You’ve been white-water rafting down the Grand Canyon. You’ve bungee jumped in New Zealand, and spent a week trekking in Nepal. You’ve picnicked on Cape Town’s Table Mountain and wine tasted your way around California’s Napa Valley. Yet, you’re still hungry for new adventure with some comfortable touches. Now try Mongolia’s most luxurious lodge. In a country routinely described as the last great wilderness, tourists are few and far between. In fact, off-season there is practically no one visiting. Yes!, you cry, Mongolia sounds perfect. To counter the adventure, though, some home comforts are essential. At the Three Camel Lodge, the country’s premier luxury expedition camp, the emphasis is on relaxation and good service. The lodge pulls together Mongolia’s three assets—wilderness, tradition and adventure—in a luxury setting smack in the middle of the Gobi Desert. Miles and miles of barren land surround a collection of Mongolian traditional homes (known as Gers) in a facility boasting hot water, electricity and a nightly turndown service. No mean feat in a country
that routinely suffers from power blackouts and food shortages due to adverse weather conditions. Before I flew into Mongolia’s Ulan Bator, the only facts I knew about the world’s 16th largest country were that Ghenghis Khan was a former ruler and its capital always was significantly cooler than the other cities featured on a BBC weather report. In fact, outside of the main tourist season of mid-May to mid-August, the world’s coldest national capital veers from cool, all the way through to Arctic-like temperatures reaching -26ºC in deep winter. An hour’s plane ride south of Ulan Bator—or about a 16-hour car drive due to the country’s lack of paved roads and its rough terrain— the weather is just as extreme, but in a new way. The Three Camel Lodge is located at N43º53.603, E103º44.435 (and you thought the Japanese address system was confusing). This is a GPS location that will bring you about 66km northeast of the Gobi’s main city, Dalanzadgad. The sun burns down on your skin during the day; and, at night, temperatures drop to near freezing as stars fill the sky. The operations
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