1-15 July: Mongolia - Ulan Bataar, Nadaam festivities, Mandalgobi and Hustai National Park

On the 5^th 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.