Another week, another country! We've been in Mongolia for about 5 days now, and it's an amazing place. They're obviously trying to keep it's charms a secret by making it as irritating as possible to cross the border from Russia...
We got the train from Irkutsk to Ulan Bataar - a great old russian train with wooden windows, and comfy as always. All was going well and we were at the Mongolian border in no time. Then followed seven (7) hours of passport checking, cabin searching, and general form-filling on both the Russian and Mongolian sides of the border, during which time they decided it would be sensible to (a) switch off the air conditioning and forbid anyone to open windows (b) lock the toilets (c) sell people beer. As our Provonista (the person who looks after the carriage) smuggled people into the toilets whenever she could get away with it, everone sat sweltering in their cabins, or drinking (and sweltering) in the corridor.
After a brief, but fun, 24 hours in Ulan Bataar we set off for the countryside to see what this Mongolian Wilderness was all about. Oh my god. There is a quite ridiculous amount of space with literally nothing in it except beautiful and dramatic scenery and incredible bird-life. Jo nearly passed out with excitement within about 10 minutes of us leaving UB, before it became clear that everywhere we went we were met with dozens of Vultures, Eagles, Cranes just feet away from us (for non-birdies, they are VERY BIG BIRDS). We stayed in a wonderful small ger camp about 150 miles from UB, run by a local expert on pretty much everything. The day spent touring round the local area spotting wildlife with him was an amazing highlight.
In our three nights staying in a ger (traditional Mongolian felt tents) we saw pretty much every season. We arrived in sweltering heat, left in crisp cold sunshine, and in between had the most dramatic storm we've ever seen decend upon us.
So now we're back in UB, and heading off north tomorrow for another few days in the wild (and the comfort of a ger).
Pictures to follow (hopefully).
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