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Content accurate at time of publication
01 Jan 2012
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 set off on his six-month-long Walking Home From Mongolia expedition in early November.
Three weeks ago, my expedition cameraman Leon and I set off to walk from the Mongolian Gobi town of Sainshand to Hong Kong. It was a beautiful day, with the sun shining on our faces and the crisp desert air in our lungs. As we crested the small hills on the edge of town, out in front of us lay the desert: endless, sandy, seemingly ready to consume us. We walked down into it, and while Leon carried a rucksack and video camera, I hauled a purpose-built trailer we had been given, on which we would carry the heavy load of food and water supplies needed for the crossing. Over the coming two weeks we would each take two-hour shifts to haul the trailer. We followed an empty vehicle track into a flat valley, and as our feet dusted over the sand, our hiking poles clinking gently against the stones, we joked that it was hard to believe that after all this preparation we were now finally setting off on this crazy journey. For the next six months, our aim in life would be simple: to walk southwards, 30km a day, six days a week, with one day of rest per week.
As the sun started to set on day one, we reached a small cluster of hills where we dropped our packs and set up camp for the first time. The temperature had plummeted to around -10°C by the time we were cooking up our instant noodles and canned beef (which decidedly looked like dog food). We were uncomfortably cold all night, intimidated by the knowledge that the temperature would surely get a whole lot colder in the coming weeks. Yet, we also knew that through repetition we would become much faster and more efficient with our camping drills.
For the next two weeks, we continued south through the desert, the temperature steadily getting colder, and to our surprise, the snow arrived as well. It was exhausting to be outside in this environment all day, but the hardest parts of it all were when the Siberian winds came down from the north, making a -20°C day feel twice as cold, and we had no choice but to move fast just to stay warm. We were also relieved to find ourselves not completely alone in the desert as we came across goat herders on horseback or by camel. It was delightful to experience the Mongolians’ kindness to strangers, as they frequently invited us into their gers (round felt tents) for a cup of tea, and even to stay the night in their warm tents.
After 250km of walking, we arrived at the ramshackle but fast-growing Mongolian border town of Zamyn-Uud, where we gave away our trailer to lighten our load, repacked our rucksacks, and crossed the border into China. We were now in China's Inner Mongolia province, where we would have to walk across 400km more of the Gobi Desert. Initially we followed a wide, brand new road that offered us fast progress, but proved monotonous. For a change of scenery, we broke away onto little snowy paths beside the train line instead.
It’s been another week, and we have now covered half of Inner Mongolia. The landscape has become more hilly, the roads have become lined with trees, and there are also regular signs that we are arriving in booming China. Huge chimneys spewing fumes dot the skyline, and the villages and station houses are providing us with an insight into the rapid industrialisation of this region. We have also been enjoying the hospitality of the Chinese – in all of its endearingly (if sometimes exhaustingly) loud, staring and laughing forms.
The cold, meanwhile, is giving us no respite, but we are encouraged to see on our map that we will soon be breaching the Great Wall and thus entering the heartlands of China. And what will happen then, no one can say. But it is perhaps for such uncertainties that we leave our comfortable homes and go on adventures in the first place.
Join me in my journey via monthly updates here on silverkris.com.
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