Lost in the Mongol Rally
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We are traveling in Mongolia with a map that is five years old. This normally wouldn’t be that big of a 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 in 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.
Learn about the Mongolia nomad culture first-hand
We have become really good at stopping moving vehicles (minibusses, construction vehicles, SUVs, 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!
Mongolian food in the Gobi Desert – it’s not what you think
Why you should visit the Gobi Desert
- It’s Real Now – Starting the Mongol Rally
- Pimpin’ Our Ride
- Festival of Slow – Mongol Rally Kickoff
- First Stop – Brussels
- Stopped by the Police – Mongol Rally
- Learning to Drive on the Autobahn
- CzechOut our Camping – Mongol Rally
- Racing Through Prague – Mongol Rally
- Driving in Romania
- Twilight in Brasov – Mongol Rally
- Crossing Borders with Natasha- Mongol Rally
- What I see out my window – Mongol Rally
- Ukraine Highway Culture – Mongol Rally
- Mongol Rally: Driving in Ukraine
- Hotel Nissan – Mongol Rally
- Kiev Paperwork Forgery – Mongol Rally
- Teaming up in Volgograd – Mongol Rally
- Russian Stereotypes
- Good Luck at the Kazakhstan Border – Mongol Rally
- The Hardest, Longest, Slowest, Dirtiest Road Yet – Mongol Rally
- The End of The Road – Mongol Rally
- Camping on the Mongol Rally
- Locals to the Rescue – Mongol Rally
- Setting Up Camp – Mongol Rally
- Bad Things do Happen on the Mongol Rally
- The Birth of Kazakhstan Tourism – Mongol Rally
- Kazakhstan’s Secret City – Astana
- The Best Laid Plans – Mongol Rally
- Our Car’s Health – Mongol Rally
- My ride in a Kazakhstan Police Car – Mongol Rally
- The Real Adventure Begins – Mongol Rally
- Minor Repairs – Mongol Rally
- How To Wait at a Border – Mongol Rally
- Border Bonding – Mongol Rally
- Mongolia Freedom – Mongol Rally
- Lost in the Mongol Rally
- Slowing Down – Mongol Rally
- The Mongol Rally Diet
- Muffler Mayhem – Mongol Rally
- Sink or Float – Mongol Rally
- Mongolian Hospitality – Mongol Rally
- Driving in Mongolia
- Tire Trouble – Mongol Rally
- Desert Illusions – Mongol Rally
- Mongolian Malls and Mechanics
- Shocking Tarmac – Mongol Rally
- Mongolian Cloudscapes – Photography
- Ulaanbaatar in our Sights
- The Finish Line – Mongol Rally
- What’s it all for?
- What Happens to the Car?
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?)
You’ll have to keep reading to find out if we made it! 🙂
I would have been in seventh heaven. I love a new road!
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?
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!
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
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!
I can’t see the point of a road map when the roads keep moving every seasons?? The last photo says it all…
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!
Just ask the locals…we stopped anyone and everyone and asked them which way to go!! Good luck! What’s your team name?