Elstei Ger Camp

We had an early start as our Mongolian friend on the train was up at 4:30am sorting out his things to get off the train at 6:10am! We met our guide Naki at the station to start our city tour of Ulaanbaatar.

Ulaanbaatar is the capital of Mongolia and where 40% of Mongolia's population live. There is a big soviet influence in the city with very plain flat blocks and impressive government buildings. The city is zoned with flat and house areas and ger tent areas. Only in the last few years have people been able to own land so there is lots of constructions as people have started to build their own houses.

The first stop on the city tour was a walk up Zaisan hill memorial which had stunning view across the city but a few too many steps for 6:30 in the morning. The memorial was built to symbolise the Russia Mongolia relationship through out history. We then moved on to Damidan Sukte square to view the new government buildings and the old soviet era party buildings.

After a English breakfast in the city we set off to the ger camp with our guide and driver. After a quick nap we were treated to our first taste of Mongolian food which was even better and bigger portions then at the lake! This was a 4 course lunch of salad, soup, mutton with noodles and then Mango Sorbet to finish.

In the afternoon our guide showed us how to play traditional games. We played with the ankle bones of sheep and goats. I then had to go and chop the wood for our fire for the night while Jen had a rest in our ger. In the evening we where well fed again with more mutton and chocolate mouse. After dinner we played cards and guess who with Matt and Jen from the lake. We taught our guide how to play guess who which became his favourite game and an after dinner ritual for our Mongolia trip.

The next morning after breakfast we set out on our walk to the giant Chengis Khan statue. The statue was built 3 years ago on the site where Chengis Khan found the golden whip. The walk there took us around 1h 30m over hills, sand and dirt tracks. The statue although impressive did have the feel of a giant monopoly piece in the middle of nowhere. The electric was out when we went inside which meant we had to walk up the stairs using a torch to the head of the horse to take photos of the land around. The site is not yet finished so the area around the base of the statue is like a building site.

We walked back to the camp for lunch before we played archery in the afternoon. We then both chopped the wood for the fires in the evening using a blade saw and axe. For dinner there was even more mutton and the now customary games of guess who with Naki and the kitchen staff. Jen put too much wood on the fire and managed to make our Ger as hot as the banya at the lake!!

We had an early start in the morning as off to meet our nomad family. After breakfast we got ready for the horse ride to the families ger which was about 1 hour ride away. I enjoyed my first ever ride on a horse! When we arrived at the camp we were offered some very milky tea and different dried milk curds which where a very acquired taste. We then started with our traditional nomad tasks.

The first was to collect water from the stream; it is the dry season so the 'stream' was really just a collection of shallow pools. We then had to carry the two 20 litre containers back to the gers which reminder us of getting water for the fish! The next fun task was to collect dry cow pats to use as fuel on the fire. We had to do this using our hands and 2 very smelly bags! After a while you learnt how to tell which were not wet and which were wet!

We then had lunch which for a change was mutton with noodle pasta. In the afternoon we helped muck out the small sheep and goat pen with our guide. The dung was pilled up and left to dry to line the pens in winter. We then had to round up the calves and lock them away in a pen so when we brought their mothers home they would not drink all the milk. This was a very fun task but they knew as soon as we arrived which way to go walking back and straight into the pen without much encouragement. Once they where in the pen we rounded up their mothers, I had to chasse the furthest one away that decided it wanted to run so I had to follow.

For dinner we helped make some mutton dumplings that were steamed for 30 minutes. Our guide made us a fire and we went to bed as the sun set with only candle light in the ger. In the morning our guide had to make another fire as the ger was a lot colder than our ger at the camp. We said goodbye to the family and our horse guide arrived to take us back to the main camp for lunch.

We did some washing in the sinks at the camp because our clothes smelt of poo and fermented cheese and then went for lunch. It was a nice surprise as we had chicken curry and chocolate ice cream so Jen was very happy. In the afternoon Guy arrived as he had been with a nomad family since we left him at the lake. Our 2 guides then took us on a walk to see the 100 tree forest which was about 1hr from our camp. He told us some traditional Mongolian tales about why flies buzz (they had their tongues cut out) before we returned to the camp for dinner. After dinner Guy and Emi joined us and we played guess who, rummy and poo head until sleepy time.

On our last day at Elstei we were up early for breakfast and then watch the world go by from outside our ger tent until it was time to strap on our chaps, put on our horse hats and carry our saddles over to the horses for our 2 hour horse ride around the steep. The horse riding was great, the most fun so far. Gareth's horse had a mind of its own and kept walking with its head right up close to the other horses bottoms but if horse went near his bottom he kicked out. The ride back to camp was great because we got to canter!! After the ride we had a lovely lunch of beef salad, cucumber soup, vegetable curry and finally mango sorbet. In the afternoon we watched a video about Mongolia and then packed our rucksacks before dinner and we were up early the next day to go to the Gobi Desert.