to Ger Camp: Riding with Pierre

September 30, 2016

It is sunny but cold in the morning. There are huge puddles in the road from overnight rain. We ride to Pierre’s hotel and set off. The road surface is surprisingly good, we lose the asphalt as soon as we leave town, but the dirt has been graded and compacted well. It looks like they are getting ready to pave this road next season.

We need to climb about 50 kilometers to cross a 2500 meter high pass, an altitude gain of about 700 meters from Uliastai. There are a couple of steep sections, but overall it is a nice climb. The clouds are getting very dark though, it sleets on us a couple of times but we avoid the worst by having some of the blackest clouds just ahead or behind us.

With about ten kilometers to go to the summit we are passed by two trucks loaded with gers and other gear. They stop and invite us over for tea at their ger site. A little further up the road we see two more people from their party driving up their herd of yak. They are headed up the mountain to graze their animals. Just before the summit we see them stopped about 100 meters off the road, they have started to assemble their gers. We go over and help them for a while. It is amazing how fast the ger goes together.

First a lattice fence, about 5 feet high is bent in a circle starting and ending at a wooden door frame and door. Then in the middle the wooden round center point is raised up on two tall wooden poles. From the center point long sticks are run to the lattice fence and fastened with strings. Two long ropes run around the outside of the lattice and pull everything together. After the frame is set they put heavy felt tarps around and on top of the frame. Ropes on the tarps are tied around the ger so everything works together to make a relatively lightweight, flexible but very strong shelter. We help them for about an hour and we think it will probably be done in another hour. They give us milk tea, we add some cookies and little cakes to the mix.

Up on the pass it is cold and windy. We keep going even though we are hungry by now. A couple of kilometers down we do have a lunch. Pierre is riding with us today; he has come on bicycle all the way from his home in Lyon. We first met him in Karakol when he was riding with a French couple. His plan is to get to Ulaanbaatar and take the trans-Siberia express back to Europe, then ride home. He is a journalist and is writing articles about this trip to make a living. Pierre is faster than us though so we’ll see how long we will stick together.

He has stayed in several gers while in Mongolia so we are curious what his approach is. Mongolian hospitality tradition is very strong, but we don’t want to take advantage of their generosity, or force ourselves as tourists upon families grazing their livestock up here and trying to make a living. But today we will give it a try. We ride until about 5 pm, the sun has long ago disappeared, but it gets dark at about 7 and the temperature is dropping.

We push across the prairie to a group of about five gers. After some non-verbal communication we are shown into one of the larger gers. It is so nice to be out of the wind, there is a stove and even though the ger has an open top at the center and leaks along its sides it is nice and warm inside. We are given milk tea and the lady-of-the-ger starts making food for us. First we are given biscuits with thick yak-milk cream. Very nice. Then she bakes huge thin tortillas in a large wok over the fire, the round flat breads are then folded up and cut in narrow strips. These strips are used together with sheep’s meat and broth to make a hearty noodle dish. We are getting used to the fatty mutton flavor, it is just the gobs of fat that we cannot stomach.

Around the perimeter of the ger are three beds set up, plus most of the floor is covered with thick carpets. Nobody takes their boots off going in and out so the floor is not that clean. There are carpets on the floor, the ones near the door appear to be the ones to catch most of the dirt from shoes. There is a stove in the center, and a cabinet near the door with cooking utensils strung above it, and is the cooking area. Along another section are a couple of colorfully painted wooden cabinets and a shrine to what looks like a family patriarch. There is a rope with spiritual significance hanging from the center of the wheel that is the center of the ceiling to the side of the ger. From the rope hangs a blue silk scarf and yak and horse hair.

It appears we are invited to sleep on the floor, but we will be sharing the ger with the rest of the family. Even though it is warm and cozy in here we doubt we would get much sleep with so many people, so we pitch our tent next to the ger while Pierre sleeps inside.

Just before sunset the adult yaks arrive home. They are kept separated from the calves, in the morning the herd of adult yaks is driven off in one direction and the calves in another. In the evening the calves are brought back first and tied up. Then they locate the main herd by driving their motorbikes or horses and drive the herd back. The mother yaks are eager to feed their young, but first they are partially milked by the women of the family. It is a cold and windy out there and until after dark the women go from one yak to the other to milk them. Once they have taken some milk they release the young and let them feed too.

It has been very nice to get a glimpse of how their life is. It is amazing to think this ritual goes on all winter long.

(Lots of pictures, check page 2)