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Content accurate at time of publication
01 Dec 2011
Rob Lilwall
Originally from the UK, Lilwall now lives in Hong Kong with his wife. His previous Cycling Home From Siberia expedition became the subject of a TV series on the National Geographic channel and a book published by Hodder & Stoughton. He has just set off on his Walking Home From Mongolia expedition, which will take six months to complete.
After four busy months of preparation, my friend and expedition cameraman Leon and I finally boarded our flight from Hong Kong to Mongolia. As we entered Mongolian airspace, we looked out of the window at the endless expanse of the Gobi Desert below us. It was an intimidating sight, because we knew that in less than a week's time we would be setting off to cross the desert from north to south on foot, following which we would continue walking the whole length of China to finally make it home to Hong Kong.
We came in to land in Ulaanbaatar, the capital, but rather than heading straight from there to our starting point – the desert town of Sainshand – we decided to spend a few days in the city, garnering more advice about our route, while learning more about this great country and its legendary leader, Genghis Khan.
Mongolia, and in particular Ulaanbaatar, is undergoing a major transformation at the moment, due in large part to the recent opening of the country's natural resource deposits. Mongolia's economy had struggled through recession in the 1990s after the withdrawal of Soviet support. Now, foreign money is rushing in, in the form of mining companies and investment bankers, and the Ulaanbaatar skyline is likewise being transformed by a series of futuristic buildings, with hundreds of building projects springing up to house the growing population.
On another level, the city has also been growing thanks to an influx of nomads from the rural areas outside Ulaanbaatar, especially after an extreme winter devastated their flocks a few years ago. Having set up camp in their gers (round felt tents) on the edge of the capital, the nomads now have much better access to education, healthcare and jobs, but many of them continue to live in extreme poverty. As we saw from a hilltop on the edge of town, the population growth is further exacerbating a major pollution problem in the city, as smoke pours endlessly from every tent chimney, produced by the dirty coal, wood and rubber that they burn on their stoves for household use.
After three days in Ulaanbaatar, we had to leave our new friends behind and board a train heading south to the desert. We arrived in Sainshand this morning, and have since spent the day preparing to start our journey in two days. As the Gobi rolls out in every direction, we face the simple, yet hugely challenging task of walking across it, heading south to the Chinese border, and then through Inner Mongolia to the industrial city of Datong, where, God willing, we will take our first proper break after six weeks of desert hiking. Many things could go wrong on this leg – ranging from encountering drunk coal miners keen for a fight, or wolves, but most ominous, and far more likely is just the sheer physical exhaustion of walking eight hours a day, six days a week with heavy loads. Winter has now arrived, with temperatures at about -18°C at night (and falling), and we will be carrying our food and water for up to 10 days at a time. To take the load off our backs we will be using a trailer, which we will pull behind us with a harness, but this also invites the potential problem of a broken trailer in the middle of the desert.
Lao Tzu famously said that “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. Well, our journey will be about 5,000km and yet the principle is the same – we cannot keep worrying about what might happen to us on such a long and difficult journey, through such extreme conditions, but rather must now get on and take that first step. And walk.
Join me in my journey via monthly updates here on silverkris.com.
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