Sophie's World: January 2009

A weekend in Hustai National Park...

During the winter life in the city becomes impossible, the pollution is such that you cant breath properly, and I'm not exaggerating...

So wanting to get out of here, we headed to Hustai, were (i will lie if i told you a exact date) a dutch org in cooperation with Mongolian org re-introduced the wild horse, better known as Takhi in Mongolia and Przewalski Horse in other places... they introduced about 13 couples and they have now 200 horses in Hustai and 100 more in the northern parts of the country. The characteristics are quite specific, the all have the same colour, the legs are stripped, the head is quite large as is the body, and they are quite small in size.

We went to the ger camp in the National park, had a blast cooking paella with sea food (very very rare here) had a stroll, and the next day headed to the wild wild nature to find the horses; bets were going on on how long it will take us to find them, Sarah won... only 30 minutes!

As wild horses is quite hard to get close to them, but we managed a fair distance!

It is always a blast to get out the city, and the bonus is when you do it with good company!

@ the sand dunes,
a few Km away from the Park

sand and snow is a strange combination!

Cooking & Eating
in the ger

A Ger Life

Takhi Horses
or Przewalski Horses

People & Horses

Cold?
no! never!

Or the amazing weekend! Well it wasn't even a weekend, but it felt like it...
Loads of time has passed since, and some of the magic has been lost, you know that excitement when you just come back from a holiday, you tell a story and the images reflect in your eyes, you can't stop talking, and every details is as important...
Times goes by, and you only remember the essential, it is still magical, and it will always be unforgetable... but the excitement has gone...

Maybe that's why i pain to write the story...

I will make it short and as exciting as i can!

I think I should start by my fear of dogs, maybe phobia will be more adequate. I never liked dog, always've been scared of them. However, and i know i already talked to you about this, ever since i came to Mongolia, perhaps due to the constant warning about aggressive dogs etc, I panic when I see a dog, I seriously freeze in place... I'm able to laugh about it, but it took 3 people to take me out of a car once because there were 2 dog around.

I did say I was going to make it short huh???

Anyway, when Ann offered me to go to the countryside to go sledging I hesitated... It was way too cold, and plus it involved being pulled by dogs!!! However, I remember thinking this is a life time thing! when again will i be able to go dog sledging on a fully frozen river in Mongolia? it was sold! Adrenaline is also something that drives me, we all know that...

We got to the countryside, my resolutions, mental preparation all vanished! there were something like 30 dog barking like maniacs and wanting to get free... i was getting very nervous... add to the fact that controlling a sledge was probably not gonna be easy...

Anyway, I'm going into too much detail now! we each got a sledge, and off we went, the first 30 min were quite challenging, getting balance, and getting to understand how it worked, the first time we stopped and I had Will's dogs right next to my carve I almost panic i started running... But at the end it all went well, more that just well, it was amazing!

How it works, basically the guide is in front with the lead dogs, we all had to be very careful to stay in line, as we were unable to direct the dogs, they had to follow the lead one. It's harder that it sounds, my dog were a bit manic and wanted more, couldn't stand when we had to stop, and turned back to look at me when i did something wrong...

We stayed with a nomad family for the night, somewhere 30 km ahead, I absolutely love the Mongolian countryside... It is so amazing, beautiful and pure. And the ger (yurt) is the highlight of it all, so cosy and warm, the perfect place to stay after a day out in the freezing weather.

The top was the day after. On the way back we found a lot of slash and 3 times the ice broke, the 3rd time quite deep (almost to the knees) and I got icy water in my "water proof" boots... Really not pleasant when you already struggling to keep warm, and specially you can easily get a frostbite... when i started not to feel my toes anymore I shouted at the guide way ahead of me, I still think today he thought I was exaggerating... but when I took the oh! so waterproof boots off and he saw the swimming pool I had in there his face changed... Then the problems started, I had wooled tights, plus thermal trousers, plus jeans and on top a wind stopper trouser, this plus 2 pairs of socks! (yes, Michelin man is nothing compare to me in the winter!) socks and tights were wet, but to take the tights off i had to take the rest off, there was no other way but to cut the tights... which make the whole story far more interesting!!! made a fire got warm and off we went again...

As the guide say you wanted adventure, extreme adventure you go it!

I not only overcame my dog-phobia (well i still freeze with street dogs!) but also managed not to loose my toes!

It was a great experience, not sure I will run to do it again, but yeap! this one can also go on my top 20 list of memorable moments!

hmmmm not that short at the end huh?!

Departure

at the base camp