Riding the Steppe #4/9

3 August 2015
I spent the last eight days in another world. The Mongolian Steppe is a glimpse into a different time and a simpler place.

I decided to join a tour and head out on horseback to explore central Mongolia. Rather than a set schedule we would wake up in the morning, make sure our hobbled horses were somewhere close by and take a leisurely breakfast. Then out we would ride, sometimes walking and sometimes a full gallop off in any direction we felt like going.

if it started to rain we would duck into a ger and drink milk tea. If we were lucky, or maybe unlucky we would be offered fermented mares milk whick tasted like vomit's tangy after taste. The mongolians love it and drink it with great gusto. 

The best times would bring dumplings, the not so best times meant hard squares of cheese curds that made your mouth water with the tang of fermenting milk, like biting into a piece of hard lemony square of rotting tofu. Although the food was never great, the hospitality was amazing, and the families were full of smiles every time we stopped. One especially cold and rainy day we walked into a ger to warm up and after bowls of milk tea I looked over and saw a brand new baby sheep tied to the bed and curled up asleep in the corner.

Every night we would find a place to camp and a car would come bouncing along through the grass with our camping gear. I would head off for a walk up to the top of the closest hill to stretch my legs out. When I walked back down, dinner would be waiting and sometimes a campfire.

The vastness of the steppe is unbelievable. The wind can howl for days and gushing rain storms can roll in so fast. But there is something so very unique about the landscape here. Something timeless. It wonderful to know that there is still a place where people are nomadic, where simplicity is a necessity, where herds of horses, cows, and goats roam unchecked for miles and miles.

Our last day was a quick stop in the Bogd Khan national park where there is a Monastery... and trees! I was shocked at how fast the week went, thrilled that I went with a group, and ready for another trek farther up north.