Central Mongolian Trek, Part 3

For day three we had decided to get an early start. We were on our way to White Lake, and our itinerary had us passing a gorge and volcano on the way, and we wanted to take our time seeing these marvels of nature. By 7.30 the sun hadn't had ample time to heat up the drum that provided water, but my morning shower afforded me a chilly wake up...something I would get used to over the next months. Upon exiting the shower shack, a herd of horses walked by the wooden fence that surrounded our encampment, I did mention i was in Mongolia, didn't I? By half past 8, we were on the 'road' again, taking turns sitting up front in the van, which felt more like a rusty rollercoaster, with it's ups and downs, quick turns and ever present feeling that at any moment it would end up on it's side. But Baira had our complete trust, and at certain moments rewarded us with thrilling maneuvers that brought us to places where the other vans feared not tread...One in particular stands out. We were caravaning with two other groups heading to White Lake, and at one point faced a mountainous hill. The other two vans followed the dirt tracks the circumnavigated the monster, but not Baira. He hit the gas full on, and launched our sturdy vessel straight up the hill, deciding he was going to forge a new track that perhaps some future driver would have the balls to follow. His effort was not lost on us, the magnifiscent views clearly worth the risk of breaking down in such an isolated spot. And as we rolled down the other side, we caught vague glimpses of the other two vans, now seemingly 50 km in our wake, and cheered our proud leader.

Soon we neared the gorge, and had prepared to have a picnic lunch rather than the mutton or goat that was usually offered by the local eateries(usually a small home in which a precious mongolian lady would serve up home-cooking to make a few bucks off of the occasional traveller). The evening before we had visited a small grocery in Tsetserleg, and had picked up some fruits and veggies, bread, and some tins of tuna. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate this day, and a short but heavy downpour thwarted our efforts. We ended up getting shelter from a lovely mongolian family, who shared with us home made (sour!!!) goat cheese in exchange for some of our fruit. After the rain had passed, we made the last few kilometers to the gorge. We approached with breakneck speed, crossing well over the tire tracks that ran along the side of the gorge, and made an abrupt stop, landing mere meters from the edge, and the possibilty of a fantastic 30 meter plunge to our fiery deaths.

I'm convinced that Baira is the best (or worst) driver in all of Mongolia! We each went off in our seperate directions to take in the beauty of the cliffs leading to a river below.

Not quite the Grand Canyon, but beautiful just the same. I wandered a bit away at one point to get some shots of a massive herd of goats and sheep that was approaching, and I was soon swallowed up in this enormous wave of mammality.


The next stop was Khorgo Crater, a volcano with a 200 meter high cone. We took a walk up to the top, and then circled around the rim, from which you get awesome views of the dried lava fields with White lake in the distance.

We saw two crazy Mongolian teens scampering down the steep, pebbly inner walls to the bottom of the crater, and Bjorn got an idea..why don't we head down there too? An idea I never would have had on my own. The girls wanted no part of this plan, and even Sandro, after making it down the first quarter or so, turned back. Slipping and sliding, hands torn up by having to catch my fall on the coarse stones, I finally got to bottom.

There were ovoos and gifts to buddha everywhere, clearly not a few make it this far, but that didn't take anything away from my feeling of accomplishment. The only problem that we faced now, was getting back to the top....
A 30 minute ride later and we were at our destination, the volcanicly formed White Lake, sitting at an altitude of over 2000 meters. Tired and sweaty from our trek at Khorgo, we decided a swim was the best medicine. The down side? The lake water was a frigid 14°C (57°F). Bjorn, Sandro and I stripped to our undies and dove in to the fresh purity of the pristine isolated lake under the eyes of the dumbfounded locals. Refreshing to say the least.

It was a long, and wonderful day in central Mongolia. To cap it off we shared a bottle of Genghis Khan vodka with the drivers and I went to bed...but not before emptying my bowels in the first mongolian outhouse that actually had a white, plastic 'toilet' seat...oh happy day!