West Altai Adventure

There has been little change on the Mongolian steppe since the time of Genghis Khan. Life is as tough and uncompromising today as it was a thousand years ago, and the landscape is still untamed and beautifully austere. Gain a fascinating insight into both Kazakh and Mongolian culture, spending time in the Kazakh enclaves of Hokh Serkhiin Nuruu, Chigertei and Khovd combined with a spectacular journey into and across the Great Lakes Basin to Dorgon Nuur. The western frontier of Mongolia has little infrastructure which is what makes it such a rewarding place to visit.

Leaving the buzz of the city behind, fly west towards the endless vistas of the Altai. On arrival travel overland to Hokh Serkhiin Nuruu National Park. To gain access into this area you will enter deep into the mountains through the Ikh Yamat and Bag Yamat Valleys, great glacial troughs carved by now-vanished ice. Here you will be in the heart of snow leopard territory and home also to Siberian ibex, golden eagles, lammergeiers and saker falcons. Meet with key conservationists to learn about the conservation work being done in this area. Under the auspices of the Altai Research and Conservation Institute, snow leopards and argali sheep have been collared in Hokh Serkhiin Nuruu and the neighbouring protected area of Chigertei. You will have the opportunity to check the camera traps that have been set around this area.

Explore the Chigertei Valley, that runs towards the main Altai ridge and the Chinese border. We have found a tranquil and bucolic setting for your camp, overlooking summer pastures used by the local Kazakh nomads to graze their livestock, under the shadows of the imperious Altai mountain ranges. The Kazakh people are a Sunni Muslim culture, retaining traditional ways here that reflect their long alliance with the Altai mountain environment. In Chigertei, you will visit a Kazakh family in their yurt and meet with a Kazakh eagle hunter who maintains a hunting partnership with a magnificent golden eagle to hunt corsac fox and other prey. To explore further, there may be the opportunity to ride horses around Chigertei. Look out for ancient deer-stones – Bronze Age megaliths carved with auspicious symbols – dotted around the plains.

While Chigertei is pastures, narrow valleys and snow-capped peaks, the area around Dorgon is vast open plains, colossal lakes and sand dunes. There will, of course, be time spent meeting with the local Khalkh Mongol people in this area whose livestock of Bactrian camels are dotted around this extraordinary landscape. Our camp will be set up close to Mongolia’s most extensive dune system that runs all the way up to the shore of Dorgon Lake. To stand on top of the dunes, looking across the vast blue lake with the mighty snow-capped Jargalant Khaikhan mountains on the far shore is one of the most remarkable and iconic views in the whole of Mongolia.