Above is the traditional house (ger) Mongolian familys live in.
Day 1: Leah still sick but game for a few hours travel. We went to our first local home and had our first milk tea (we, I mean Leah, tried a bit and a sip was enough ). Three hours then back to the tent at MS guest house. I name my horse Petrol, because he never runs out of gas, the smelly kind. Leah names her horse Chomper, because he bites at other horses, grass, or anything that annoys him.
Day 2: After we pack all our stuff see pic,We leave the guest house and head north along Khovsgol lake for 3-4 hours. Our instructions before leaving: 1) don’t stand behind the horse, they kick 2) always get on the horse from the left side 3) don’t eat, change clothing, or take pictures while riding (we will break all of these rules many times) 4) oh, and don’t give your guide anything to drink.
Day 3: We start visiting gers during our travel (tent home made of felt). The guide is given a bottle of vodka. Hmmmmm this might not be a good idea. We spend the night at Bataar’s sister’s home.
Day 4: A word about our guide: his name is Bataar (although this is not his real name but he answers to it so we use it), 58 years living on the lake, 7 kids, working as a guild for 10 years, English poor but better then our Mongolian, drinks milk tea by the litter, smokes constantly, smiles constantly with one front tooth missing, completely unprepared for life in Mongolia (no food, no warm clothing, holes in clothing he does have)
Day 6: Into the pass: FLIES millions of flies. In your noses, eyes , ears. In your horses nose, ears. Ahhhhhhh I am going crazy. Then comes the rain, the mud, and some very hard riding. This is a day of high adventure, something you see in the movies.
Day 7: Short trip today, taking rest. Beautiful, all around, the sky, the river, the day. (cooking our dinner in the pic)
Day 8: made it to town (about 50 homes), first hot shower since we left.
Day10: Caught is a storm: it starts to hail on us as we ride. We make it to a Ger and stay for hours before heading to Bataar’s relative’s home. More on Bataar: he is related to everyone, and custom demands that we stop constantly to say hi and drink tea. I am beginning to hate the sight of a Ger, Leah is starting to love it. The milk tea is growing on her.
Day 12: A horse is not a car! This seems obvious, but it took Leah and I a long time to figure it out. The horse doesn’t always go, stop, turn, or anything else for that matter, when you want it. Sometimes a horse jumps for no reason. Sometimes a horse will start into a gallop, for no reason. One time, Leah’s horse tried to sit down and roll over in a sand pile with her still on. Defiantly not a car.
Day 14: We get a dog. His name is Tourist (I named him), he has been following us for 2 days. During this time he has killed 3-4 prairie dogs/ground squirrels.
Day 15: Tourist eats an entire rabbit, and we enter a second pass, and get hit by a second storm. This one soaks us, and there are no Gers to run to for warmth. At one point the mud is so deep that Bataar’s horse sinks in it like quick sand and Bataar falls off. Through the rain I hear “lets not go that way.” Once at camp cold and wet, Bataar and I get a fire going with wet wood, and dinner never tasted so sweet. Leah stays in the tent trying to get warm. Above pic: bow and arrow target
Day 16: Rest day: Riding now for over two weeks. My horse’s name is perfect. Petrol, always over eats, he has tons of gas, and is scared outside of groups. Petrol’s favorite place in the world is with his friends, and with his head up the Pack Horse’s butt. No joke, it is the only place Pet is truly happy. If I try to ride out front, within 100 meters he starts crying and trying to turn, if you let him turn. The head always goes up the butt of Pack Horse. Chomper, loves to be in front, and sulks if in the back, he also still likes to bite, especially the dog.
Day 20: out of the pass and into Kankh, we take 2 days off and stay in a tourist ger with hot showers.
Day 22: In the Mongolian culture it is rude to turn down a drink. Bataar shows up to work drunk, he can barely stand or talk, but somehow he can ride a horse. We decide to stay a day while he sobers up. Leah spends the day working with Chomper, I try and force food, and none vodka based liquids into Bataar. ( yes I, Leah, went into town for chocolate all by myself. I could have walked it in 45 min but I decided to try my hand and riding there. It took over an hour to get to town, but it was good bonding time with my horse. The problem was leaving the other horses. He knew which way he wanted to go and it was certainly not the way I wanted to go. So in the end I had to get off and pull him toward town.)
Day 25: We are much better riders. We trot at least 30 minutes a day, and often leave Bataar behind with pack horse. Our days are getting longer in the saddle. Today was our longest day at 7.5 hours. We reached the hot springs and are clean again. But the night was so cold we had frost on the tent and Leah was contemplating getting up at 3 a.m. for another dip in the hot springs…. We waited till 6:30.
Day 29: Bataar’s home: we spend the night in the Ger and get new horses. Leah got to try her hand and milking a cow. (I have a whole new respect for milk. After 10 min I had maybe ½ cup of milk and I was done.)
Day 30: New horses, WOW. A tired horse is like a Honda civic, a fresh horse is like a Indy Car. Leah’s horse was pregnant but still managed to run for an hour. My new horse wasn’t as fast but loved to follow. We end our trip Galloping into Hatgal, tying up our horses, and looking like proper Mongolians wearing our Deels (Mongolian riding coat).
Summary: 30 days of solitude is amazing. But it takes a little bit to get used to, by day two I, Leah, was ready to be done. I thought what is the next 28 days going to bring that I haven’t already experienced in the last 48. Horse riding is monotonous and very slow. Yes, it is a beautiful lake but…. I am glad we kept going because I was able to experience the slowing of time. Our goals were different somehow. Only food, water, and firewood really mattered. We were able to experience the unbelievable hospitality of Mongolias. We show up totally unannounced, soaking wet, and hungry into their house. With a smile they help us out of our wet cloths, hang them to dry, add firewood to the fire, and feed us bread, cream and of course milk tea. It is amazing, the Mongolians in the country side are so poor yet willing to share everything. One hopelessly cold snowy night we spent the night in a random family’s 250 square foot ger. If felt like a camp fire sleep over. There were 8 of us all sleeping on the floor, even the owner’s of the ger didn’t have beds. I also was able to see really how little we need in life to survive, and survive with a smile.
"Sure, you can eat in a ger... if you want to DIE" ... Tourist
"House is house, tent is tent" Bataar (always trying to get us to find a ger to sleep in for the night)
"I pee for half hour" Bataar (after many hours of milk tea drinking)
Something is wrong with the horses foot so Bataar uses his swiss Army knife to remove dirt, fecal matter, and whatever else is on a horse's foot to find the problem. Minutes later Rob is trying to cut bread with a spoon and Bataar offers him his knife. "you just used that on the horses foot." Rob says. Bataar thinks then says "small knife" as he unfolds the 'clean' knife.
2 comments:
Wow! What a month. We're anxious to see you. Love K and Grandpa
I don't know who you people are but your journey sounds AMAZING.
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