Exercise Genghis Iron - Mongolia

In May 1999 Lt Richard Odling was posted to 3(UK) Div HQ & Sig Regt in Bulford. One of the first things he was told was that to lead a trekking expedition to Mongolia - no small task! Some initial planning had been done, however there was still a great deal to do, and all this while many of the Regiment were away in Kosovo. Following a lot of hard work the expedition finally got under way.

After an overnight stop in Beijing, China we arrived in Ulaan Bataar (UB) the capital of Mongolia. The first day was spent finding our bearings and preparing the 9 man team for the trek. Our original plan had been to spend 3 acclimatising days in the Terelj National Park and then 8 days in the Khovd National Park. Unfortunately, it quickly became obvious that problems with internal flights to Khovd and the weather would make it almost impossible to do any trekking there. I decided therefore to go to Terelj for 2 days and then north to the Lake Hovsgol National Park. Terelj is an area about 70 km away from UB, however this was our first introduction to travel in Mongolia. The main road was in fact a dirt track with several bridges in serious need of repair and it took nearly 3 hrs to travel 70 km!   The National Park was a mountainous, forested area, proving ideal for a short two-day expedition to get used to the equipment and navigation with extremely poor maps. We then set off in the minibus for the 800km drive to Hoysgol - this drive took 3 days! Once there we spent the first night in a traditional Ger tent before moving to the lake itself. The terrain near the Lake was predominately steep sided-forested valleys. After 5 days of fairly exhausting trekking we headed back to Beijing for a short break. Visiting the Great Wall and the markets within the city proved to be an excellent end to a thoroughly rewarding and difficult expedition.

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