On the 5th July we headed about 270km south to a
town called Manadalgobi in the north of the Gobi desert. We wanted to visit the
Gobi Oasis project, one of the charities we are supporting through our trip, to
see it for ourselves. It also gave us the opportunity of spending time with a
Mongolian family and staying in a ger for
a night or so. It is an experience we would recommend it to anyone. All our
meals were cooked for us in a special dining building and Carol was well
catered for, although this did mean she didn’t always get typical Mongolian
food (see food page). We had a full day with Byamba and Radna and their family.
In the morning we went to visit one of the tree planting areas which is on the
edge of the town and is in the process of being transformed from a sandy
wasteland to a green belt which will help stabilise the desert and stop it
encroaching on the town. Byamba mainly uses elm and saxaul trees which don’t
grow very big but have an extensive root
network which binds the soil/sand, although she mixes these with other
species such as cherry. The potatoes,
carrots and onions growing as part of the vegetable project looked very healthy
and it was good to meet some of the local people who are tending the plots.
Byamba explained to us that as vegetable growing is not really part of
Mongolian culture it has been difficult to stimulate people’s interest. You can
read more about the project on their website www.gobioasis.com. We were really impressed by Byamba’s
commitment and enthusiasm to her work - over 10,000 trees planted so far. Our
thanks to the whole family especially Goyo for arranging it, Uranaa for all her delicious food and Uuganaa
for taking time out from her family to come and translate for us.
If anyone is interested in an experience such as this or in visiting Mongolia (we recommend it) you can contact Goyo on goyo@goyotravel.com. Goyo splits her time between Mongolia and Oxforshire in the UK and has been working in the travel business for many years arranging all types of trips to her home country. She has provided us with invaluable information and support throughout and can help with any aspect of a visit to this lovely country.
Weather
Has been interesting. Since arriving in Mongolia it has been
generally unsettled with quite a lot of cloud and at times heavy rain. We are
quite relieved as we had been expecting temperatures in the 40's and had
struggled a bit with the high 30's in Kazakhstan. Amazingly in the Gobi, the
place we expected to be the hottest, we had rain and cold winds the day we
planted our trees and we actually felt really chilly - typically we had left
all our cold weather stuff in UB!
Hair!
Carol had to have her hair cut and was very impressed with
Uuganbayar.b at the Hair Beauty Salon just down the street to the left of the
state department store (as you look at it). Excellent experience and value.
Tel: 976-88050850. Good English spoken.
Thought this hairdressing salon was best avoided!
Naadam
We may be missing the Olympics but we did attend the
Mongolian annual national sporting festival which lasts three days, 11-13 July
and dates back to before the time of Gengis Khan. It is held in two venues - a
stadium in UB and in the hills to the west of the city. The three main sports
are wrestling, archery and horse riding. There was also something translated as
“ankle bone shooting”! Not quite as painful as it sounds - a knuckle bone is
flicked from some distance at another one which sits on a board as a target. We
didn’t quite work out the details and unfortunately the camera battery decided
to die just as we arrived at that event. We spent the first day at the stadium
watching the spectacular opening ceremony and then some of the wrestling,
archery and ankle bone shooting then the second and third out in the
countryside at the races. The event is spread over a massive area and huge
numbers of people from all over the country attend (as well as all the
tourists). There are not actually many races in one day but there are stalls,
amusements, kite flying and lots of food stalls and everyone hangs out and just
has a good time. Many camp over (as we did) either in gers or canvas tents.
We were amazed when we saw the horses getting ready to go to
the start post that the riders were young children between the ages of six and
twelve, and most rode bare backed and even bare footed. Races are 15-25km in a
straight line so the children and horses have to ride this distance to the
start post before even starting. The races lasted 25-30 minutes, we could see a
cloud of dust as the riders approached and the last few minutes were especially
exciting.
Upland Buzzard
Thee are 3000 or so raptor nestboxes spread over the eastern Mongolian Steppe, this one held Kestrel chicks and eggs - see below
Many of the gers seen in he country had several 21st century improvements, such s solar panels and satellite dishes
Demoiselle Crane
One of many roadside shrines on the way to Mandalgobi
It is a long very bumpy bus ride to Mandalgobi, some passengers do not make it with their dignity intact
Radna, Uranaa (great cook), Carol and Byamba
Land Rovers of the world
unite. When the vehicle broke down we were amazed that two other Land
Rover Defenders stopped to help, we had only seen half a dozen in
Mongolia altogether. The middle one was a local vehicle and the one on
the right was from France and towed us back to the garage - thanks
Jean
Mechanics get to work on the burnt out Land Rover electrics. They pulled out 2 m of burnt out main loom and set about replacing every broken piece with bits of old wire they had laying about . We were amazed but it all worked
We plant Elm trees at the Gobi Oasis project
Carol with our translator Uuganaa
Trainspotter's mecca - the railway museum in UB
Eastern Black Kite
Campsite in the Hostai (Khustain) dunes
Turkic (Ungut) graves Hostai
Ger camp Hostai - we had assumed that these camps were established for western tourists but in fact many Mongolians use them quite regularly
More Turkic graves
Hostai\Khostain Nuruu National Park - a success story in the reintroduction of Prszwalkski's horses which now roam wild and are increasing their numbers significantly
Prszwalski's Horses Hostai
Black Vulture Hostai
Mike gets brave with a cricket
Yaks, yaks and more Yaks
The second rider past the winning post - about 8 years old? Carol's favourite!
Faces in the crowd
Camp visitor
Yet another camp site this time with tent (The Tab has been in storage since we arrived in UB)
Part of the huge field of about 150 riders, more pix from the races below
Horses, horses and more horses
Ladies archery competition
Archery target - the idea is to knock down the things that look like cans - red ones are bull's eye. Note they do not use pointed arrowheads but blunt ball like heads. The judges down the far end sang and made dance like movements to indicate to the archers how they had done
UB Nadaam opening ceremony
A curious thing about the wrestling matches is that anyone can enter and the champions from last year can choose their opponents in the early rounds. They all choose puny opponents, see below, ad the little guys always lose. Only in the later rounds do the big guys come up against each other.
It rains here in Mongolia too!
We were quite shocked to see these guys in Gestapo uniforms at the opening ceremony. At first we thought that they were some local militia but then realised they were just yobs. Some confused German tourists were taking pictures and shaking their heads
Gandan Monastery, UB and prayer wheels
Scary monastery statue
Washing Pyj in the River Tuul (UB)
The ger we stayed in at the Gobi Oasis Project
Gorgeous Anujin, one of Byamba's grandchildren, outside our ger
Street in Mandalgobi - sometimes feels a bit like the wild west!
Policemen in the central Sukhbaatar Square in UB, Gengis in the background
Our first meal with Byamba and family
Statues at the Bogd Khan's Winter Palace, built in 1905, now a museum - see next picture
We were lucky enough to meet up with a Mongolian friend of Carol's niece Alice - her name is Unur but is also sometimes called Flo from the translation of her name which in part means "Flower"
The following video clips were taken at the Nadaam opening ceremony and at the races.
We have also added a few more butterfly pics and a note on the Food page.
