Central Mongolia
in the cold
The most popular winter route in the country: dunes under snow, the imperial capital with nobody in it, a hot spring at minus thirty, and the wild horses at Hustai.
Why anybody comes here in winter
Because the light is extraordinary, the camps are empty, and the country looks the way it does in the photographs people remember. The vehicles are heated, the camps are heated, and you are handed a deel and proper boots. It is cold — that is the point — and you will want the hot spring on day three more than you expect.
Day by day
Forty-six thousand hectares where three provinces meet, and the one place you can stand with dunes on one side and forested mountain on the other. The sand runs about eighty kilometres. Two monasteries sit inside the reserve, and there are camels to ride along the dune line.
