We're always trying to improve tours and find new routes that no one else does. This summer we did a reconnaissance trip in the central provinces of Tuv, Middle Gobi and Ovorkhangai. It is a part of the country that tourists rarely travel and now that the Department of Transport has built several good new roads even locals don't use the old tracks much. There are some dramatic mountains on the way, especially at Ikh Gazriin Chuluu and Khairkhan mountain. We saw thousands of white-tailed gazelle, some small steppe foxes, marmots, eagles and cute little jerboas that hop like kangaroos. As we went further south the steppe turned into desert and we passed through some areas of "zag" saxaul forest; these trees are only found in the Gobi and take hundreds of years to grow. For part of the route we literally had to go off the map - following faint old tracks that were not marked on any of our maps and sometimes became non-existent. This really is about as