Mad Adventures in Mongolia come to an end

What an incredible trip, amazing on so many levels, but as always made by the wonderful people that we met along the way.
It was a privilege to see a small part of this nation that under Chinggis Khan around 1,000 years ago ruled EuroAsia, this small country fought to dominance and then introduced a diplomatic representation in each country, safety of traders and brought the East trade through the Silk Route to Europe,
I will miss the sheer overwhelming vastness of the country
The warmth of the people, as it was an incredible privilege to spend time with the Eagle Hunters and others that we met along the way
Making anywhere our camping home
The freedom of being the only jeep on the 'road'
Our fabulous crew of cook, driver and translator
Afternoon power naps in the back of the jeep.
Curd
And the only hard bit was camping at zero degrees and finding the right more secluded place to go to the loo!!!
Mongolia provides some of the remotest and beautiful scenery, still a true nomadic population, where the country belongs to them.
Life can be incredibly hard with such harsh winters, but their sustainable living must be truly envied, with rich traditions and amazing community spirit and cooperation. In the eagle hunters village they asked how we wash our clothes and heated our houses. Everything we do is at a touch of a button and it was great for a short time to wash by the river, and help collect dried dung for the fire, with no buttons in sight!   

Chinggis Khan fell off his horse

It's amazing to link your holiday with a festival and the Nadaam festival across Mongolia in mid July was the reason for coming. So we organised getting a day trip including tickets to the amazing opening ceremony of the festival. In the National stadium hundreds of singers, dancers, United Nations peace core soldiers and wrestlers and horse riders all danced and paraded their way through the grand opening ceremony. On a tight schedule we then headed to the ankle bone shooting, where the good luck humming throughout the stadium was impressive. Then to the archery where the opposing players sing and chant, mocking their opponents as they aim their bows.
Like any large event we then spend an inexplicably long time getting out of the car park and then headed out of town in a long slow procession of cars to where the horse racing was taking place. Here the young horses and their young riders galloped for 30km and with over 200 riders this was a long and hard race. When they came past us they looked like they were hanging on for dear life!!! We were weirdly surrounded by other riders on their horses, pushing forward, which was a bit scary, when you turn around and there's a row of horses almost looking over your shoulder.
In the evening the main square filled with revellers wanting to celebrate, listen to the live music and watch the fireworks. Ulaan Baatar was ready to party

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!!!!