Mongolia Countryside Day 3: Kul-Tegin Museum and Ogii Nuur Nature Reserve

Driving northwards from Kharkhorin on a new built road, we came to the Kul-Tegin Museum. This commemorates two brothers of the Turkic empire who left large inscribed stones which have enabled scholars to translate the Turkic language.The last bit of the road was unmade and very steep and rocky in places.

At Ogii Nuur (nuur = lake) we found another family who were happy to have us as guests. News and chat from outside always seems welcome...
As soon as we had had our first cup of tea, they announced that their son had arrived and we would see how a ger is put up. In fact, we had passed their truck on the road, with the ger and all its contents on board.

Once the ger was up and most of the furniture inside, Zaya, Shiri and I had a picnic overlooking the lake, watching herons and demoiselle cranes and being watched by several steppe eagles. I left the others to rest while I went for a long walk by the lake. There were lots of birds -  some still to be identified from the photos - including Ruddy Shelduck (again),Bar-headed Geese, Egrets, Cormorants, several varieties of Tern, Pochards, Mergansers, Larks, Wheatears, Swallows all red underneath and a Chough nesting in the woodpile.

Inside the ger, they had a 4-day-old lamb which follows the mother of the family around and stands or lies between her feet when she gets to sit down. The father looks after the visitor centre for the Ogii Nuur Reserve; it's a great centre with good displays and facilities for seminars, etc. Apparently they get quite a few visitors in June, July and August, but we were a bit early in the season.