Farewell Ulgii, hello Ulaan Bataar

Another early rise and breakfast at 6.15am. Bidding a fond farewell to our cook, and ensuring that she is now the proud owner of the memory foam pillow, we head to the airport. This is a crazy airport surrounded by hills, with only a couple of flights a day. Security, searching and passport check was a one woman show and we all sat patiently watching the plane arrive from UB, unload and then get ready for us. What a trip !!!! It's blown my mind by spending so much time outdoors, freezing, overheating, feeling overwhelmed by the warm hospitality that we encountered, the yaks, camels and over friendly dogs, this has been an amazing adventure, and now we're heading back to the the second coldest capital in the world, but not to worry as it's summer and it will be in the twenties.
My only concern is my mossie bites as my wrist and arm are swollen and I'm munching on anti-histamine! I'm sure that I read that there were no Mosquitos in Mongolia - lies, lies,,lies!!!! 

Stoney face or sleepy face?

Our last few days of the camping trip  were jeep bound, as we went across to the far west Russian and Chinese border and then round to the stone paintings and stone faces, dotted across the land marking battle grounds and lost kings and soldiers. As ever the back seat crew of cook and guide snoozed through this amazing scenery, as they had seen it countless times before and now made full use of my memory foam neck pillow, as I sat like an upright meerkat at the back taking in the vast space around us that was forever changing from lush valley to sparse moon like landscape. 

How many meals in one day!

Our two night stay in the national park became an eating fest. In the morning after eating five pancakes, as the guys hadn't got up yet we walked to the top of the hill to have a better view of the snow capped mountains and of course we had lunch at the top. Then we went to visit a Tuvan family, living such hard remote life. They put out the normal Mongolian spread of cheese. curd, curd biscuits etc and then we have a delicious horse stew and then fried fish that the son had caught that morning, washed down with home brew vodka! Finally we then have dinner of a traditional Kurd dish of stewed mutton, dough and vegetables and it comes on a large tray and we all eat with our hands.
The food on the trip has been amazing as we have the head cook with us and our three meals a day have ranged from crepes, pasta, hamburgers and mash and various stews and soups, all cooked on a single gas hob!!

There's a camel outside our tent

After a really rocky eight hours drive to Altai National Park we pitch put tent up not far from the snow covered mountains and river rushing with glacial water. There's a ger that we can use for our kitchen/dining room and once settled in having a cup of black tea the door opens and we can see a pack of camels outside. This is truly an exceptional holiday and we're out of our comfort zone with camping in the middle of nowhere, sometimes in zero degrees with wind chill factored in, but this is such an extraordinary adventure with so many rewards of scenery, amazing people and the surprise of how the landscape changes Round every corner,
Our crew is fabulous, our 44 year old cook, Kenjejan, who is the wise leader, having done this for ten year but hilariously hates the countryside, preferring her winter job as a nurse in Ulan Baatur. Then our guide and interpreter, Iman,  21 year old Justin Beiber fan who's a law student in UB and does this as a summer job. Then there's Mukhanet,  our thirty year old driver is constantly leaning forward in concentration for driving, but has a wicked sense of humour, often laughing at us, which is fair as this is a hilarious trip and often it's just us wherever we go! 

We've been on Mongolian TV

It's been years since I've taken a holiday in the summer, but the lure of the Mongolian Nadaam festival was too much. The Itinerary for our ten day camping trip in the west got changed around as the president of Mongolia was coming up to open their Nadaam games. Luckily we were able to see the amazing spectacle of the wrestling at Ulgii Stadium as an added bonus and whilst siting in the stadium were interviewed by the main Mongolian TV crew on where we were from and what we thought the Nadaam festival was about. The next morning the driver said that he had seen us on TV!!!! 

Are you saying we're fat?

Travelling in a land with no roads outside of the cities is tough. There are points when our land cruiser squeals with the sheer effort of getting up hills, or overheats with the stain on the engine, but this tough environment demands tough vehicles and often you can drive for hours without seeing another car, camel or goat. Often we traverse hills at crazy angles and at one point the hill was do steep we all had to get out of the car and walk up, admiring the view but also feeling breathless in this unforgiving high altitude. The four of us leaving the car enabled a lighter journey.

How many chores to complete in one day?

Having the opportunity to spend two days in this rural nomadic community you really see how hard life is, especially for the women. They are the first ones up to milk the cows, then they round up goats, collect dung for the stove, cook for the family, wash the clothes, and it's never ending. It was amazing to see the team work involved in the daily rounding up of goats to be milked. They're separated by the colours painted on their horns, to show that they belong to different families and they are all bound by rope hooped around their neck, as they're milked. Then the vat of boiled curd needs to be spooned into the muslin cloth and so the work continues! Then more dried dung needs to be collected, or special branches from high up the hill and the girls scramble up to get them. In the pouring rain the dung needs to be covered and the women rush out to do that.
It really makes you appreciate how easy your life is - washing, heat, cooking all at the press of a button.