The winters in Mongolia are legendary for their length and severity. In fact, Ulaanbaatar holds the distinction of being the coldest capital city in the world, with temperatures routinely dropping to minus 30 to minus 40 degrees in January and February.

We arrived in early November at minus 5, by the end of November it was already minus 10 during the day. During the night it was already minus 15 to 20.

The winter season is an exceptionally beautiful time to see the Mongolia landscape, especially the steppe, or endless expanses of grasslands covered in frost and snow.


It was an opportunity to see how the nomadic herders of Mongolia live in their winter homes. The family will transfer before the onset of winter from their summer grazing areas. The family keep four Gers, one for the family, two for tourists and one as a garage.

Those who don't mind braving the cold will find amazing opportunities for winter adventure here, including one of the most unique travel experiences imaginable. One thing we have learnt after all our travels to Mongolia, Russia and the Arctic circle. All that is stopping one from enjoying this amazing frozen landscape is good artic gear. It took me a good few month of research to find the right clothing in New Zealand, in Australia I had real difficulties finding good gear. We waited until we returned to NZ to get our gear. Plus, we replace gear along the way as we went, in fact my gloves were bought in the tube in Moscow for NZD$4.50. My NZ merino gloves were finished by then after 2 months of minus 20. It is sometimes best to buy the gear in the country concerned. Asia and Russia are very affordable to buy winter gear and the quality is good.

In fact, Mongolia produces over a third of the world’s cashmere: it has around 20 million goats and produces about 9,000 Tons of cashmere per year. Given its affordability, many Mongolians wear the fabric as part of their everyday ensembles. I bought a beautiful cashmere jersey, hats and scarves on our last morning in Ulaanbaatar as it was just a great opportunity.

Facts and figures about Mongolia:

1.0 Mongolia is the world’s 18th-largest country.
2.0 Mongolia is one of the most sparsely populated nations in the world, with only 4.3 people per square mile.
3.0There are 13 times more horses than humans in the country, and sheep outnumber humans 35 to 1.
4.0 Mongolian nomadic families get taxed on the number of horses they own.


Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape sprawls along the banks of the Orkhon River in Central Mongolia, some 320 km west from the capital Ulaanbaatar or 4-5 hours from Karakorum by 4x4.


Orkhon River itself is the longest river in Mongolia with length of 1,124 kilometres. It originates in Khangai Mountain Range and merges to Selenge River, eventually reaching Lake Baikal.

The Orkhon valley played an important role in the history of Mongolia.

Today, this rich history is honoured by its inscription of UNESCO World Heritage List.
The Orkhon waterfall, also called Ulaan Tsutgalan, is one of the best sights in central Mongolia.
One can climb down to the bottom of the gorge about 25m downstream from the waterfall; it is 22m deep and dotted with pine trees.

Approximately 20.000 years ago, the waterfall was formed due to earthquake and merged from volcanic eruptions. However, the water doesn’t run all year and will only start to flow after the first good summer rain. Best time to see it is late July and August. By December it is totally frozen. It is however the water source for the local nomadic family, who stay behind over winter in the valley. They store the water in big drums, and break off the ice, put it on the fire to melt the ice.

Thank you all so much for watching! We hope you enjoyed the video and if you’re new to our channel we hope you will become an TNNZ member by subscribing to our channel for new videos every Sunday!

We are full time overlanders from New Zealand. This trip in 2019 thru China, Mongolia and Russia was a research trip to see, if we want to take our vehicle overland, the Nest, from Australia thru Asia, Mongolia and Russia. We intended to be away for 6 months, but 20 months later we were still overlanding in Europe now by vehicle. The COVID 19 is what brought us home to New Zealand. Our vehicle is stored in Australia. We are waiting for the borders to open again.. so in the meantime, we have finally time to process the hours and hours of videos taken on that epic overlanding trip of 20 months thru 36 countries.

If you like this video, please give it LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to our travel overlanding channel.
We are also on Instagram and Facebook under the same name of Traveller's Nest Overland.

REAL-TIME UPDATES on Social 📱
INSTAGRAM: [ Ссылка ]
FACEBOOK: [ Ссылка ]
WEBSITE: https:www.travellersnestoverland.com/

Thanks for watching.

Made with Love and Passion for the Road,
Traveller's NEST team,
Ro and Mark

свернуть