Mongolia Photography and Travel

Sea Kayaking in Lake Hovsgol National Park. Copyright Nathan Ward

This is a story I published several years ago in Paddler Magazine.  It was later reprinted in the book Best of the Decade of Paddler Magazine.

In the fabled land of Genghis Khan where nomads still walk the earth, lies a huge, blue lake. We wanted to paddle the waters and experience this wild land first hand.

Dark shadows of birds whirled above the water, their soft songs filling the nighttime air. Not used to hearing birds at night, I awoke and crawled from my tent to find the source of this mysterious music. The full moon of a few days before had faded into near nothingness, letting the Milky Way shine like a glowing white river flowing across the sky. To the north, the jagged Sayan mountain range marking the northern border of Mongolia, was little more than a dim outline against the stars.

My two friends and I were camped on the northern shore of Mongolia’s Lake Hovsgol. At 80 miles long, 22 miles wide and over 700 feet deep, it is the fourteenth largest freshwater lake in the world. A week earlier we’d set out in our sea kayaks to become the first people in the world to circumnavigate this remote body of water. [Read more →]

Even before we saw the fish, we knew it was huge from the hard pull on the line and the bow in the heavy rod.  “It feels huge!” yelled Andrea as the reel drag squealed.  Little by little she brought the big Lenok Trout to the shore and looked at it in amazement.  “That is the biggest fish I’ve ever caught,” she said as our Mongolian guide reached down to grab the fish by the tail.

Fish grow big in the remote wilds of Mongolia and this was why we were here, to catch monster fish and create a feature story for a fishing magazine in the USA.  It takes a long time, 8-10 years, for a Lenok to grow to the size of the one Andrea caught.  That means surviving the -50ºF winters, rogue net fishermen, wild animals and floods for a decade.  Then we come along with a little artificial fly and catch them for fun.

As I ran to get a photo before we released the fish back in the river, the Mongolian had a whole different idea and smacked the beautiful fish on the head [Read more →]

All text and Photos Copyright Nathan Ward – No reprint without permission.

This is a multi-part story about a trip Andrea and I took to the eastern part of Bhutan. It takes six days of driving non-stop to get there and back, but we only went a few hundred miles because the roads are so thin and curvy. This story originally appeared in Lifestyle and Travel Magazine. Read on to learn all about it.

Beyond the World’s Last Corner - Flying Tigers, Wise Monks and Hairy Yetis, Nathan Ward explores the Hinterlands of the Last Himalayan Kingdom

A wrinkled brown hand pushes a wooden bowl toward me, a bowl filled with sweet saffron rice, a Himalayan delicacy. Using my fingers, I scoop the golden rice into my mouth and wash it down with a sip of thick butter tea. The host’s dark eyes crinkle with a smile as she hands me another drink, this one clear like a mountain stream but filled with the power of fire, laughter and warmth. I toss back the tangy rice wine and look at the demons dancing below me.

Two masked demons twist and spin their bright robes into fluid spheres of shimmering color, their wooden faces frozen in grimace and fear. Frantically, drum beats fill the air and fierce-faced warriors stream from the corners of the ancient palace, surrounding the demons. The warriors beat the drums with a roar that ebbs and flows as they chase the evil spirits back to the underworld.

Sacred Mask Dances at the Phobjika Valley Monastery

[Read more →]

The Great Himalayan Range runs along the northern border of the Kingdom of Bhutan, separating it from the mass of the Tibetan Plateau.  The highest unclimbed peak in the world, Gangkhar Puensum (24,836 ft/7,570 m), marks the high point of Bhutan and from there, the country drops over 24,000 feet to a low point of just 300 feet at the Indian border.  [Read more →]

Winding among the steppes and mountains of Mongolia lie some of best fly fishing rivers in the world.  In these rivers, you’ll find massive trophy taimen who strike like monsters, hard fighting big grayling and impressive lennok.  [Read more →]