Mongolian Tour: Wild camping, yak drawing and archery

Upon leaving Lake Khuvsgul we made the trip to the city of Muran. Here, Tasha left us so she could make her flight back home to Canada early the next day. The rest of us were to camp in a tent somewhere along the way back to UB.

We stopped off to see Uran crater and did a loop around the top of it. It was a nice view of the landscape below. Bimba showed us some different plants, Baatar cleaned the van and before long we were back on the road.

View from Uran crater

Eventually we found a place to spend the night. It was a bit odd not sleeping in a ger but it was nice to be able to stop the van and camp anywhere. (Even if we had to put in some extra effort to shoo the cow's away.)

We tried to capture the vast land surrounding our campsite but the tent
looked like a tuft of grass on a hill so we had to zoom in! 

During our Mongolia trip it was my fourth year of New June (I do something new every day of June). My New June for the day was to draw a yak! I found it pretty challenging but enjoyable. 

Yakkity-yak!

Our last dinner in the Mongolian outback! 

Last sunrise of the tour

On our final day we stopped off to watch some archery. Because of Tim's challenge to fire an arrow from horseback, Bimba developed the unhealthy fixation that we wanted to see archery. We went well out of our way to find an archery meetup (OUTSIDE the local sports stadium).

It was the lead up to Nadam, Mongolia's big wrestling, horse racing and archery festival. The festival has run for centuries and is one of the biggest events in the Mongolian's calendar. TV's were full of back to back Mongolian wrestling matches between 10 year olds and we saw in person, men and women competing at archery to get a place in the festival. Some comfortable in traditional dress others sporting branded tracksuits and sneakers.

Concentration

Checking out how she fared

Bimba introduced Rob to one elderly lady who wasn't strong enough for her bow anymore. She proudly showed him her "kid's size" bow and let him feel how heavy it was.  He could barely pull back on the string!

Serious business

Arrow in flight

Mongolian Tour: Khövsgöl Lake

A highlight of our time in Mongolia was climbing to the hill beside Khövsgöl Lake. Not just because of its beauty but because it reinforced how important perspective can be. From the ground Khövsgöl was nice enough but given it was one of the number one natural attractions in Mongolia, I had initially wondered what all the fuss was about. Seeing it from a height really made all the difference.

Lake Khövsgöl from above

Enjoying the view

Where the sky meets the lake

There are lots of activities around Khövsgöl  water sports, swimming, horse riding or even shopping. Some women did some ger-to-ger selling from their motorbikes. Sarah and Tasha bought some beautiful scarves from them. Aside from that we were all just happy to soak up the atmosphere, go for walks and hang out near the water. Oh and wash our clothes of course.

Journal time

Refreshing!

Rock throwing: What Rob's do on their private time

Washing day!

The horses around the lake were self-directed and it was interesting watching them choosing where to go next. I also got much enjoyment from seeing sheep on a beach (almost). The image of sheep on a beach is something I think about if I feel like laughing. Rob once found a postcard of the very image! 

Time to walk this way

Horses in the trees

And off he goes!

Sheep (and yaks) on a beach (almost)

Lake Khövsgöl at dusk

Mongolian Tour: Terkhiin Tsagaan (The White Lake)

...As Kat has already mentioned, the beautiful reality of our roadtrip across Central Mongolia was that we could see the landscape changing each day as we drove.

One of the places where this was most evident was around Terkhiin Tsagaan, or The White Lake.  

White Lake "Terkhiin Tsagaan"

The lake was formed from the eruption of a nearby volcano called "Khorgo", the crater of which you can (and I did) comfortably walk around in about 30 minutes. 

Rob on the far side of Khorgo

Standing on top of it feels a bit like being at the top of Rod Laver Arena, except a Rod Laver at 3000m above sea level that had the tennis court removed and replaced with a very steep slippery slide of loose basalt rocks.

Kat watching the tennis

The lake itself is beautiful and the weather for us was just perfect.  There were clouds bouncing off the lake, boys building their summer ger camp, with yaks and horses grazing on the lush pasture and hills surrounding our roasty warm ger. 

Yak party

Mongolian take on a horse float

Kat and I enjoyed some quiet time walking along the lakes edge to one of the many vantage points where we could look at the lake and the tourist camps, but also where we could watch the horse mobs making their own way with no human control to some pre-determined destination.  While on the road, through the book I was reading ("Guns, Germs and Steel"), I had just learned about the hierarchy that apparently exists amongst horses.  Generally led by a stallion, Mare A will have her foals following her and always be followed by Mare B and her foals etc. So, because I've never been around horses enough to learn this, I had to go on a fact checking mission before writing this down, according to this reference it's TRUE!

Krueger, K., Flauger, B., Farmer, K., & Hemelrijk, C. (2014). Movement initiation in groups of feral horses. Behavioural Process., 103, 91–101. viewed January 9, 20144, http://www.rug.nl/research/behavioural-ecology-and-self-organization/_pdf/kr_ea_bp14.pdf

Horse hierarchies

It was amazing to actually see this in action only hours after reading about it.

We also had the opportunity to visit a local family who run a herd of yak.  From their camp they make all kinds of dairy products: milk, butter, yoghurt and curd all from their own yaks. The yoghurt was good but I could not get enough of the the butter - absolutely devine!  I must have done a good job on complimenting the yoghourt as Bimba was still trying to feed it to me 4 days afterward, when it was starting to get a bit funny (with no refrigeration).

MMMM yak butter and bread

The day was polished off in style with Batar and Bimba preparing a hot rock BBQ.  Meat is cooked by super heating rocks and laying the meat on top of them with some cabbages and vegetables on top to hold the heat in.  Just don't accidentally eat a rock!

"Batar Special" Mongolian Hot Rock BBQ!

My one wish for this part of the trip was that the water in the lake wasn't so cold, we could have had some lovely swims!

Afternoon lake views