Jalman Meadow, Khentii, Mongolia

We arrived here last Wednesday, after a 3hr drive from Ulaanbaatar. The camp is located above the Tuul river with great views up and down the main valley and up a side valley. There was a cold wind when we arrived and I soon got the thermals on but the stove was lit in our Ger, so we were soon nice and cosy. This camp is one of a few run by Nomadic Journeys, it has solar power and wind power with a generator for such things as the washing machine. The gers were very comfortable with traditional ger furniture, all beautifully painted as the next photo will show. I think there were 13 gers with double occupancy, a restaurant ger, a library ger with a very good selection of reference and reading books, two shower gers and two 'wooden toilet houses'.

There were three ladies from Scotland on a birding holiday along with their guide from the Uk, a Mongolian interpreter and a German man name of Axel who had tagged along but who happened to be the expert on birdlife in Mongolia. They were good company until they left on Friday. On Thursday they very kindly offered us a lift up the side valley where we were planning to walk. We woke to snow on the hills that morning, but clear blue skies. The lift gave us a great advantage and we followed the track up to a pass, walking through light snow in the process. We then turned left (south) and worked our way up and down a ridge to the highest point which was marked by a wooden ovoo. It was a great walking day, not to hot and not too cold and clear, so there was no danger of getting lost! We had fantastic views over mountains, hills and steppe. Eventually we made our way down to the track and walked back to the camp, 5 hrs walking in total.

The following day Michael went off riding for the day, a full 7 hours! He hadn't ridden for two years, but arrived back having had a great day and not too sore! I happily sat outside in the sunshine, with a fleece on I might add, knitting another Aran jumper, this time for one of Fiona's children in Switzerland. We were very pleased to see Amanda and Orlo arrive around 5.0pm. Amanda had driven from Ulaanbaatar which is no small undertaking on the so-called roads here! She had been on tarmac for 2/3 of the way, but the last 35 km was on tracks across the steppe. In theory she just had to follow the river, but there are tracks all over the place. She also had to cross the Tuul river. Thank goodness for GPS!

It was great to see Orlo immediately running around, he was completely safe and had as much space as he wanted! He soon got his ball out and we enjoyed a good kick-about.

I must mention the meals as I am sure everyone will be wondering what we get to eat here! Breakfast was buffet style, with bread, toast, pancakes or bortzog......which are the staple biscuits made from fried dough, urum.....which the local butter/clotted cream, local berry jam, cereal, yoghurt, fried egg, salami, cheese, juice, coffee, tea etc. Really great, especially the urum with jam on a pancake or bread! Lunch was 3 courses: a salad, possibly potato and egg, or carrot with apple or raisins, or beetroot, followed by soup, usually a clear one, then a plate of meat with rice and/or potatoes or noodles. The meat was usually beef or maybe yak, but we did have chicken for one meal. The beef would be in a casserole of some type, and we also had hawshaw, which are the traditional meat pasties which are fried in deep fat. It's no good trying to keep to a Weightwatchers diet here! ......and you need the fat to keep warm. Dinner was also 3 courses, a salad as before and a meat course as before, but with the addition of a dessert of some kind......slices of fruit, apple, orange, watermelon. However on Saturday we had some cinnamon flavoured lightly stewed apple with ice cream! In general the food was tasty and filling. Wine, beer and soft drinks were available at very reasonable prices considering the location.
To be continued.......