Tsagaan Suvraga and Yolyn Am
Today we continued our trip to Tsagaan Suvraga, also known as ‘the white stupa’. We started around 08:10 am and by the time of 10:15 we got OFF ROAD for the first time. Super nice! We drove another 1,5 hours and reached the beautiful unique landscape of Tsagaan Suvraga. With impressive cliffs and beautiful colored layers eroded by nature for over 10 million years. A great place to enjoy the scenery, walk around, relax and take pictures. We found the best spot ever to enjoy the view while having our lunch!
After this great and impressive place we continued our trip towards Yolyn Am, also known as ‘Vultures mouth’ We spend around 3-4 hours driving through the Gobi desert before arriving at the Gov- Altai Mountains and entered the Yolyn Am gorge. Home to the endangered snow leopard. The place is known for its meters thick eternal ice, but for some reason I haven’t spotted the ice during our hike. It was still great fun tough. The scenery had changed from flat and nothing to mountains, water and greens.
We hiked alongside the water and passed a super scary, somewhat high point where I thought my shoes would lose grip. There was almost no space to place your hand and feet and it just felt extremely slippery to me. I took my time to assure I wasn’t going to fall and luckily it worked out for me!
After hiking (we just came back before sunset) we continued to a yurt camp where we would spend the night. This was my first night in a yurt and it was pretty sweet! There were five beds and a stove to heat up the yurt. Daniel cooked us a nice meal and Felix had turned on some music. The yurt was getting warmer and warmer making it a super comfortable stay. At this moment it feels like I’m in a cosy, round, warm living room.
There were many stars outside so we had to go out and see them. We could even see the Milky way before the moon showed up and lit the sky. When we returned into the yurt it just felt like a warm bath. (temperatures drop to -11 at night). Being warned that the temperatures drop after the fire goes out, I prepared myself for a cold night. Instead, the yurt was very well isolated and I guess the fire never went out turning this night into one of the warmest nights ever! As for now I can only say, good times, perfect vibes, looking forward to tomorrow!
