Jun 22 2008
Life in Camp
We stayed at seven different camp sites during the trek, three of which were 2-night stays, and four of which were 1-night stays.
At 1-night camps, our time was mainly focused on being efficient. We got into camp, set up our tents and the dining tent (for cold or inclement weather; otherwise, we ate outside), dug the latrine, and generally tried to help our guides and cooks (often, “helping” meant “getting out of the way” 🙂 ). Dinners were excellent at camp. Usually a soup, an entree with meat and or veggies with a starch like rice or potatoes, and lots of fruit juice. Dessert was either a bowl of fruit salad or cookies. People didn’t usually stay up too late after dinner, but some nights we played Hearts while others caught up on their journals. The morning after a 1-night stay was busy breaking down the camp and getting on the trail by 9:00 am.
At 2-night camps, we had more time to play. All of these camps were in spectacular locations, so a lot of our time off was spent just enjoying nature. The extra day gave us time to take our horses out for fun, go for a hike, take a bracing bath in the glacial rivers or streams, or do laundry (while you may not think this sounds fun, it was absolute heaven to have clean clothes, trust me). We also had some 2.5 gallon solar showers with us, which heated that glacial river water up to a more palatable temperature (this involved some logistics, however, because we were above the tree line by the time we took them out on the trek, so we needed two people to run them, and there wasn’t always a place to use them out of sight of the rest of camp, and even though the water was somewhat warm, the wind didn’t always cooperate; we used the solar shower twice, basically to wash our hair that hadn’t been washed in several days). The other difference between 1-night and 2-night camps was that we had to dig the latrine bigger at 2-night camps. 🙂
A view of our first campsite
Playing Hearts at night
Laundry Day!
When it started raining, we moved the laundry inside the tent to dry
I was amazed at the level of comfort at the camps, and I was completely awed by the logistics that went into planning an 11-day trip in the remote wilderness without vehicle support. Our tour company is a top-notch operation. Eddie started the company (Tusker Trail) in Africa, doing overland safaris and climbs up Mt. Kilimanjaro (this is the same company Dave went to Africa with on his first trip there in 1997). Since then, he has focused on the trekking aspects of trips. Today, Tusker runs Kilimanjaro climbs, Aconcagua climbs (Argentina), as well as treks in Western Mongolia. Eddie isn’t on every trip Tusker runs, so we were really lucky to have him and his wife Amy on the trek with us as our guides.
Look at all this gear!
Our guides, Amy and Eddie
Since Mongolia is a newer location for Tusker (they’ve been running trips here for a few years), Eddie and Amy brought their top chef Alex from Tanzania on our trek to help train cooks here (not only in the type of food prepared, but in food safety and nutrition for on the trail). I was amazed at what Alex and his 2 cooks could accomplish out here. Some of my favorite meals were spaghetti, grilled cheese and onion sandwiches, lentil curry, and tuna macaroni salad.
Top chef Alex
Dining al fresco
Rain can’t ruin this yummy meal
– Meredith
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