GOBI DESERT

When speaking about a far-flung place, we often say, "It might as well be Outer Mongolia." Still a symbol for the back and beyond – with its nomadic herders, boundless steppe and eternal blue sky – modern Mongolia is a country in flux, having been forever changed by the discovery of trillions of dollars of mineral reserves in 2001.

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In 2011, aged 25, Faraz bought 12 Bactrian camels with a group of strangers he met online. Convening in remote Western Mongolia, they set out on a two-month journey to walk the entire 1,600km width of the Gobi Desert in summer with the aid of Soviet-era maps.

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Facing stampedes, sandstorms and twisters, they gained a fascinating insight into the lives of the desert's nomads – rapidly changing through mining, migration and modernisation – in one of the harshest and most fragile environments on Earth.

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The journey ignited Faraz's love affair with the country. He returned a dozen times over the next ten years, both for expeditions and to live and work in Ulaanbaatar, where, in his capacity as a UN lawyer, he advised the Government of Mongolia on reforms to its labour and human rights laws – including those protecting the rights of the herders he met on his travels.​