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Published: December 14th 2010
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11 and 12 December 2010 represent 28 hours worthy of their own entry!
Whilst I will give a comprehensive run down of the weekend, the photographs tell the story much better than my words.
Warren, the only Australian I know living in Darkhan, chose to spend his final weekend in Mongolia with me, 2 Swiss girls, Brigitte and Rita, and a German, Ramona, at a little ranch in the Darkhan soum (district) of Orkhon, about an hour's drive from home.
As we met at the Darkhan post office at midday on Saturday, they was a low muttering of "why are we doing this?" on this very wintry weekend but we had made a commitment so off we went. The drive was fantastic as I got to see my first bactrian (2 humped) camels in Mongolia. There were about 50 of them wandering along near the highway as we approached the local salt lake. Unfortunately, my camera was in the boot and so I just have great memories of seeing them in the snow!
Once at the ranch, we took up residence in a ger which was already warm in preparation for our arrival. I love Mongolian hospitality.
After settling in, we cracked our first bottle of red wine, ate a few snacks and then feasted on vegetarian pasta prepared by Minjee, our hostess. Martin, our host, joined us and chatted for some time.
Martin is a very interesting character. Son of a Russian Cossack and a Czech aristocrat, he grew up in Germany, moved to Melbourne, Australia for 22 years (sadly a Footscay supporter), the Philippines for over 3 years, and has now been in Mongolia for 10 years. I think it is fair to say, he is a true world traveller!
The horses were brought in from the hills for us to ride. It was late in the day before we headed out, around 4 pm, so the ride was only for an hour. We were all very cold when we got back from circling around the town. It was not surprisingly as Martin declared it was -35C!
However, the troupers that we are, we declared we would go out for a longer ride the next morning!
Before that, we polished off plenty of wine, Korean beef ribs (yum) and snacks in between learning two Mongolian card games and re-visiting (for me)
The road(?) to Orkhon
Not all that well defined. This was a good bit. No pics possible for the not so good bits! the card game of 'Shithead' for the first time in at least 5 years.
Our ger stayed warm overnight thanks to Waz setting alarms to re-stoke the fire. This was just as well because Martin let us know in the morning that the overnight temperature dipped to a very cool -48C!
Again, I ask, what were we thinking going horse riding under these conditions? It was -37C when we set off in the morning for a 2 hour ride. We headed to a small rise just out of town which gave us a great view of the town of Orkhon and the beautiful mountains surrounding it.
Apart from numb feet and a right knee which repeatedly locked on me throughout the ride, I was ok. My little pony was a goer. He wanted to walk fast, trot fast and canter fast but, with the cold, I felt so little control, I kept having to pull him up. Waz and Ramona, however, who have been riding heaps in Mong, took the opportunity to let their horses go and managed to get about a kilometre ahead of us.
When we arrived back at the ranch, I got off
my horse and immediately hobbled back to the ger in my own world of hurt. I have never been in such pain from the cold. It was so intense, I was nauseous! However, after 15 minutes of lying on my bed in the warm ger, I felt fine and loved the fact that I had been riding in the snow on a beautiful fat mountain pony.
Apart from horses, the ranch runs cows (so I was happy) and has the usual farm yard menagerie. See the pics, they are all gorgeous.
After pizza for lunch, we headed home and had one stop en-route at the Darkhan sign.
It was a truly magical weekend.
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Julian
non-member comment
You mad thing!
Merryn, I get the shivers just looking at the cold so can't truly imagine what -35C is like let alone going riding in it!! While you have snow we at home have been in a constant state of rain and flood to replace last years drought and fire....go figure. Stay safe and have a great (or is that gerrrate) Christmas and new year. I will occasionally think of you while enjoying the sun at the beach in South Gippsland.