X marks the spot...if we only knew where we were!
We are traveling in Mongolia with a map that is 5 years old. This normally wouldn’t be that big of deal, but in a country where roads are only dirt and they change every season as new tracks are made, this IS a big deal. Every day we start off confident of our direction. Then about 30 minutes later a plague of doubt drifts into the car – sort of like the Angel of Death creeping into Egyptian streets via a glowing green cloud in the movie The Ten Commandments. Slowly it enters each of our minds first…a little nagging voice, “Are we going the right way?” “Where is the main road?” “We haven’t seen any other cars for a long time.” You shake it off and silently think – of course we are on the right road. But the voice comes back, again and again…until it finally finds volume and someone verbalizes it in the car. Then the group worrying begins. Compasses come out, maps are unfolded, and we all look for any person or vehicle along the road that we can ask.
We have become really good at stopping moving vehicles (mini buses, construction vehicles, SUV’s, and people on horseback) to ask them if we are going the right way. We’d bring a map, try to pronounce the town we were hopefully heading towards and then point in all directions in a frantic motion. They didn’t need to speak English to understand what we were asking. 99% of the time they pointed us in the direction we were already heading. We’d get back in the car confident of our navigation…for a whole total of 30 minutes before this process would start again!
One thing that held true for our entire time in Mongolia was that we felt that the road we weren’t on was always better than the one we were on. I don’t know that there is any truth to that – but that ‘grass is greener’ attitude has a strong pull in the brain when you have miles and miles of roads ahead of you and too many options!
The signs really weren't very helpful...however if you look closely, we did leave our SMS mark!
Rick asking for directions...
Deb with all the tools and our out of date map...an exercise in futility.
Are we going the right direction????
By Charu September 5, 2011 - 9:47 am
I’ve never been to Mongolia, but I’ve lived in Africa for several years. Many parts of that continent do resemble dirt roads, no civilization for miles — but in those days I didn’t have my GPS. Yeah, a map 5 years old is a doozy! But glad to hear you made it (you did, didn’t you?)
By Sherry September 7, 2011 - 10:04 pm
You’ll have to keep reading to find out if we made it! 🙂
By Barbara Weibel September 5, 2011 - 12:00 pm
I would have been in seventh heaven. I love a new road!
By [email protected] September 5, 2011 - 12:08 pm
Woa! That first pic – now THAT’S a universal icon on many levels!
btw, just curious – as an avid geocacher – presumably you have the coordinates for your destination – can’t you just use a GPSr?
By Sherry September 7, 2011 - 10:03 pm
We didn’t have the coordinates of Ulaanbaatar – yet I supposed we could have figured them out easy enough. Half the fun was trying to navigate without GPS in Mongolia! Plus – we didn’t have a gps that worked in Mongolia anyway!
By Nancy & Shawn Power... Inspiring YOU to Travel! September 5, 2011 - 1:53 pm
Cute post!
Honestly, we never thought to look at dates before on maps…
but that’s a good tip and lesson well learned on your end we’re sure.
Sounds like you got through it though- all part of the fun, right?
Nancy & Shawn
By Sherry September 7, 2011 - 10:02 pm
Yes – we got through it! It was actually a great way to meet locals when we had to stop them to ask if we were going the right way!
By Mark H September 8, 2011 - 12:46 am
I can’t see the point of a road map when the roads keep moving every seasons?? The last photo says it all…
By Britany January 28, 2013 - 12:35 pm
So the fact that I have absolutely zero sense of direction, probably isn’t a good thing, right? 🙂 Oh well, can’t wait to be lost on those same roads later this year!
By Sherry January 31, 2013 - 8:52 am
Just ask the locals…we stopped anyone and everyone and asked them which way to go!! Good luck! What’s your team name?