Mongolian GPS

Mongolians find their way naturally across the Steppe - they don't need compasses and such. They are as natural moving across the Steppe as a Sydneysider is in the water at Bondi Beach. Yeah, right!

The boss asked me to get a GPS for one of the company vehicles ... his. He has been in Mongolia and driving across the Steppe for five years now - always with a Mongolian driver. Now, I know bugger-all about GPS, relying as I have my entire life on the fact that even in outback Australia there will always be a sign pointing to the next petrol station or the next pub. Seems there are not too many pubs on the Steppe.

I asked the boss about the Mongolian sense of direction. Surely it was as good as noted as the boss was around to be requesting a GPS. "Mongolians don't get lost travelling between soums. They sort of know the direction they need to drive" I noted.

"A number of times" said the boss "the 4 Wheel Drive has stopped and the driver and one of the Mongolian passengers have climbed to the roof of the vehicle and stood still there, like Meerkats, surveying the distance, pointing, muttering, shading eyes and then surveying and pointing some more".

"Any problem" the boss would ask them when they got back into the car. "No problem" was the usual response. They would then drive for about 20 minutes, stop and repeat the Meer Cat routine on the top of the vehicle - repeating the process again and again until they had arrived in the soum.

"They are lost" says the boss "don't believe the innate sense of direction on the Steppe bit, they are lost!" I purchased a GPS for him so that now they will at least know where they are when they are lost. :?

So, the next time you pass a 4 Wheel Drive on the Mongolian Steppe or in the Desert and you see a Mongolian standing on the roof of the vehicle looking like a Meerkat, remember, that is simply a Mongolian GPS taking its bearings.