We drove east from Ogii Nuur on unmade road for a while then on a new highway. We passed the site of an ancient city, Khar Bukh, which has 2 or 3 storey buildings with stone walls built in the Tibetan style.
We stopped at a village which has a school, a hospital, a bank and a police station, as well as a cafe and a shop. It's where many herders live during the winter, and also where some live while their children are in school. We had lunch in the cafe - they made pancakes without meat for me, accompanied by a hard boiled egg(!) and cabbage and carrot salad.
We rejoined the main road from UB and turned off again for Khustai National Park. After arranging to stay with a nearby family, we drove to the park and collected a guide who had been a biology teacher but is now retired and helping at the park.
This is the park where the original wild horses, Przewalski's horse, known in Mongolia as takhi were reintroduced in 1992, and everyone is enormously proud of them. From about 15 original horses, there are now about 300. We were incredibly lucky to see them - two groups, 8 very close by and another 15 further away in the next valley.
We had a ger to ourselves this time, no real meeting with the family. It was very windy and dusty and Zaya and I went for a walk to the sand dunes.
No comments:
Post a Comment