Terelj National Park, Mongolia

We have spent the last 4 days in a beautiful area just north of Ulaanbaatar. The tour we went on was really cool cos we got to meet and get to know some of the local nomads. The trip was called “become a nomad in 4 days” to give you some idea :)



Started with us hopping off the bus and basically directly onto horses! Only the second time i’ve ever ridden a horse and the following day we did over 20km! I think i stupidly looked overconfident cos Ve and the other girl on the tour with us had their horses led by the guides while i was kinda just tossed on and pointed in the right direction :P Great fun, though my legs could barely hold me up by the time we arrived lol

We brought our own tents but pretty much spent all our time in the ger(s) of the local family we were staying with. Got to eat traditional food which was mostly dairy products this time of year (mostly meat in winter time apparently) and even helped make some which was fun. We had urum which is a kind of cross between cream and butter, dried curds, very ‘fizzy’ yoghurt and an absolute tonne of milk tea. The milk tea is cows milk, tea scraped from a solid block, water and a little flour boiled together and served alllll the time lol. I think the only time we actually appreciated it was on the last day after riding on an ox cart through the rain and being thoroughly cold and wet by the time we arrived at the next ger!

We also played traditional games using sheep ankle bones (like knuckle bones – but different games), attempted some traditional Mongolian sewing and generally just hung out with the people. Even had a game of tennis Mongol style which involves wacking the ball at each other any way you please and the other person hopefully stopping it before it rolls down the hill to where the cows are being milked :) And there sure is lots of nice grass to play on out there :D

Anyway the people we stayed with were absolutely lovely and we returned with a much better understanding of nomad life, a lot of photos, a strong need to never see any cream again ever and a slight tummy bug – clearly we are not as tough as the locals who drink water directly from the river while we had to boil ours first :P Also a rather desperate need for a shower lol