Mongolia!!!!!!!!!! Part 2

Highlights Part 2!

The Hike through the 8 Lakes region (Naim Nuur)

We got to this region, and spent half a day wandering around the fields and hills around the Ger camp we slept at. Then we had a 4 day hike, (though it wasn't really 4 full days of walking), across these hills and terrain, that our driver couldn't go across, and he met us on the other side 4 days later.

This was our first experience of Airag... it all came about when shortly after we started walking we were hit by rain. Baga, our guide (who had a pack horse too- convenient!), took us into the first Ger we past to shelter and they served us tea and Airag! We had only been walking less than an hour and already we're drinking!
We left this Ger after a while, although the rain started to get heavier as soon as we left! Then it turned into Hail! We walked for about half an hour to an hour in the hail, getting very cold and wet, and then as soon as we got to another Ger all went inside looking very miserable. These people let us take off our saturated clothing and hang them near the stove, and we put on Dels- traditional Mongolian coats. We drank tea, had cheese and more Airag... and hung around for quite a while waiting for the hail to clear... which it eventually did!
The next Ger we came to we had to stop at because for some reason the horse was limping and Baga wanted to stop... so in we all piled to Ger number three and pretty soon we were being offered MORE Airag... we started to joke that it wasn't really a hike we were on, m0re like a Ger crawl!!!
Finally we got walking, over the hills which had snow on top, and down into a gorgeous valley, with the sun shining and a big blue lake surrounded by pine trees!
The second day was pretty much walking through these nice valleys, though the flies were awful! In the evening we stayed up late by the campfire, which was pretty nice. Baga was feeling unwell so we stopped quite early, near some Gers, although we decided to walk away and make our camp some distance from the Gers, while Baga got some TLC inside.
The third day we walked a long way, maybe 25k's who knows, by the time we made it we were running out of water so we asked to camp near a ger so we could drink tea from them. hey offered to make us dinner for a small price, and we agreed not realising that what we had agreed to was MARMOT!!!!!!!! Ai ai! Blowtorched Marmot is a summer speciality in Mongolia and everywhere you could see marmots running around from the van. It was not very nice in my opinion though Lenore and Liam managed to eat most of theirs, I couldn't really stomach mine, and mainly ate rice! The family were all drunk before we even arrived, I went to bed before we could get offered Airag! An drunken elderly man was making advances on me, all in all that family was a little strange compared to other families we visited...

The region was very green and pretty, we didn't see all the lakes, about 4 of them I think!

More Highlights

• Stopping in a town called Tseterleg and having a shower, and eating an English breakfast with bacon, sausage, eggs, bread and jam and pancakes in an English run cafe there. That was a special treat. We also stocked up on Cornish Pasties for the day, and cinnamon scrolls! Luxury!

• Terkhun Tsagaan Nuur: A huge lake in a national park, we spent two nights here. It was warm enough to swim in the lake, and we also went on a horseride to a volcanic crator. Terrain was pretty cool, rocks everywhere probably from the last time the volcano blew up!