Mongolia's Dinosaurs, Past & Present!

We will begin our holiday, however, with a flight to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s bustling capital. After one night in the city, we head south to Dalandzadgad and out into the endless rocky hills and sand dunes of the Gobi Desert,  home to such birds as Mongolian Lark and the beautiful Demoiselle Crane. We will spend our next night in a comfortable ger camp on the edge of of the Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park before heading further west for a night near the Khongoryn Els Sand Dunes, the largest dune system in the Gobi. The scenery here is spectacular and the surrounding dunes, stony desert and pockets of Saxaul forest are home to Pallas's Sandgrouse, Oriental Plover, Saxaul Sparrow and the enigmatic Mongolian Ground-jay. The shy Goitered Gazelle also ekes out an existence in this harsh landscape, whilst some of the commoner reptiles include Tuvan Toad-headed Agama and Mongolian Racerunner.

Continuing north-west, we will come to our first fossil locality in the Tugrigiin Shiree. We will stay here for two nights and spend our time prospecting for fossils – such as protoceratops and oviraptor bones – in its Late Cretaceous sandstone and shale cliffs. The site is perhaps best known for the fabulous 'Fighting Dinosaurs' specimen discovered here in 1971, a protoceratops and a velociraptor frozen in combat  for 80 million years having been covered and suffocated in a sudden sandstorm or collapsing dune.

Moving our camp east once more, we next spend five nights — three camping and two in a ger camp — in the Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park, splitting our time between birdwatching and prospecting for fossils at the Flaming Cliffs, the legendary sandstones in which Andrews found his first dinosaur eggs! The magnificent Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park lies on the northern edge of the Gobi Desert. The rugged mountains, rocky deserts and ephemeral lakes of this starkly beautiful reserve are home to an exciting variety of sought-after birds including Daurian Partridge, Kozlov's Accentor and Godlewski's Bunting, plus Chinese Beautiful and Red-mantled Rosefinches. We also hope to find the rare Pallas's Cat here, a beautiful feline which wears a permanently 'grumpy' expression due to its unusually flat-topped head. Although elusive and shy, with our expert local guides close to hand, we hope to strike lucky!

Our time at the Flaming Cliffs is sure to be the paleontological highlight of the tour! It was here that Roy Chapman Andrews — a real-life Indiana Jones — made his most spectacular fossil discovery. At the foot of these red sandstone hills he found literally hundreds of specimens, the richest haul of dinosaur remains that had ever been found, including lots of protoceratops bones and the first-ever dinosaur eggs. Although the mass finds of Andrews' time are a thing of the past, the constant weathering here continually reveals new fossils. We will spend one and a half days at the Flaming Cliffs and stand a good chance of finding our own fossils, such as pieces of eggshell or bone, or, if fortunate, perhaps something more substantial.

Before returning home we will conclude our tour with three nights in a ger camp in Hustai National Park to the west of Ulaanbaatar. This UNESCO Biosphere Reserve is home to a herd of Przewalski’s Horse and is within reach of Bayan Lake which attracts, amongst many others, White-naped Crane, Asiatic Dowitcher and the rare Relict Gull.