ecosystems meet here: steppe, taiga, desert, rivers, and impressive granite mountain formations. We can therefore find a wide variety of flora and fauna, characteristic of these different ecosystems, as well as superb landscapes.
This first part of your horseback trip will end (possibly with a road transfer if conditions require) at Lake Ogii Nuur, famous for its migratory bird populations.
Each evening, we meet up with the support vehicles and set up camp in the middle of nature. We can enjoy the comfort of our trail shower cabin and the large kitchen tent, which is used to prepare meals! Everyone pitches their own tent (individual tents are provided at no extra charge for single travelers upon request before departure; couples are entitled to a tent for 3 people so that they can settle in comfortably).
Dinner and night in tents.
Day 8 - Ugii Lake - Arkhangai
Riding: No riding.
After breakfast, you drive east to the departure point for the second part of your horseback trail in Arkhangai. A picnic lunch is taken en-route as you cross the Khangai mountains. In the afternoon you will arrive at the yurts of the nomadic family who will guide you and have bred the horses you will ride. The exact arrival time will depend on the road conditions and so the afternoon is left free for you to discover the traditional lifestyle of Mongolian nomads. You can involve yourself in their daily activities and talk to family members.
Tonight you sleep in a guest yurt close to the family yurts - these yurts are more simple and there are no showers, but you experience the true Mongolian way of life.
Days 9 to 17 - Arkhangai
Riding: 4 - 6 hours
After breakfast with the family, your riding adventure begins. Over the next nine days, you will journey northwards through the Arkhangai region until reaching Lake Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur (White Lake). Each night will be spent in tents as you sleep in a different location each day. The Arkhangai is a very wild region which is covered by forest - the valleys are narrower than in the Orkhon Valley and the steppes gradually give way to larch forests. The rivers and valleys are aligned perpendicular to your direction of travel and so you will cross many rivers and mountains over the coming days.
Your first day of riding follows the banks of the Tamir river, which is mighty during the spring and summer. The Tamir valley is very green and wooded, with some of the poplar trees being more than 300 years old.
Continue riding across densely forested mountain ranges which are virtually uninhabited. You are immersed in a very wild Mongolia which is very different to the steppes of the Orkhon Valley. As your ride continues and the landscape opens up onto grasslands you may meet many yurts and herds belonging to the nomads. These open spaces offer many opportunities to canter.
The last few days are particularly beautiful as you ride along the Chuluut Canyon which was formed by the lava flow from Khorgo volcano. The basalt canyon is 100 miles long and offers spectacular scenery.
All nights in camps.
Day 18 - Arkhangai - Karakorum
Riding: No riding.
After breakfast you are transferred by road to Karakorum, the ancient capital of the Mongolian Empire. We arrive in Karakorum in the afternoon. Lunch at a restaurant on the way
Dinner and overnight at a yurt camp (2-4 riders per yurt with showers in a separate building) or a hotel in a shared room.
Day 19 - Karakorum - Ulaanbaatar
Riding: No riding.
Breakfast and visit of Erdene Zuu Monastery.
We then set off towards Ulan Bator. Lunch in a restaurant en route (6-7 hours’ drive depending on the traffic conditions).
Transfer to a hotel or yurt camp on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, heading towards the airport. Dinner and night at the hotel / yurt camp in a double or triple room.
Day 20 - Departure
Riding: No riding.
Early in the morning (5:30am) you are transferred to the airport for your flight home (which must depart after 7:00 am). Riders usually take the Turkish Airlines flight TK237 that departs at 08:40 am. Breakfast is not included as the transfer leaves too early but you will find a coffee shop at the airport.
Note: All programmes and itineraries are weather dependent; in the face of adverse, or unexpected, weather conditions reasonable attempts will be made to provide equivalent riding. All programmes are accurate at the time of writing. However, the team may adapt or modify details, whilst aiming to provide a similar experience.
