Day 12 Karakorum to Ulaanbataar

Today is a long day. We need to travel back all the distance we’ve travelled in the last 2 days. It will all be on highway driving and the paved roads here are very good, but it’s still a lot of distance to cover. 

Google maps doesn’t work super well here but on a paved road it gives me an ETA of just under 5 hours and that’s not including stops. 

We have breakfast and then get started. We opt to not stop at the monastery on the way out which is a good call. The day ends up being fiercely long as it is. 

Because of the upcoming national holidays, the traffic heading west out of the city continues to be very heavy and it’s a steady stream of cars headed against us. While this means that our lane is relatively clear - it means we have people passing constantly into our lane the whole way back and between this and our own driver passing, my nerves are pretty shot by the time we get back to UB. Reading or sleeping are good ways to not think about getting in a high speed accident! 

To be noted…I have otherwise felt completely and totally safe travelling here. The food has been good and other than taking the standard precautions for tourist areas that you would take anywhere, I’ve felt safe walking the streets and not scared of being pickpocketed like in other places. The driving however has been scary. 

Unfortunately the coffee shops along the way are packed and the shelves picked dry so there isn’t much to eat on the way back. We arrive in UB and stop at the cashmere shop and then head to the hotel. I’ll be honest that I’m tired and cranky by this stage and we head to the hotel restaurant for a snack at 4pm. 

We have a bit of downtime before we head out for dinner to Hazara. It’s a fabulous Indian food place. We have a great meal but opt to head back to the hotel and skip the show at the square. The city is in full Nadaam festival mode now, and while many people leave the city for this event, there are still lots of activities on the go. 

It’s an early sleep for us. Tomorrow is the start of Nadaam! We are so excited. 

Day 11 Hustai National Park to Karakorum

After breakfast that included a real cappuccino (yum), we head further west to Karakorum (Locally called Kharakhorin or Harhorin). It’s over 200kms and paved road once we get out of the hills and back into the main highway.

Karakorum is the ancient capital of Mongolia, located on the right bank of Orkhon River and on the northeastern slopes of the Khangai Mountains. Founded by Chinggis Khan in 1220, it was not only the capital of the vast Mongolian Empire, but also the epicenter of trade along the Silk Road. At that time the inhabitants of city were mostly merchant craftsmen who came to Karakorum from all over the world. In 1379 much of the city was badly damaged during an attack by the army of the Min Dynasty.

The drive is long but goes pretty smoothly. There are lots of combo cafe/supermarket/toilets along the way to grab snacks. 

The driving is a bit off putting. I can’t get used to the speeds and the passing into oncoming traffic. My need for speed is fading as I get older and travelling with my children. It’s not that they are bad drivers, there are just a lot of factors that need to be on your side to keep you safe. 

We make it to town in one piece at around 1pm and stop at a museum which turns out to be fantastic. Very simple and well done and does a great job of really encapsulating the Mongol empire. While we are visiting our guide, Sara, and our drivers head to a store to pick up things for dinner. Tonight we are going out to visit a local nomad family and having a true Mongolian bbq experience with them as a treat from her. 

We then head to our camp for lunch and to get settled into our gers. It’s already pretty late so we have a bit of downtown and then head up along the River and into the hills to meet the family. 

They first invite us into their more formal ger, being careful which way we enter the ger, where we sit, and which way to accept the tobacco when it’s offered. It’s passed to the man and then to a guest then back to the man and back to another guest in a sort of ritual.  

We are offered some kind of hard curds followed by the fermented mares milk and the snuff. The curd is not for me, the milk is not bad. It’s a bit sour. 

 It’s not something I could drink a whole glass of but certainly not awful. It’s ladled from a lovely bowl with a big carved wooden spoon.  

They also offered us these small bread pieces with a sort of butter on top. Avery described the bread as sort of sweet. They sort of looked like small twisted donuts. 

Once the formalities were done, we gave the kids some Canada hats and then went outside to wait until the chores were done and we could go horseback riding. 

They had all the foals tied on a rope and we watched as they brought the mares over and unhooked the foals one by one and brought them to the mare. They were allowed to drink briefly to get the mares milk to let down I’m assuming and then the woman milked the mare while someone held the foal up tight against the mare. Our driver clearly had grown up in a similar home as he jumped right into action helping grab the foals and the mares. 

Once the mares are milked we are matched with horses and then head off down the valley. Mongolian horses are not big. Some of them are maybe 14 hands, but that would be tall. Watching some of the tall people in our group get up onto one of the small horses and small saddles is pretty hilarious. They need to majorly drop stirrups for most of us. The saddles are hard and mostly wood although the frame that I sat on was actually metal. I found it quite comfortable actually. The pommel and the cantor are both higher and match in height. Mongolians tend to ride standing up or hitched over to one side above a walk. It’s pretty cool to watch them ride at top speeds. 

I’m riding a smallish chestnut mare who is quite sweet. Unfortunately the flies are actually horrendous, like I’m talking on you in sheets. If not for that the ride would have been perfect. To get your horse to go it appears to be leg and “tchoo tchoo” and while mine doesn’t seem to be keen to go at first, on the way back we get a good couple gallops in. None of us are used to riding such small horses except for maybe fiona and Avery and the stride is short and choppy. Getting into a canter offers some relief but I feel badly with all these big Canadians on these small horses. 

Avery is offered the opportunity to canter down the valley and back with one of our horse guides. I’m pretty sure she has a blast. Fiona got a crazy horse and had to stay tied to one of the guides most of the way and cadences horse was pokey pokey and had to keep getting brought up by the guides. Dave was riding a lovely almost Fjord looking horse. 

It was a lovely ride and experience overall and will make some good memories. 

When we got back our drivers had been busily cooking up a feast. They had a large pot over a wood stove outside and had layered hot rocks with seasoned lambs meat (2 yr old) and veggies on top. It was served out into two large platters and we simply ate from them with our hands and with knives to cut the meat from the bone. Without a doubt it will be the highlight meal. The meat was particularly delicious. 

After we ate, Avery, Fiona, and Erik started a simple game of throwing around a water bottle, the daughter brought over a volleyball and then everyone started to join in, including eventually the three daughters of the family and even the dad for a small portion. Our drivers all got right into it and they must have played for at least an hour. Dave and I and grandma and grandpa cheered from the sidelines.

They were all having a blast and we had music playing from one of the cars. The two young boys from the family wanted desperately to join in but just ran around in circles shrieking. Adorable. 

We packed up and headed home just before dusk and relaxed for awhile before heading to bed. It’s our last night in a ger camp. We head back to UB tomorrow where we will spend the last few nights in a hotel before we fly home. 

This experience and this evening will be a wonderful memory for everyone I have no doubt. 

Day 10 Terelj to Hustai National Park

Today we sleep in a little. 8am! Breakfast is a lovely frittata and some kind of veggie soup. They have actual milk on the table and real coffee in a pot - that’s a welcome treat. 

We don’t have too far to travel today, we need to get through Ulaanbataar and with the recent flooding the route is up for debate. We decide to go through the city as we know the roads won’t be flooded that way. The traffic isn’t bad at first but then it’s terrible once we are inside UB proper. Traffic seems to be a big issue here. Compared to other major cities we’ve been to, cars seem to follow basic rules of the road better than others. They do tailgate heavily and rely very much on their braking at the last minute. They also don’t use running lights at all. They pass freely on both sides, including the shoulder. When passing in the oncoming lane, they will drive for several minutes in the wrong lane in long rows of cars and then when an oncoming car comes and flashes their lights, everyone scrambles to get back into the correct lane and creates major slowdowns. Not super effective but with so many speeds of drivers, I guess it helps to move things along in the long run. They also don’t think twice about driving through a ditch to avoid a slow down or road stop. They just bypass using dirt tracks. 

The water damage from the floods is really apparent as we make our way through the city. The main river is still raging and many of the ger homes are badly under water. It’s troubling to think of how many households have likely been adversely affected. 

We slowly work our way west and out of UB. Sara point out the market where herders bring their livestock for slaughter. There was a similar smaller one on the east side of town. They are not allowed to be brought into UB. There are more farms and towns to the west of the city hence the larger market. You can see all the trucks fillers with sheep waiting their fates. 

Just beyond the city limits we see the location of the Nadaam Festival horse races. A little further we head off the paved highway and start down a series of dirt roads over and around a series of rolling hills. 

With the recent rain certain areas have not yet dried out and unfortunately car 1 ends of stuck deep in the mud. I’m mildly panicked that we will have the same fate but our driver finds a path through. Time to get the tow rope out! Thankfully we get out without any major difficulty. 

It’s a beautiful area that we are driving through. Lots of farmland and we see farm equipment for the first time. 

We finally make it to the Hustei National Park. It is famous for the successful reintroduction of the Przewalski horse, called "takhi" by Mongolians. 

It became extinct in the wild in 1969 and, since 1992, has been successfully reintroduced to Hustai from zoos around the world. This has been an international effort monitored by The Foundation for the Przewalski horse, based in the Netherlands and MACNE (Mongolian Association for Conservation of Nature and the Environment).

We get checked in and have lunch. Dave and I have an unusual concrete ger. No bugs for us tonight! Lol. 

The place is filled with tourists and has a fun spirit to it. We haven’t seen this many people at camp so far. 

We are advised that our best chance of seeing the horses will be just after supper when they come down from the hillsides to drink from the river. So we have an afternoon of leisure which we spend chatting, reading, napping and listening to music in our ger.

After our dinner at 6pm we head into the park. Not far down the road we spot our first herd of horses just after seeing a pack of fox cubs climb out of their den for an evening play. 

The horses are fascinating. They look very much like a zebra or a donkey. They have 66 chromosomes compared to the domestic horse which has 64. A donkey has 62 and when crossed with a horse results in a mule which has 63. They travel is small herds with a stallion at the helm.

We make our way in further and come across a series of herds. We stop and just sit around to watch them and their interactions. Given that it’s still early in the season there are a number of foals in each herd. Adorable!

The stallions seem to be darker in shade and we are lucky enough to see some minor interactions between the studs. Making sure they each know how close they can get to their harem! We also witness a herd come galloping down the hillside, their hood beats a crescendo down the mountain. Lastly we witness 3 young males trying to coyly test how close they can get to another herd. Not that close before the herd stud sets them straight. We didn’t get to witness anything too aggressive. From some of the photos in the info centre it looks like it can get pretty gruesome. 

I’ll have to do some more reading about the horses. It’s a success story for sure on the reintroduction of these horses into the wild, but the herd is still small and they have a long way to go. 

Once we’ve had our full we slowly make our way back out. There are marmots everywhere and we also see a herd of Red Deer as we head back to camp. The rack on the male is unlike anything I’ve ever seen in person. I think we got quite lucky in our sitings!

When we get back we sit outside for awhile. There are a bunch of birds flying around with quite an interesting call and Erik is at the bar making friends with a guy that formerly worked at Relic Games in Vancouver. What a small world! He’s there volunteering with the research team for 4 weeks. 

It’s a beautiful place and this was a huge highlight for me on this trip. 

Day 9 Dalanzaghad to Terelj National Park

It’s an early start today. Up at 4:30am and breakfast at 5. We are on the road to the airport by 5:30am. It’s less than an hour and it’s about the roughest dirt track to an airport we’ve ever been on.

We say goodbye to our drivers and this point. They were amazing and we are so grateful to them for navigating us safely across the desert for the last several days. It makes a huge difference having contract drivers who own their own vehicles. They take pride in their cars and generally speaking we find them to be safer drivers. These three suv were meticulously kept up and despite the rough terrain we had no flat tires or breakdowns. 

We get checked in and our luggage weighed and get through security. It’s a teensy airport and we are quickly our the door and boarding. The plane actually takes off this time!! 

We land in Ulaanbataar and say goodbye to Robert. He’s spending the weekend in UB and flies home Sunday. 

The rest of us get into our three new SUVs and head east to Terelj National Park with a quick stop at the giant Chinggis Khan statue. It is 40m high and quite impressive. According to the legend, he found a golden whip at this location. The statue is symbolically pointed east, towards his birthplace. We are not huge into these major tourist attractions and the place is packed. We take a quick spin through it and climb to the top for a picture and then we are off. 

From here we head north into Gorkhi Terelj National Park. The scenery since we left the airport has been stunning, but the park is extraordinary. 

Many nomads live in the park itself, where the land is lush for their animals. The difference is stark between the animals we had seen in the desert. Cattle, horses, sheep, goats and camel all grazing together in vast fields. They are definitely meatier here. 

As we cross over the river and head deeper into the park the damage from the flooding is visible. Many homes and bees built along the River edge are now underwater. Thankfully our camp is up on higher ground. 

We stay at the Heaven Envoy Ger Camp and it’s certainly not as nice as where we have stayed previously. It’s still clean but the gers are not as nice and ours has a fly issue that requires us to get moved (:/). That said, we have an amazing lunch and the quality of food here is much better. We are stuffed with a three course meal and then have some down time until we head out to visit some local attractions.  This area is a heavy tourist/resort area for both local and internationals and it is vacation time for Mongolians and the resorts are very full. 

 Once inside the park you will be able to visit the notable rock formations "Turtle rock" and “Monk reading a book." 

Around 3pm we hike up to the Aryabal meditation center. It’s a steep climb with Buddhist teachings on placards the whole way up to the base of the 108 stairs that take you to the temple at the top. 

The view is stunning down to the valley below and I must admit that the place certainly evokes in me a real sense of peace. 

We head back down and then head to the “turtle rock” formation and visit the gift shop and get an ice cream. The place is packed with tourists. 

We head back to our camp and spend some down time reading and taking in the view before another amazing meal and then off to bed. 

Day 8 - Yol Valley and Flaming Cliffs

Today was pretty low key. We had a late breakfast at 8:15am and left around 9am for the Yol Valley to the south. This is where we were supposed to go the first day after our flight in that was cancelled.

It’s not a long drive from our camp and we pass through the gates into the park and after a quick stop at the museum and gift shop, we make our way into a bit of a valley. We drive for awhile then park then start to walk the rest of the way in. 

The peaks on either side of us grow a little taller and the ground in the valley and up the hillsides is green and there are yaks and the odd horse grazing. It’s about 45mins to the end where this is a glacier that some of us walk out into. Unfortunately Fiona has a big wipeout and cuts up her arms and gets covered in mud. Glad I brought my first aid kit with me today. Robert ventures up one of the hillsides and gets caught in some sort of nettle. It’s just one of those days! 

It’s a beautiful and peaceful valley though and we enjoy the leisurely stroll. I continue to be amazed by the varying landscapes in the desert. 

We head back to our camp and have lunch and then we take a vote on when to leave for the afternoon activity. We are headed to the flaming cliffs and apparently they are best seen at sunset. The question is do we eat before or take something with us, or do we go earlier as the weather is not looking great. 

We also find out that UB is flooding quite badly. Apparently it’s been raining steadily since we left and some parts have been evacuated. Sara says her family is ok and we hope that everyone is staying safe. We won’t be in UB for quite a few days yet so hope it has stopped raining and that the city doesn’t suffer too much damage ahead of the upcoming festival. 

The majority rule to eat at 6pm at our camp and then drive to the flaming cliffs as soon as we are done. Dinner ends up being a bit delayed and this is causing some anxt for some people who really want to have enough time at the cliffs (fyi it’s Erik). 

We eat quickly and hurry to get in our cars and get going. 

For the last three days we have mostly been sticking to a consistent seating arrangement however for the last couple of rides there have been some changes. I’m the rush to get out Dave and I are in a car with none of our children and as we get going we start to question if anyone saw Fiona get into a car. Car #1 had left before the others and so we never saw who was in it and Fiona had last ridden with us. We try to message mom and Erik in the other cars but don’t get an answer. The boys have Avery and pull over awhile ahead and add to our stress by also asking about Fiona. Nobody had seen her and nobody in car #1 is picking up. We are about 70% sure she’s with the group but she may have gone to the bathroom before we left. It’s a stressful 45mins drive (service is out for most of the drive) until we finally hear that she is in fact with them.  We had resolved to turn around and go straight back if she wasn’t with them.  Phewf!

We spend an hour or so walking along the flaming cliffs. They are spectacular and the setting sun is glowing against them and lighting them up. This is the site of many dinosaur bone and fossil discoveries which we had learned about previously in the dinosaur museum in town. 

We grab lots of photos on top of the cliffs and then head back and drive around to get a full view of all the cliffs for the sunset. The clouds block the sun from being super fantastic but it’s still gorgeous and we are so glad that the weather held for us to get this experience. 

We hear back and it’s difficult navigating in the dark through the desert. Our driver takes the lead and has some sort of map to help him. There are no real landmarks so it’s a combination of experience and some help from some simple navigation to get us back to our camp. 

We have an early start tomorrow so it’s off to finish packing and to bed. We are flying back to UB and saying goodbye to Robert tomorrow.