Mongolia

In just over three week’s time, after much procrastination, I am finally realising one of my dreams. I’m travelling solo to Mongolia!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can only travel when my blood levels are ok. And that is now, after a transfusion.

The Altai mountains in the west of Mongolia, in Ulgii are home to spectacular forests, lakes, wildlife, and the incredible Eagle Hunters. These Kazakh tribes ride on horseback with Golden Eagles they’ve trained to hunt for them. It’s an area that is so incredibly vast, that it is described as a wonderland for trekkers. In some parts it can be difficult to negotiate with horses, so camels are used to carry the loads. Camping in this wilderness will no doubt be life-changing. The silence and scenery, the wildlife and challenges are things I am so thirsty for.

Then I will head to the Gobi desert, a landscape where the fossils of dinosaurs have been discovered. The sand dunes roll as far as the eye can imagine. Where snow leopards and Bactrian camels are found. The vision of breathtaking sunsets and stargazing in the “cold desert“ sends goosebumps down my spine.

When I was diagnosed with my incurable (bone marrow) cancer the light inside me went out. I saw my identity vanish and all my dreams shatter like glass.

Over the last five years that light has started to flicker once more, as I navigated a new life. There were times I was unsure where I was going, or what the hell I was doing, but I put one foot in-front of the other and trusted the process.

Living with active cancer is hard. And it’s hard every, single, day. It’s mentally and physically draining. No one wants this life of constant pain and misery and anxiety. If you are healthy you cannot even begin to imagine how crippling it is to be saddled with an illness that takes from you all the time, and fills you with endless doubt that you fight with constantly.

I have found it is critical to find rewards, no matter how small, to remind yourself to keep living the best life you have at the moment, or you will lose yourself and the disease wins.

I don’t want to live a timid life. I never have. I want my heart racing and my senses heightened. So I will prepare for a trip of a lifetime and embrace whatever happens, and soak up this experience.

My adventure has been researched in the way only a journalist does. Risk assessment, finance and to return full to the brim with the best stories and memories burnt into my core. I have called on the help of a well-versed travel photographer, I met in Cambodia, who very kindly and generously shared his precious local contacts with me. Thank you Patrick!!!!!! Through endless emails and phone calls I have planned an itinerary far beyond my initial budget. This makes Bhutan look cheap as chips – and that takes some doing!!

The remoteness of this country means travel is exceedingly long and arduous which wracks up the expense, but for the potential magic I will be touched by, it will be worth every single penny and an adventure that I am betting on to set that light inside me ablaze once more!