Baigalmaa Norjmaa has been traveling since 2017.
"Adventure can hurt you but monotony will kill you" . This is the leitmotiv of the nomadic adventurer Baigalmaa Norjmaa , a native of Mongolia who set out to travel 12,000 km from her country of origin to the United Kingdom.
In November 2017 she set out with an international team and 10 camels. , whom she cares for and loves above all else, to tour Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Germany and France, and finally, the United Kingdom.
“I am 30 years old and have been working in the travel industry for the last 14 years. I am passionate about any expeditions, I have been a mountaineer for the last six years before starting my camel trek from Ulaanbaatar, in Mongolia, to London”, explains Baigalmaa Norjmaa to Traveler.es.
This young woman, together with her husband, has put herself to the test for many years to reach this point, in fact she has not stopped doing it since she was practically born. The last 10 years she has dedicated together with her husband to lead expeditions for tourists in her city of Baikal.
Dust, rain, extreme temperatures, rocky terrain and desert... nothing seems to stand in the way of this woman who claims to have already traveled, since the beginning of this adventure in November 2017, about 5,400km.
"Right now I'm on the border of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan ”, She confessed a few weeks ago to Traveler.es. So we calculate that at the end of summer it is close to 6,000 km.
'Steps to the West' is Baigalmaa Norjmaa's project to show that women can do what they want , in addition to publicizing the nomadic culture of Mongolia. "I would love to convey love, adventure, nomadism, women's rights and introduce Mongolian culture and camel culture," she tells Traveler.es.
The adventure began with an international team, but as Baigalmaa advanced, she was left alone, and she now leads the group with a couple of other companions and hers inseparable Bactrian camels.
This species of two humps can carry about 250 kg each and tour about 50 km daily , although she prefers to do without many things so that they do not have to carry too much. They often sleep in tents or in the lodgings that they find on their way and that locals give them.
The hardest? Bureaucracy and dealing with other cultures. In China, for example, she told the BBC that she had been chased by the police during part of the journey. She there they also confiscated some of the photos that she had taken.
Her goal is to cross one of the legendary routes that her ancestors traveled, The Silk Road , but this time with an added challenge, do it with a Bactrian camel caravan.
“Camels are really good pack animals, they are stocky and strong. I have a very special bond with them,” she adds. In fact, it has been she herself who has trained them for this journey, although that is never hurting them.
And the other, and no less important, is to empower other young women to pursue their dreams . "I want to motivate young women and empower them," she stresses to the BBC.
Of course making this decision has not been easy for her, Baigalmaa explains that she has received a lot of criticism for being a woman. Some of them advising him to she should be at her house taking care of her husband , and not doing a job that belongs to man, such as loading camels. "Power is in the mind, not in the physical" she replies.
If you want to follow her adventure (almost in real time) you can do it on her Facebook.