Day Nineteen 16.08.2012 Hustain Nuruu

Day Nineteen 16.08.2012 Hustain Nuruu

We move early this morning to have breakfast at the Orkhon river campsite where we yet another spectacular view, given the improvement in the weather.

We depart 'Faulty Towers'

Excitement at tasting airac!!!

As we drive across the steppe this morning, Turuu takes a detour to a nearby ger.  The family are not known to him, but he sees from both the mob of horses close to the ger, and several large blue plastic barrels outside, that this may be a place where we can taste the best airac…and he is right.  The young man says that they do indeed have airac and we are invited into the ger to sit and taste with him.  He has a ‘sharing plate,’ which is a prepared dish of cheeses and maybe other nibbles to eat with the airac.  He fills a bowl from a large jug, tastes it himself, refills the bowl and hands it to Turuu who agrees that it is good.  The bowl goes back to be refilled and is then handed to the next person, goes back for refilling, and so on and so on, until everyone has had a taste.  The second round starts and we all have another taste, and Julie asks if he will pose for a photograph with the jug and bowl.  He takes this to mean that she wants more airac and so leaves the ger to refill the jug, and off we go again!!

The man has a wife and 2 daughters who are outside the ger preparing cheese for drying.  We find some gifts for each of them, Jess gives them flour, oil and rice, and also pays for the airac, as it is part of what they do to make money from their ‘farm.’

A long drive from here, broken only by lunch, as we are headed for Hustai National Park.  The road runs by some more small sand dunes before reaching the main east/west road which takes us to the National Park Headquarters and Research Station.  This facility  conducts research into the management of various species, particularly the takhi, or Mongolian wild horse, focussing on behaviours and breeding patterns in a protected area with a view to increasing numbers and possibly planning their reintroduction in to other areas.  There are only about 200 takhi in this park, they are retiring by nature preferring to spend their days deep in the hills and returning to the valleys only in the evening.  Jess has added this to our tour as a special favour, given the interest in the takhi by our ‘zooies,’ John, Suzanne and Meaghan.

We drive into the park away from the camping area and large ger camp, seeing marmots along the roadside.  Turuu stops at a likely place where there is a creek and stony hills.  No sooner have we made our way out of the trucks then along comes 2 minibuses and another truck, all stopping to see why we are stopped.  In spite of the movement and noise these people make, Janine spots movement on the skyline! Four horses can be clearly seen.   John, Meaghan and Julie have headed off in various directions, but it’s not long before John comes running back with news that he has found a stallion in another gully.  We gather together again, back into the trucks and head back along the road towards the entry just in time to catch two horses as they approach the road.  We have time to capture them on ‘film’ and video before a truckload of noisy individuals turns them back up the hill.  Not only the ‘zooies’ are excited about this close encounter…we have all experienced something very special!

Turuu is getting anxious about the time – we still have an hour’s drive to go before we make camp – which we do with very little daylight to spare.  Cold wind and the side of a hill makes pitching tents interesting.  Turuu and Sandag wrap the big tarp around the ends of both trucks and we snuggle into the space between to enjoy Jess’s Pesto Penne and chew over what has been a long, but very exciting day!

 

 

 

The elusive Takhi