Dave & Meredith's Travel Blog

Back in UB at the Bayangol Hotel. Here’s another picture from the window. Different room. – Meredith

Now that our trek is over and I’ve hugged Opie goodbye, I’ll share with you some of the nicknames I gave him at various points on the trip: You Stupid Horse Farty McSmellerton Poopy McFartington Valiant Steed Good Boy Bad Boy Eating Machine Best. Horse. Ever. BTW, Dave changed horses for the last three days […]

Today is the last day of the trek and tonight we’re back in the ger camp in Ulgii. I brought a GPS data logger with me on this trip. It’s not a full GPS device with screen, etc. The idea is that by minimizing all the extras (it’s just a GPS chip and some memory), […]

Here is the view from our last camp, near the Base Camp for Tavan Bogd Peaks (about 10,000 feet): Tavan = 5; Bogd = spiritual leader/saint.  There are 5 peaks surrounded by glaciers.  The back side of the mountains are on the Chinese and Russian borders. – Meredith

That’s it. – Meredith

You’ve probably gathered from a few of our posts that there’s some hard work going on “behind the scenes” to make our trek run smoothly. A big part of that is 5 Kazakh guys hired to take care of all things horse or camel. They are always there when you need some help with your […]

Most of the people we have met in Western Mongolia are Kazakhs who have lived in Mongolia for generations (Kazakhstan is only 40 miles away). We also met some Tuvan families who are of Russian descent. If you haven’t guessed from our other posts, horses are a huge part of the culture, not only in […]

Running an expedition in western Mongolia requires hauling around a lot of gear. Not just everyone’s personal gear but all the stuff that keeps the show going like food, cooking gear, tents, tables, chairs, etc. Since the culture there is so focused on horses, you might think that they do all the hauling. But – […]

Here is the view from our tent at the Tavan Bogd camp, where we stayed two nights: – Meredith

The moment I realized I loved my horse was when Opie valiantly and sure-footedly took me from our Yak Milk Valley camp, which was at about 7500 feet, up over a pass at 9400 feet.  No complaints, no wheezing, just pure strength. That’s more than I can say for some of the other horses.  UPS […]