27.05.2011 – 27.05.2011  27 °C

Early start today as we were off to the Ger camp. Ger is a Mongolian word for tent and is used both in the singular and the plural. The Ger camp is in the Terlj National Park.

The journey out to the national park was interesting as the roads are really poor here in Mongolia (think of the worst ungraded road in Aus and you are looking at a pretty good road here in Mongolia!– it seems that since the Soviets have left Mongolia most of the infrastructure has been left to go to ruin!). The Nat Park is probably less than 60kms from Ulan Bataar but it took us a couple of hours to get there (due to the poor condition of the roads and heavy traffic). On the way to the park we stopped on the side of the road to see an eagle handler and his eagles. The birds were enormous and actually were a little scary.. those birds up close are a site to see!

As i said yesterday the landscape in Mongolia is just incredible and the road out to the National Park was no exception. Rolling greeny/ browny hills dotted with the occasional sheep/ cow/ goat and the usual power lines! We also stopped off at the entrance to the Nat Park where there is a prayer mound (complete with buddist flags) were we needed to pray to the spirits for a good time in the National Park. At the prayer mound we also saw our first yaks! Yaks are incredibly large, hairy cows/ bison. They are beautiful creatures up close but do seem quite a bit grumpier than your average run of the mill cow.

Finally made it into the Nat Park and wow the landscape is just amazing. Leading down into the valley we passed a small tourist type community set on the banks of a river (reminds me of the rivers in the South Island of NZ in Otago.. you know the gold field rivers).. The communities in Mongolia all have different coloured roofs so the communities are really colourful and quite pretty to look at! We wound our way through the valley which is dotted with Ger camps (all for tourists.. no actual nomads live here) and finally arrived at our camp. The vista in the Nat Park is made up of the following- rolling grassy hills (greeny/ browny) strewn with granite boulders and cliffs and occassionally dotted with pine type trees. Just incredible to see… The landscape reminded slightly of what I remember Yosemite National Park to be but without the hoards of tourists.. In fact where our Ger camp was you couldn’t see any other people.. “Ahh the serenity!”

Lunch was served at the Ger camp and it would be by far the best food I’ve had so far on the trip.. Lunch consisted off a beef soup, complete with chunky veges for our first course… Sorry bookie but better than the soup you make! And second course was these meat filled pasties.. absolutely delicious!

After lunch most of the group elected to go for a hike in the surrounding hills.. I had a headache so I decided to have a rest in the sun and send some postcards.

Once the others came back we went for a horse back ride for an hour down the road.. My horse was fairly well behaved and didn’t get any faster than a trot so I was feeling fairly secure for my first real ride on a horse! We road traditional Mongolian ponies so some of the boys looked ridiculous just because the pony was so small and they so large!

After returning we did a “Master Dumpling Class” and learned how to make traditional meat filled dumplings (which we subsequently ate).. Wonton wrapper is just plain flour and a little water.. Kneed well, roll into cylinders and then cut cylinders to about 1 inch thick. Squash the little squares into circles and then roll the circles out into thin wanton wrappers (using a circular motion with a rolling pin).. Meat filling was mutton, beef, onion, cubed carrot and potato, garlic, oil and a little soy. Add the filling then pinch the wrapper into either a flower shape or a dinosaur shape. Steam and then serve!

Yum, yum!

Then off to the Ger for a sleep. The Ger is made of wood poles, lattice worked together to form a frame. The frame is covered in felt (for insulation) and finished with water proof canvas to keep out the weather. Inside the Ger there was a fuel stove (for warmth and cooking) and comfortable room for 3 beds with a table and chairs (so quite large). V comfortable and v warm during the night (the night probably got down to about 6 and I wasn’t cold at all)

Tomorrow back to Ulan Bataar to see where the ordinary people live.