Dave & Meredith's Travel Blog

Today, someone forgot to put forks in the bag with the lunch for the riders.  We had to get creative eating our tuna macaroni salad.  Most people used a piece of bread to scoop it up.  But not me:

– Meredith

Here is the view from our tent at Yak Milk Valley, where we stayed for two nights:

– Meredith

I’ve figured out a few things about my horse:

1. Opie loves to eat. If I don’t keep his reigns tight, his head is always in the grass. I watch him when he is resting in the afternoon, and while he clearly eats sometimes, he is capable of standing still and not eating, so I think this behavior while I am riding him is a show of dominance. Opie is learning that if he goes ahead of the group, there are frequent opportunities to eat while waiting for the others to catch up. But if he is pokey and puts us in the position of always catching up, I don’t let him eat as much.

2. Opie’s joy of eating makes him rather flatulent. Everyone knows it, so most people don’t like to ride behind me. While I don’t relish the smell either, I think he gets strength from it, because it always happens when we start to run or are going uphill. It’s like a propelling action. I call it “fart power”. Plus, I’m secretly amused if someone gets behind me and he starts letting loose. 😉

3. I think Opie is partially blind. In addition to putting his head down when he wants to eat or drink, he puts it right down to the ground if we’re walking over stones or at a river crossing. With that said, he’s very sure footed, so I’m okay with the blind thing.

4. The equivalent of “Giddyup!” in Mongolia is “Choo!” Opie has a bit of a mind of his own though, so in addition to using “choo!” and a kick to the tummy, I need to threaten the whip (but don’t really have to hit him). Horses are incredibly intuitive about their riders’ state of mind. I pretty much just need to move my right hand (which holds the whip) and off he goes.

5. Opie is really strong. He has a lot of endurance for carting me uphill. Or should I say “farting” me uphill. Hee hee.

One of the rare pictures with Opie’s head off the ground

At this point on the trip, I feel really comfortable and I have a decent amount of trust of Opie. Also, I was saddle sore for the first few days (especially day #3), but it’s not so bad anymore.

FYI, Dave’s horse UPS is not a very good horse. Dave now says UPS stands for “Uncooperative Piece of $#!%”. It seems that his horse is a follower, and so if Dave wants to go away from the group to take a picture, the horse doesn’t really abide. Also, UPS doesn’t get along with my horse, or the horse of another rider, Peter. Every time they get near each other, UPS’ ears go back and sometimes he tries to nip the other horses.

Dave and UPS

Aletta and Spot

Peter and B.O.B. (Bag of Bones)

Eddie and F.H. (H is for horse. You figure out the rest.)

– Meredith

Here is the view from our tent at our third camp at “Mosquito Hill”:

Actually, the mosquitoes weren’t too bad here.  The reason for the name is that on previous trips, the camp site used to be down the hill at the junction between two rivers, which was really mosquito infested.  That place was called “Mosquito Junction”.  So when they moved the site to the hill top, they honored the old location with the new name.

– Meredith

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

Here is the view from our tent at our second camp site at Upper Khoton Nuur:

– Meredith

Each camp site during our trek was between 15 and 20 kilometers apart.  Some of the members of the group hiked, and some of us rode horses.  All of our gear, food and camp equipment was carried from site to site on the backs of 8 camels (the road for cars petered out soon after we were dropped off).

Each day was different in terms of terrain, vegetation, and scenery, but it was all beautiful.  The horses carried us across dusty trails, rocky slopes, sludgy bogs, and many streams and rivers.  They even carried us across snow a couple times.  I got an incredible feeling of freedom and power while riding my horse on the trail through such remote wilderness.

Each trekking day, the hikers set off first because the expectation was that they would take longer to get to the next camp site than the horses and camels.  Next, we horse riders left camp, usually about an hour after the hikers.  Finally, once the camels were fully loaded, the camels, our cooks, our wranglers and extra horses would leave.  Typically, the camels would pass us all and get to the next camp first (long legs and no tourists to slow them down).  The hikers were strong and fast, many times getting to camp at the same time or just a little bit after those of us on horses.  We took breaks throughout the ride to stretch, drink water, and take pictures.  We ate lunch on the trail, and it was always tasty.

Our guides on the trip were Eddie and Amy, and a local guide named Dosjan.  Eddie accompanied the riders, Amy accompanied the hikers, and Dosjan rode on horseback to assist both groups when the trail wasn’t as easy to find.  We riders also had a wrangler with us to help us find the way, although we soon learned that our horses knew the route and usually led the way correctly (I say usually, because some of us had horses who had minds of their own sometimes, and wanted to take a circuitous route, or at least the route that would take them past the most delicious grass and wildflowers).

Most of the day, our horses walked, but when there was an open, flat space, we trotted or cantered.  Every once in a while, we galloped for a short time.

Here are some pics from the trail:

Riders riding

Hikers hiking

Camels hauling

A beautiful view from the trail

Taking a break

Crossing a river

Sweet lunch spot

Another beautiful view

Snow!

Do you get the picture yet?  This place is beautiful.

– Meredith

We met our horses today and took them for a test drive for about an hour.  My horse is the only red head in the group, and although he is one of the bigger horses, he seems a little pokey, so I decided to name him Opie.  Other than the fact that he sometimes wanders in a different direction than I’d like him to go, he seems pretty comfortable.

Dave named his horse UPS because he is brown and carries him from place to place.

After our test drive, some of the local men and boys held a race and played some games on horse back.  It turns out that my horse isn’t so pokey when the rider knows what he is doing – Opie won the race!

Here are some pics:

Meredith and Opie

Dave and UPS

The race begins…

It’s neck and neck…

Opie wins the race!

Tug of war on horse back

– Meredith

Here is the view from our window (tent) at our first camp site at Lower Khoton Nuur.  We stayed here for 2 nights:

– Meredith

Some of you know that if I try to read in a car, I get car sick.  Or if I’m on a bus, I need to sit up front, or I get car sick.

The roads in Mongolia are mostly dirt and rock/stone, and the roads in Western Mongolia are better suited to horses and camels than for vehicles.  Lots of bumps.  The kind of bumps that threw many of us into other people, or the ceiling of the van.  As an illustration of the effect of the bumps, about two days after the ride, I had a bruise on my lower back from the fine Russian seat in the van. 

It may be no surprise to you then that on the 8 hour drive from Ulgii to our first camp site, I got car sick.  🙁

Our trusty vans that hauled us into and out of the Altai Tavn Bogd National Park

– Meredith