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Dinosaur hunting in the Gobi Desert: Mongolia

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Register for 2023

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Join New Scientist on a thrilling and unique expedition to find dinosaur remains in the beautiful wilderness of the Gobi desert with specialists from the Mongolian Institute of Palaeontology. Participate in live prospecting and fossil digging across keys sites, and potentially be the first person in 80 million years to set eyes on your discovery. 

Visit the stunning Flaming Cliffs site where the first ever dinosaur eggs to be discovered where found in 1922 during the first modern palaeontological expedition into Mongolia. Bookend the expedition in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, where you will visit famous museums and sites such as the laboratories of the Mongolian Institute of Palaeontology.

The tour will be accompanied by paleontologist- Dr David Hone , who has visited and written about Mongolia and dinosaur fossils extensively. With no more than 12 guests on the trip, you will have plenty of access to the guides and experts.

In partnership with Steppes Travel
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DAY 1: ARRIVE INTO THE CAPITAL ULAANBAATAR

Upon arrival at the airport, you will be met and transferred to downtown Ulaanbaatar, where you will enjoy a welcome dinner with your fellow guests.

Ulaanbaatar offers a contrast between ancient traditions and the dawning of a 21st-century democracy, which can be seen in the traditional gers (a yurt like accommodation) and Buddhist monasteries coexisting with modern high-rises. 

DAY 2: EXPLORE ULAANBAATAR

You will begin the day with a visit to Gandan Monastery. The monastery is considered as the seat of Buddhism here and a popular spiritual destination for Mongolians from all across the country. You will see the 26-metre-tall standing Buddha and visit monks in service. Next, you can marvel at the National Museum of Mongolia for an excellent overview of Mongolia's history and culture. The exhibition includes Stone and Bronze Age art crafts, historical costumes of Mongolia's minority tribes and sacred religious relics.

After lunch, you will be joined for the rest of the tour by palaeontologist Dr David Hone. Together you will inspect Hunnu Mall, where a temporary field museum of palaeontology is on display. This is followed by a visit to the Paleontological Laboratory of Mongolia. Here, you will have hands on experience about how the institution runs and carries out its research. Finally, visit Bogd Khan Winter Palace museum, which was home to the last Buddhist leader of Mongolia in the 20th century. 

DAY 3: ENTER THE GOBI DESERT

After breakfast, fly over a vast steppe to Dalanzadgad. This is the gateway to the Gobi Desert, comprised of mountains, sand dunes and fossil beds. 

Upon arrival, you will meet our drivers and transfer to a ger camp at the Khongoryn Els sand dunes, the largest dunes in the Gobi Desert. This amazing landscape offers one of Gobi’s diverse ecosystems. Here, you will meet the accompanying palaeontologists from the Mongolian Institute who will help you hunt for fossils while in the Gobi. Some of the best finds here have been unearthed by tourists and amateurs. 

The next eight days are in the stunning wilderness of the Gobi desert and the itinerary is flexible based on conditions, recent finds and what is discovered on this expedition. Should a specific site yield a lot of interesting finds, the itinerary will be rescheduled to investigate further.

DAYS 4 & 5: NEMEGT MOUNTAINS           

The central and western parts of the Gobi desert date from the middle to the late Cretaceous period, about 90-60 million years ago, which was a key period for dinosaur evolution. 

In the morning, you will drive further west, cruising through Gobi’s vast basins and plains until you arrive at the first important locality, the Nemegt Basin. Here you will spend two nights prospecting through its red cliffs, looking for new trails of newly exposed fossils. For the remainder of your time in the Gobi, you will be living the life of an expedition member, staying in well-appointed tents. 

Every day after breakfast, you will be divided into two groups and begin prospecting the valleys under the guidance of a guest palaeontologist. You will return back to the base camp for lunch. It might be necessary on certain days to wait out the afternoon sun, until it gets cooler. Hearty meals will be served each day in a group expedition tent by an expert field chef following adventurous days of field prospecting, working and discovering the local flora and fauna. 

DAYS 6 & 7: ALTAN ULA

Drive a short distance to set up camp for the next few days at Altan Ula within the Tarbo area. This is another of Gobi’s vast and rich fossil beds, where some of the best discoveries of large carnivorous dinosaurs have been made recently. 

Daily prospecting walks will continue with snacks provided. During one of these days, a palaeontologist will ask you to participate in the removal of promising looking finds, which sometimes can take hours, depending on the size of the find. 

In the evenings, you can enjoy a welcome drink around the campfire or in the mess tent while reviewing the day's discoveries.

DAYS 8 & 9: BUGIIN TSAV

In the last leg of your expedition, you will move to a more remote area of the Gobi, known as Bugiin Tsav, where you will prospect for more fossils. Recent Japanese and Russian joint expeditions have been working here. 

Each of the prospecting sites, where you will continue working under the guidance of a palaeontologist, is different in key ways: some have different sediments or unusual topography. 

DAY 10 & 11: RETURN TO KHONGORYN ELS SAND DUNES

This morning, you will drive back towards the central part of the Gobi, reaching Khongoryn Els sand dunes later in the afternoon. It will then be dinner and an overnight stay in gers or log cabins. 

DAY 12: THE FLAMING CLIFFS

After breakfast, you will drive to a ger camp conveniently located near the Flaming Cliffs site. En route, you will stop at a petroglyph site of the Gobi desert featuring key rock art.    

By late afternoon, you will reach the legendary Flaming Cliffs, red sandstone formations more than 3 kilometres long, where hundreds of dinosaur fossils have been discovered over the course of the past century. Palaeontological expeditions from many countries, including from the US, Poland, Japan and Russia have worked here over the past 90 years. Each year, rain and wind reveal yet more fossils and every summer, exceptional new discoveries are made. You will explore the cliffs following in the footsteps of legendary US explorer Roy Chapman Andrews, who discovered the first dinosaur eggs that the world had ever seen nearly a 100 years ago. Enjoy sunset dinner at this majestic place before returning back to the ger camp. 

DAY 13: FLY TO ULAANBAATAR

After breakfast, you will drive to Dalanzadgad for your return flight to Ulaanbaatar. Following lunch, vist the Zanabazar Fine Arts Museum, named in honour of a renowned 17th-century artist and politician, who was also the first Buddhist leader of Mongolia. The museum contains one of the best collections of Buddhist art and artefacts in the world, including many of Zanabazar's original works. In the evening, enjoy dinner at a local restaurant.  

DAY 14: DEBRIEFING AT THE INSTITUTE OF PALEONTOLOGY

You will spend the day visiting the Mongolian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Paleontology and Geology and get an opportunity to provide a report on your field work. Approximately eight weeks later, you will be issued with a final trip report from the institute.  After your institute visit, you will see the Central Museum of Mongolian Dinosaurs, which contains a stunning cache of recently confiscated fossils that had been smuggled out of the country.

The remainder of the day is available for last minute sightseeing. In the evening, you will be treated to a performance featuring traditional Mongolian dancers and khoomei (throat) singers. 

DAY 15: DEPARTURE

After saying farewell at breakfast, you will transfer to the airport for departure.

Register now and we will contact you soon with full tour details

Register for 2023

Register now and we will contact you soon with full tour details

Register for 2023

Highlights

  • Fully participate in fossil prospecting and digging
  • Accompanied by Dr David Hone and local palaeontologists
  • Enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the Gobi Desert
  • The stunning Flaming Cliffs site, where dinosaur eggs were first discovered
  • Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar
  • Only 12 guests on the tour

Meet the expert

Dr David Hone

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David is a palaeontologist and writer. His research focuses on the behaviour and ecology of the dinosaurs and their flying relatives, the pterosaurs. He is a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director of Education at Queen Mary University of London. 

David is the author of several books including The Future of Dinosaurs: What We Don't Know, What We Can, and What We'll Never Know which was published earlier this year. In addition, he writes extensively online about palaeontology and science outreach for several titles including The Guardian.

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His work focuses on the (non-avian) dinosaurs as a whole and especially the carnivorous theropods, and also on the flying pterosaurs. He often uses a wide range of extant analogues in his research and thus also looks at extant mammals, birds and reptiles as part of his work.

His research is aimed at answering key questions about these animals and in particular, what this means for how they lived their lives in terms of their behaviour and ecology:

  • How did they hunt and feed?
  • How might they have communicated?
  • Was there social structure within herds?
  • How large did they get and what did this mean for their biology?

The Mongolian Institute for Palaeontology

By inviting experts from the institute on the expedition, you are helping them get out to the sites and supporting their work. They will ensure you have a wonderful and enlightening experience hunting for remains, and will also be undertaking fieldwork themselves, which you will get to see. 

COVID-19 CUSTOMER SERVICE PROTOCOLS

  • Fully flexible deposit: choose between receiving a full refund or transfer to an alternative departure date if your tour is postponed due to covid-19 in the destination country.
  • Insurance policy available that provides covid-19 related cover.
  • Contact Steppes's travel experts to arrange a private travel consultation by Zoom.
  • Departure briefing: covering coronavirus-specific measures in place at arrival airports, with the airline and in the destination country including local regulations.
  • Safe touring protocols: we will always aim to operate our tours as per the original itinerary. Although if necessary, our expert local tour guides may amend scheduled activities or visits to comply with local safety advice.  The safety and well-being of our guests is our priority.

WHAT'S INCLUDED

  • Full board - breakfast, lunch and dinner
  • All internal flights within Mongolia
  • Land transportation as indicated in the itinerary based on using Toyota Land Cruiser 4x4s seating 3 passengers each
  • Accommodations in a standard room at hotels, gers (yurts) in the countryside based on a twin occupancy
  • Airport arrival and departure transfers
  • Sleeping bags; expedition style tents and mats
  • All entrance fees
  • All guest lecturers and palaeontologists fees
  • Bottled water per person per day and unlimited supply of boiled waters
  • Final trip report from the Mongolian Institute of Palaeontology

WHAT'S NOT INCLUDED

  • Travel insurance
  • International flights
  • Mongolian visa (if required)
  • Single supplement £625

PACE & PHYSICALITY

On many of the days, there will be walking on sand and uneven surfaces. There will also be time spent close to the ground when prospecting and digging. You may have to climb over loose rocks and gravel. You must be comfortable being on foot, wear appropriate clothing, have a reasonable level of fitness and the flexibility to bend close to or sit on the floor whilst digging. The field work isn’t compulsory, and the tour guide and palaeontologists will be mindful of people’s ability when setting the pace.

Driving into the Gobi will be by Toyota Land Cruisers and there will be no more than three guests and experts per car. Outside of the main towns, road conditions can be bumpy and dusty, but the experience of travelling in Mongolia will far exceed any discomfort.

Although, we have chosen the most clement time of year to visit, the weather can still fluctuate dramatically during any given day. From very hot during the middle of the day to very cold whilst in the desert at night. A full suggested packing list will be sent to you before departure and the camps are set up to support guests throughout the varying temperatures.

Accommodation

Hotel Ulaanbaatar

Built in 1961, this was the first ever 5-star hotel built in Mongolia (and the first with running water). Located just off the main square, it was the home of various foreign embassies during the 1980s and scene of much political intrigue during the democratic revolution of 1991. Nowadays, it is one of the flagship hotels of the city.

Ger camps

Outside the main cities, much of the population live in gers (also known as yurts in other countries). Each ger camp is made up of a small cluster of gers. They are a few steps up from a normal tent, because they tend to have wooden floors, robust wooden supports and the walls are thicker providing a much better form of insulation. You can stand up in them and Mongolian gers are well furnished with beds, seats, tables and wood burning stoves. The camp will also have larger communal gers for socialising and eating. Plus, of course, separate toilets and running hot water.

Tent Camps

The tent camps on this trip are not suite “wilderness camping” but rather more of expedition style bell tents supplied with cot beds, sleeping bags, tables and chairs to make a comfortable resting place during the field trips. Multiple toilet tents are provided for male and female guests of the group and there are shower tents as well. Hot water can be provided upon request for showering each day, although, depending on certain locations of the expedition, shower water might be rationed to preserve the Gobi desert’s precious water supply. 

Meals are provided in a centrally located ger mess tent, which then is turned into an evening lecture and social area, where the day’s findings are discussed.