Navigating the dirt roads of Mongolia hearkens back to a day when people would pull out giant atlases and figure out how they're going to get from point A to point B. While I had a driver so I didn't have to worry about navigation, it remained a bit puzzling to me as signs were not in great abundance and dirt roads would run parallel or criss-cross each other at random it seemed.

Being in such a desolate, yet green and beautiful environment, I never knew what to expect. The skies were so blue, the rolling steppe so vast. Would we come across a horde of barbaric raiders armed with swords and spears, riding on horseback? "We've detected a weakness in the great Chinese walls to the south!"

No, it would seem I managed to avoid any such dire situations which I concocted in my head. More likely was the occasional motorcycle zipping by. With one of the lowest population densities in the world, this great and beautiful land was free of distractions enabling photographic opportunities all over.

A van crosses the Mongolian steppe.