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Ripleys Mongolia: Trekking Alone in the Wilderness

For the months of high summer, Mongolia trekking offers adventurers and holidaymakers the chance to take in some of the Far Easts most remote and unexplored landscapes. But on Ripley Davenports 2010 Mongolia Trekking Expedition, he aims to cover 1700 unforgiving miles of Mongolia by foot the breadth of the country a record-breaking distance for unassisted and solo walking.

How many countries can you think of where you might encounter both a sandstorm and a blizzard? Mongolia is a vast country of open grassy plains, deep green valleys, barren desert and snowy mountain ranges. The best Mongolia trekking itineraries will aim to provide a flavour of one or two of these landscapes, allowing trekkers the opportunity to appreciate some of the countrys huge 604,000 square miles - that's the equivalent area of four and a half Germanys.

For adventurer Ripley Davenport though, a sample of what Mongolia has to offer is not enough.

He plans to see all of Mongolias many characters and terrains as he plots a trekking route across the entire country. He aims to complete his epic journey in about three months. While it is usual for visitors on Mongolia trekking holidays to travel between late June and August, when the temperature averages around 15 degrees centigrade, Davenport started his adventure in April. This means he will have to endure a freezing springtime climate, although nothing as uncomfortable as the 20 degrees below of the Mongolian winter.

Ripley intends that his trekking across Mongolia will be unsupported, meaning he will not have a guide or ponies, or prearranged shelter, and has to carry all he needs with him. For this he has a small cart, like a rickshaw, which he has named Molly Brown. Fully loaded, Molly weighs almost 250 kilograms. If he succeeds in crossing the country Ripley Davenport will hold the record for the longest recorded solo and unassisted walk.

On the 14th April 2010, Ripley began his Mongolia trekking mission in the eastern steppes, near Choibalsan, the fourth largest city. He was taken aback by what he saw ahead of him: a landscape of extensive treeless prairie and ground littered with immense pot holes, soft sand, trenches and mud. It meant slow progress. In the first full day it took him four hours to cover one kilometre because of the uneven surface, and during the first night his tent and trailer froze solid.

It took just two days for the terrain to prevail over his ambitions. It was not his body that gave out, or his determination, but the wheel bearings on the axle of Molly Brown, which wore away completely. Unable to carry on, he had to call for evacuation. But Davenport is not willing to abandon his trekking adventure. Despite this adversity and setback, having made repairs, Ripley will return in May to complete what he began, and resume his record-breaking attempt.

Within the first few weeks of his Mongolia trek he will be cross the famous Trans-Siberian Railway, the 5700 mile track that bridges continents; joining China with Europe and Beijing with Moscow. From Mongolia, the tracks of the Trans-Siberian go south towards the Great Wall of China and north to the desolate wastelands of Siberia.

After that Ripley will progress into the open plains of Mongolia, trekking across vast eye-fooling open spaces of grassland and prairies. Beyond the grasslands, Ripley will encounter the Gobi Desert and the Altai Mountains of the west, all the time walking alone and unassisted in the Land of Blue Sky.