Jalman Meadows to Ulaanbaatar

We woke to a beautiful sunny warm day on Sunday, the hottest day for us so far here in Mongolia. After another great breakfast and packing we set off about 11.30am. As you can see from the photo, there are no proper roads and absolutely no sign posting! We drove to the confluence of the Tuul and Terelj rivers, this was marked by a stupa and an ovoo. An ovoo is a kind of shamanist cairn built of rocks or wood and usually found at important locations such as passes and mountain tops. Offerings are left in the form of food, drink, skulls of dead horses, money, and blue or yellow silk scarves etc.

We drove on along the Terelj river through woodland and over bumpy ground. After about 15 minutes we arrived at the place to cross the river, having already crossed a couple of side channels. This river has a stony bottom and the flow was fairly low however the wheels on the Land Cruiser has slipped a bit on the way out, so Amanda put the diff locks on. We crossed without any problems causing a bit of a wave which disturbed some children who were playing at the waters edge. The new 5 star Terelj hotel is located very close to the crossing, it looked fantastic; it was created from an old sanatorium building a couple of years ago. We drove to the Ulaanbaatar 2 hotel which was next door, for lunch. Goulash with rice and French fries for Amanda and Orlo, pork schnitzel for me and 'roast pork' for Michael.

So now the tricky part of the drive was over and we were on tarmac......but not of quite the standard we are used to in the UK! It was still a very bumpy and dusty drive ! We drove through the Terelj valley which is a national park, however the valley bottom is mainly given over to tourism with many Ger camps along the way. I saw a huge change from my last visit 10 years ago.....and not for the better!

When we arrived at the famous Turtle Rock we turned off the road to park up and walk to a small monastery situated high up on the hillside. It was built a few years ago as a retreat but has become quite a tourist attraction as well as a special place for Buddhists to visit. It was a hot walk but we made it and were rewarded with great views of the valley below.

The rest of the drive back to Ulaanbaatar was uneventful, rocking and rolling along until we met up with the main road and Sunday afternoon traffic returning to the city. The traffic built up and was quite heavy once we approached the centre and we arrived back to be met by Andrew, at about 6.30pm. Showers, unpacking, pizzas and bed completed the day!