Orkhon Valley, Mongolia

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After leaving the sand dunes we spent a two days travelling north in the van to get to the Orkhon Valley. The valley was really picturesque and we camped there for one night. A river ran through the valley at the bottom of a gorge which we climbed into. The water was really cold so we couldn't go in it but we walked along the river and through a woodland area to a waterfall.

In the evening we lit a camp fire and a local musician came and played music for us on some of the traditional mongolian instruments. He even did the throatsinging which I got a recording of.

After one night we packed up some of our things and went by horseback for 3 days. We were given traditional ropes to wear called 'Deels' which kept us warm. The mongolian horses were quite short and stocky and had quite individual characters. We were led by two local mongolians who took us along the valley and up into the mountains. It was really hard going as the mongolians typically trot on the horses instead of cantering or galloping so there was a lot of bumping around and we had really sore asses after 6 hours of it. We were really glad to finally get to our destination which was a local family who had two gers on the top of a mountain. Although their ger tent was in the middle of nowhere it was actually quite hi-tec. They had a satelite and solar panels for power and had a tv and dvd player so we watched japanese sumo wrestling which is very popular in Mongolia. The mother spent all day cooking and cleaning and milking the animals. She showed how to collect dry dung to use as fire wood and how to light the wood burner. In the mornings she brought in water she had collected from the nearby lake and fresh yoghurt.

The next two days were similar. We rode the horses around the mountains and saw some of the lakes and then we headed back down to the camp in the valley where our driver and son had been staying. We arrived back to the valley to find that the village were holding a one day mini Naadam festival which was a smaller version of the traditional festival they hold in the capital once a year. Unfortunately we had missed the archery and wrestling and only got to see some very bad singers and the local drunks getting into a big fight on their horses. I think the locals were just as fascinated by us and we were by them as we arrived straight from the horses in our traditional ropes and most of the audience turned to stare at us instead of the stage. It was all good fun though!

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