Ikh Nart Day 5: Community Day

We were away at 6am to see the small mammals - it wasn't quite so cold so they were able to run faster! After breakfast I was dropped off with Odmaa to do plants. We took the metre-square grid and checked 5 or 6 sites on the way back to camp. The wind was very cold so we were wrapped up in spite of the strong sunshine. We looked at the number of species in the grid, how many of each type there were and recorded the length of the longest and shortest branches of each species. We also collected dung samples to see what was grazing at each site - lots of sheep, goat and horse, usually...

As we got to the next valley to camp, we saw several argali females and lambs. More came into view and eventually there waas a herd of about 30 of them which crossed the valley and eventually went over the ridge the way we had come. We went back to camp up that valley and over the ridge near the bat netting water hole.

When we got back to camp, we found a fire going and two milk churns bubbling on it, sealed with inner tubes. They contained goat meat and vegetables, and the local people were already arriving for Community Day. Cars, trucks and motor bikes arrived and the shelter was filled with tables and seats. When the goat was ready, everyone sat down for lunch; there were salads, juice and Mongolian tea too, which all went down very well.

After the meal, some Finnish tourists arrived and  the Ladies Co-operative brought out the handicrafts they had made. I bought some felt slippers and a seat cover made by Lhagva - that's her holding them below. A guitar appeared and some of the people sang, then we all piled into the jeeps and drove to the disco at the camp near the spring.

A young man and woman in traditional dress sang and he played the horse-head fiddle, which has a really distinctive sound. Another girl played a stringed instrument called a yoochin which is played with sticks a bit like a xylophone. The dancing was a bit like ceilidh dancing and a bit like ballroom, and evryone seemed very well practised at it. Susan showed us how it should be done, joining in with apparent ease, but my feet were not fast enough! The wild herder seemed keen to educate us, but was diverted by his friends, and we did a bit better at disco dancing where we could make up our own steps!

We bumped off home in the Toyota, avoiding jerboas which bounced across the road in front of us; some of the others stayed later and came home packed into the Russian jeep.