The Purple Penguin

This trip just keeps getting better and better! Up early on the Thursday (I think it was Thursday – it’s been very easy to lose track of the days), threw our stuff into the back seat of a blue Russian van, climbed in behind the stuff, and we were off! We also very quickly learned that our driver didn’t speak English! Well, he spoke more English than we speak Mongolian but that’s not saying much! Out of Ulan Bator on paved roads, through an arch and checkpoint, then a left turn onto what we’d be riding along for the rest of the time – a dirt track. Mongolian roads seem to just be where everyone decides to drive – so dirt tracks, some times rocky or muddy, but tracks all the same. We spent the time bouncing around the back of a blue Russian van! We probably could have stopped more often to see stuff, but being British we just looked out the windows. And what did we see? We’ve tried to think of how to describe it, but it just can’t be done. Forget pictures of Mongolia – the real thing is much much much more amazing! The scenery changes quite a lot for what you may think of as grassland, and we went through several types of scenery – grassland, mountain, different sort of mountain, hills, lakes – and all of it just amazing.

We also managed to see some of the wildlife, but don’t have a clue what we actually saw as we don’t have any books with us! So we decided, in true British tradition, to name the things ourselves. In no particular order we saw: Mongolian grass and ger (yurt) sparrows (well, they looked like tree and house sparrows but as there are no trees or houses . . .), Mongolian Steppe eagles (huge things and beautiful), Mongolian cattle egret (grey, black, and white birds that looked like they didn’t fly), various Mongolian finch birds, Mongolian hoopee, Mongolian furry critters – well, let’s be a bit more specific, Mongolian groundhogy thing, Mongolian weasely thing, Mongolian foxy thing, and Mongolian rodenty thing. We also saw horses, cattle, camels, sheep, goats. Up close and personal even. Like riding. At least we had to ride a horse and camel – just round the yard. Some of the other things we did: ate mutton soup with noodles (watched the noodles being made); watched a camel being sheared; played shepardherd to a lost lamb (decided I was it’s mother and I couldn’t get it to stop following me!); slept in two different gers and met two different groups of Mongolians (never did figure out the relationships); milked a camel (Joe got out of doing that one); watched sheep and goats being milked; helped round up lambs/kids (Joe got to do that and let one get by); went to an amazing shrine/temple hidden in the hills; saw some wonderful scenery; changed two tires (one on the first day which was pretty straight forward – flat off and spare on – and the second the second day – funny that – which involved taking the tire off the rim and replacing the inner tube); and bounced around the back of a blue Russian van trying to get pictures that will never do the place justice.

We now have our tickets to Beijing – deluxe first class (gee) – and we leave tomorrow morning. So we have seen nothing of Ulan Bator – we’re pretty tired and need to get packed up as we leave at 7am tomorrow morning. Oh well. We plan to go straight through Beijing – only stopping long enough to get a ticket to Shanghai. We’ve met several people doing our trip the other way and that’s what they’ve done (in Beijing long enough to get tickets to UB!) and it looks like it’s no trouble. Japan is still allowing flights from China, including from Beijing, and our ferry is still running – so we’re off again tomorrow! Probably no update until we are in Shanghai, hopefully Tuesday!