to Hilltop Ger: from Ger to Ger

October 11, 2016

“We have a fire maker” Rachel says still snuggled in the sleeping bag. Pierre is at the iron stove and building a fire. The stove in our Ger has burned out overnight and it has cooled down to below freezing inside.

Outside it is much colder yet. But the sky is blue, there are no clouds and the land covered by snow drifts and hoar frost is beautiful this morning. It is a little hike to the outhouse, or rather a three sided enclosure with two boards over a trench. Nice views though.

We take our time packing up, after the stove is going again the Ger warms up again. We can cook our oatmeal over the stove and fix coffee. We took the bikes inside last evening and they have defrosted. At about ten we head out.

We pass several tourist Ger camps near the dunes, then the road climbs a hill with nice views back over the dunes and over mountains to our south. After about 25 kilometers we reach a small town where lots of buses seem to take a break. There is a line of restaurants and shops. We take an early lunch with Tsuvin, the national dish of Mongolia. A large steaming plate of dough noodles with a few vegetables and lots of mutton. They do like fat, so there are gobs of that also.

The food re-invigorates us, the next thirty kilometers go quickly, the landscape changes again as the snow disappears. We reach another town Erdenesant where we buy some more drinking water then push on. Our plan is to go about eighty kilometers again so we are on schedule to get to UB in four an half days. One more long uphill and we see a cluster of yurts on a hilltop. There is a herd of horses, a couple of restaurants and one of them has a long sleeping platform on one side. We can sleep here and get fed for ten thousand each. We think the arrangement is that the whole bed is ours, but we’ll have to see about that. The cook also sleeps here, on a cot that doubles as the kitchen food preparation counter during the day. She is chopping up the meat and fat, then onions; a younger woman walks in with the leg of animal. Various men come in we think to get warm or to see the visitors.

Pierre and Patrick wander around outside while Rachel watches the Buuz being made. One woman rolls out a small circle of flour dough, the other woman places the filling of meat and onions into the center, then crimps the tops closed. We get Buuz, dumplings with freshly killed goat (the entrails are still lying behind the Ger, the dogs are not hungry enough). Tasty but fatty as usual. Our cook keeps the fire going until lights-out.

Our outhouse with a view, but without real walls or a roof.

View back to the Gers. It is a bit of a walk if you have to go at night.

More Gers and camels. This is a popular tourist area.

Snow covered mountains on the horizon today. The fields around us are clear again.

Nice rock outcropping with a lonely outhouse.

Laundry day at this Ger. "I wonder what the horse is thinking" Patrick says.

Small Ger under a big sky. Zoom in on the little white speck and it becomes a Ger.

Lunchbreak in the sun. We make a lifelong friend of the dog whom we feed a large piece of left-over salami.

Women in our "restaurant Ger" starting the dough for dinner buuz.

The collection of Gers we are staying tonight. There is room for a game of basketball.

Today's ride: 84 km (52 miles)
Total: 23,727 km (14,734 miles)

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