The horse trek continues

After our warm halfway stay in Oyunaa’s ger, the second half of our horse trek was along the Orkhon Valley, over the Khangai Mountains, and ending at some natural hot springs. We said goodbye to Ganbaa and a few of our horses, as the rest of the ride would be accessible by car, so our gear would be carried by Tugsuu in his trusty UAZ van.

The Orkhon Valley is steeped in history, producing three major Mongol empires, so we were very excited to plod through it ourselves as Genghis Khan himself once did.

The daily riding had fallen into a familiar rhythm. Leaving after breakfast around 9am, Khurlee riding ahead setting an unforgiving pace, Jack and Con lagging behind chatting away, occasionally cantering to catch up. Even the giant Tibetan mastiffs that would terrorise us every time we passed vaguely near a ger stopped worrying us eventually. Their bark was far worse than their bite, it turned out.

We had been warned that the cold was returning, and on our second day of riding the snow started falling. Tugsuu and Oyunaa, who were travelling in the car, insisted on lending us their warm deels, which are the long traditional Mongolian jackets. Not only were they toasty warm riding in a blizzard, but they also wrap around your legs to provide some much needed bum-cushioning. Who knew that thousands of years of nomadic experience produces a superior garment to Arc’teryx and Patagonia!

We rode up to the Tüvkhün Monastery which sits at the top of forested mountain, covered in snow. It was very atmospheric. The monastery is a very significant place in the history of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia, but was destroyed in the 1930s by the Stalinists, and is only now being restored to its former glory.

It was deemed too cold to camp so Byamba knocked on the door of a family’s ger and asked if we could spend the night inside. Mongolian custom is such that a group of five people, four horses and a van can turn up in a snow storm, and you promptly fire up the stove in your spare ger, no questions asked. Nomadic hospitality knows no bounds, and we all spent a happy evening playing cards by a warm stove.

The final two days were spent riding through the beautiful Khangai Mountains. Luckily the sun came back out and snow started to melt. Our bums and legs were really feeling the eight days in the saddle, and the hot springs couldn’t come soon enough!

Our last night in camp was spent in a sunny valley with snow capped peaks in the distance. A herd of yaks interrupted us several times by trying to lick the sweat off our horses’ backs, as apparently they crave salt at this time of year. It was pretty special to sit in the sun, surrounded by hundreds of yaks, the smell of mutton stew in our nostrils, Tugsuu’s Mongolian pop ballads in the background.

We arrived at the Tsenkher hot springs for a very welcome but sulphurous shower and soak. It was a fitting end to an incredible eight days of riding across the steppe. We were truly sad to say goodbye to our friends and horses.

Back to UB now, and then we’re off to China!