Gobi Desert wildlife expedition

Planet

CARBON REDUCTION

This trip has no domestic flights. We travel overland from Ulaanbaatar to Ikh Nart, then south across the Gobi to Tost and back, which also lets travelers see how the steppe slowly turns into desert.
The whole group travels in one shared vehicle, with a maximum of six travelers.
We stay several nights in the same place, three in Ikh Nart and four in Tost, instead of moving every day. The field days are spent mostly on foot, walking the valleys and watching from the ridges, rather than driving.
We buy food and supplies locally whenever possible, and ask travelers to bring a refillable bottle instead of buying bottled water.
We are a young company and do not yet formally measure the emissions of our trips. As we grow, we intend to measure and reduce them.

ENVIRONMENT AND WILDLIFE

The animal comes before the photograph. We never bait, feed or call snow leopards or any other animal, and we never stage an encounter. Argali, ibex and snow leopards are watched from a distance through binoculars, spotting scopes and long lenses, and we tell travelers clearly before booking that a snow leopard sighting can never be guaranteed.
In Ikh Nart, we stay at the reserve's research camp and follow the rules of the reserve and the guidance of its rangers. In Tost, every field day is led by a local ranger who knows the reserve.
We keep to existing tracks, carry out everything we carry in, keep the group small, and do not share the location of sensitive sites such as vulture nests.
At Hermen Tsav and at the petroglyph sites, travelers look but never touch or take anything: fossils and rock carvings stay where they are.

People

LOCAL ECONOMY
In Ikh Nart, we stay at the camp of the reserve's research center rather than in a hotel, and a local guide from the reserve area joins the group in the field. In Tost, local rangers accompany the group on every field day. Their knowledge of the hills, the tracks and the animals' habits is what makes the wildlife observation possible, and paying them for this work gives the people who live alongside these animals a direct reason to protect them.
We stay in local hotels in Dalanzadgad, in our camp in Tost and in a ger camp near Khongoryn Els, rather than in international hotel chains in the desert.
In Dalanzadgad, we visit the Gobi Museum of Nature and History and stop at a small local market, where travelers can buy products made in the area.
We buy food, fuel and supplies locally wherever possible, so that tourism spending reaches the communities of the Gobi rather than staying in the capital.

EMPLOYMENT, INCLUSIVITY AND DIVERSITY
Artus Expeditions is based in Ulaanbaatar. Our guides, drivers, trackers and cooks are Mongolian, and whenever possible we work with people who live in or near the regions we visit.
We keep groups to a maximum of six travelers, so that the camps and the people who host us are never overwhelmed.
This trip involves long drives, early starts, rocky and uneven ground, and temperatures that can fall to -30 °C in winter. Travelers with limited mobility or other needs are welcome to contact us before booking. We will tell them honestly whether the trip suits them and what we can adapt.