Nomadic home stay

Today we headed to stay with the nomadic family for two nights. According to our guide, there will be 3 different gers with a different family in each one. We will be camping outside the gers and partaking in some of the traditional Mongolian daily routines such as herding cattle or milking the goats.

We woke up and packed all our gear onto the fourgons and then took off on roughly an hour drive. We arrived at the nomadic families ger. It was pouring down with rain so we quickly went into the ger to sit down next to the fire.

The wife came around with short sticks of dried up milk curdle which actually tasted very sweet with a slight bitterness. It is definitely an acquired taste but I really liked it. She then came around with home made bread (Tasted similar to sourdough), some of the thickened cream left over after boiling milk and some sugar. We all spread the cream over the bread and sprinkled sugar over the top. It was really good and tasted very fresh as well.

As it stopped raining we all ran outside to setup our tents and then rested in them for a bit until the rain stopped.

We had lunch and then went for a walk to lake Kohvsgol which is around 1km from the nomadic family’s ger. There is an amazing view over the lake and just by standing next to the lake I could hear and see the diverse wildlife. I saw a family of ducklings with their mum, heaps of birds and of course many different types of insects (Which my mum wouldn’t have liked).

We headed back for lunch and enjoyed noodles next to the fire inside the ger. Once we finished lunch the family started milking the cows, goats and yak. We all watched and it was amazing how much milk they were able to get from just one cow. I really wanted to join in but we couldn’t today. Milking the animals is quite a special tradition in Mongolia and many nomadic families are not comfortable with foreigners handling their cattle. We were told by the family that we could get up at 5 in the morning to help herd the animals.

For the rest of the day we relaxed, taking walks and napping in our tents.

In the evening we had soup for dinner and the family served us homemade yoghurt for desert which was extremely fresh and tasty with jam.

We all woke up at 4:30 in the morning to be out at 5 so we could assist the local family with herding the goats in the distance. All of us were very tired but we pushed ourselves to go and be a part of the nomadic life. It was quite hard controlling the goats while being very tired. According to our guide, the local nomadic people have to get up at this time every day to herd the cattle in for milking. They also have to bring them in the afternoon for a second milking. I can’t imagine waking up to herd so early every morning.

Afterwards a group of us walked down to lake Kovsgol to see it in the morning. It was very surreal on the beach, the fog covered the lake and made it seem very mysterious. We walked along the shore for a bit and took in the view.

We returned to the campsite and fell asleep until breakfast time. We ate and then returned back to our tents waiting for the wranglers to tell us what we can do to help out.

Throughout the day we had to round up different animals including baby cows which were very cute when they were playing, collect firewood and stones for the preparation of lunch.

The wranglers took in one of the local sheep and prepared it for lunch. It was very interesting and slightly disturbing to see the sheep gutted. For lunch they pressure cooked the mutton with whole potatoes and cabbage leaves. It is a long process and takes a while until the meat is fully cooked. They don’t actually have a set amount of time cooking the mutton, they cook it until it starts to smoke. It tasted really nice.

This week is Naadam Festival, it is an annual Mongolian festival celebrated through out Mongolia. The horse wranglers kept wrestling amongst themselves (because it is Naadam) and kept trying to challenge us to join. We weren’t allowed. Not that I would have liked to… but it was fun to watch!

After lunch we went on a small trek to a cliff that over looks the Kohvsgol lake. It took a while to get to the cliff but when we arrived it looked awesome. The water in the lake has a strong aqua colour and is surrounded by rolling hills. We sat on the side of the cliff for quite some time taking in the serenity and the view. We then headed back to the camp to have dinner and back to sleep.

We woke up slightly earlier today. One of our drivers daughter was getting married in the morning so we had to pack up all our gear and leave before the wedding started. We quickly said goodbye to the nomadic family and headed off on about a 3 hour trip from the Khovsgol region back to Murun. The trip was extremely bumpy because we were traveling through the plains and over rocks. At one point the driver of the Fourgon had to replace one of the tires so we were behind schedule by about half an hour. Once we arrived in Murun, we went back to our original camping grounds and dropped off all our bags and then went straight to lunch.
After lunch we walked to the shopping mall and bought all our food for the train ride the next day. Finn and I were both on transport duty so we had to run around like crazy and organise all the meals, plus snacks, for the whole day. We managed to fully plan everything and what we bought was way within our budget which means we have more money to spend in Ulaanbaatar.

We then went to a place that allows people to hire out showers so each of us could have one and clean ourselves after the trek. It felt so good to have a shower and to feel nice and clean. Once everyone had a shower we walked to a local restaurant for dinner and then back to our campsite.

At our campsite Finn and I had to prepare all of the sandwiches and snacks with the help of a few other people as well.

It was quite late when we finished so we went straight to bed.