World Image issue 11 October 2014

The climate range can be extreme, with
temperatures reaching +40degC in the summer,
dropping to -40degC in the winter. It is no
wonder that the Russian UAZ is so adapted to
this environment as there appears to be
similarities to the temperature range in Siberia
where they are even more commonplace.
Before arriving in Mongolia, I had done
significant research especially on the weather
and environment. Everything was telling me
that there was very little rain, approximately
100mm a year.
As July/August is the wettest season, at worst
you would expect an average of around 2mm of
rain a day. Even the worst equipped off-road
vehicle should be able to cope with this level of
saturation.
What we had not expected, however, was a
regular as clockwork violent rainstorm that
ripped across the Gobi between 1700 and
1800hrs every day.
The hard baked desert quickly shed the water
where there was natural drainage, this quickly
fed into the wadis, which made driving across
the Gobi a very interesting experience.
Negotiating rivers was a regular occurrence – in
the Western World there would be endless
signs saying: Danger - Do Not Cross. But here
it is part of the way of life, the rivers and wadis
had to be crossed or risk a very long and
potentially dangerous detour.
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