Gobi Bear Expeditions: Ultimate Mammals Tour

Day 1|Ulaanbaatar — The Expedition Gathers

Airport transfer, 1 hr

Arrival and welcome dinner. The briefing is unlike any other we give: a closed reserve, a bear science knows mostly from camera traps, and a fortnight of true desert expedition ahead.

Day 2|Bayankhongor — The Road South-West

Full-day drive

A full driving day across the steppe to Bayankhongor, watching the land dry out kilometre by kilometre. Demoiselle cranes and upland buzzards mark the way; the desert waits beyond.

Day 3|Bayantooroi — Gateway to the Closed Desert

Drive 5–6 hrs

On to Bayantooroi, headquarters of Great Gobi A. Permits are checked, rangers join the convoy, and the last oasis village slips behind — from here, the desert belongs to the animals.

Day 4|Great Gobi A — Into the Emptiness

Expedition driving day

The convoy enters the strictly protected zone: black gravel plains, saxaul groves, ranges shimmering at the horizon. Field camp rises near the first waterhole complex by evening.

Day 5|Great Gobi A — The Waterhole Watch

Gobi bear life turns on a handful of springs. Days settle into desert rhythm: dawn and dusk watches at waterholes, midday checks of tracks and camera traps with the rangers who know each bear by its prints.

Day 6|Great Gobi A — Wonders in Waiting

While the bear plays hard to get, the desert doesn't: wild Bactrian camels filing across the gravel, khulan herds trailing dust, black-tailed gazelle rippling through the heat-haze. Every one a world rarity.

Day 7|Great Gobi A — Deeper In

Expedition driving day

Camp shifts to a second oasis system deeper in the reserve — new tracks, new camera traps, new chances. The silence out here has weight; nights are pure starfield.

Day 8|Great Gobi A — The Rangers' Craft

A day inside the conservation programme itself: maintaining waterholes, logging sign, changing camera-trap cards that may hold last night's bear. Your fees keep exactly this work running.

Day 9|Great Gobi A — The Long Vigil

The likeliest spring gets a dawn-to-dusk watch. Sandgrouse whirr in at first light, camels drift through at noon — and any shadow that moves in the saxaul gets every scope in camp.

Day 10|Great Gobi A — Last Day in the Core

A final field day in the heart of the reserve, following the freshest sign the rangers hold. However the bear chooses, you will have seen a desert almost no one alive has entered.

Day 11|Zulganai Oasis — The Green Secret

Expedition driving day

Withdraw via Zulganai, an improbable ribbon of reeds and poplars in the barrens — drinking station for camels, khulan and, on the best days, the bear itself. A last desert night beside it.

Day 12|Bayankhongor — Out of the Desert

Full-day drive

The long drive back to Bayankhongor — hot water, cold drinks, and the strange loudness of a town after the great silence.

Day 13|Ulaanbaatar — Return to the Capital

Full-day drive

Complete the overland loop to Ulaanbaatar for a farewell dinner and the expedition debrief — sightings logged, data handed to the programme.

Day 14|Fly Home — Departure

Airport transfer, 1 hr

Breakfast and airport transfer. Few travelers on earth share what you have just seen.