Today we woke to the sight of hundreds of sheep and goat metres from our Ger, which the farmer had brought back in from grazing during the night. We had breakfast and the gave the husband and wife presents of a snood for him (which he loved) and a Team GB scarf for her, and some haribo! We left the nomadic family and spent time traveling across the plains to the ancient capital of Mongolia Kharakhoum which has been destroyed centuries ago, and all that is left is the monastery that was built on top. Their is a shanty town style town close by and we are staying in a Ger close by in a nice tourist camp. We saw more eagles today and some cranes, which was very cool, and then visited the monastery. It is another example of awesome architecture and scary paintings!

Afterwards we visited the smallest and most amazing museum about the town, learning about the original town and the recent excavations, seeing a 1000 year old tomb of an important person. We were fascinated and the guide was really funny. Exciting moment was the first opportunity to buy postcards in Mongolia!

We went to see kings mountain which has a large statue showing the empires they once conquered. Not sure it would go down well if other countries celebrated past empires but it was so long ago here I don't think anyone could ever get offended!

HOT SHOWER!! The camp has a normal toilet and a hot shower and we both felt like new people after both! It really makes you appreciate home comforts I can tell you!

After dinner of dumpling soup we were treated to a traditional mongolian musician who played three different instruments, one of which had horse stomach strings! He was showing us how to the throat sing which is a real skill and we bought his cd!

So off to bed in our Ger again, with the wood burner crackling away keeping ua warm. Tomorrow is the Orkan waterfall which should awesome!

Night all

Dan and Sally xxx