Mongolia #15 Day 7 of the Trek (02/10/15 am)

 

DSC01926 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01926 © DY of jtdytravels

I woke late , but so it seemed did everyone else… the camp was all but deserted. Our breakfast table and folding chairs were there, just waiting for us. But no-one seemed to be in a hurry to get up and get going.  Perhaps we had all relaxed into Tim’s laid back ways. He’d told us on the very first morning that we should take off our watches and throw away our itineraries. ‘Just live each day as it comes’, was his sage advice. And so we had.

DSC01928 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01928 © DY of jtdytravels

One of the cameleers had kicked some life back into the camp fire and was boiling a pot of water. They say that a watched pot never boils… maybe that’s why he’s not watching.

DSC01927 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01927 © DY of jtdytravels

Even the camels looked relaxed. But eventually they were persuaded that duty called. Our stuff was loaded onto them and we left camp at 10.10 to continue our walk, further down the Yamaat River valley.

DSC01929 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01929 © DY of jtdytravels

A couple of old larch trees stand like sentinels.

DSC01930 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01930 © DY of jtdytravels

The larch at this lower level still had most of their needles.

DSC01943 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01943 © DY of jtdytravels

Sunlight through golden larch needles and cones.

DSC01931 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01931 © DY of jtdytravels

A little residual snow in shady spots of the loose scree along the river valley. 

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DSC01933 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01933 © DY of jtdytravels

The horses didn’t seem to be in any hurry.

DSC01935 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01935 © DY of jtdytravels

One of our horsemen

DSC01938 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01938 © DY of jtdytravels

After the previous days of trudging through snow, here the walking was easy.

DSC01939 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01939 © DY of jtdytravels

We took it all in our stride.

DSC01940 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01940 © DY of jtdytravels

The vegetation was sparse but it added a touch of colour.

DSC01941 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01941 © DY of jtdytravels

A nomad’s winter shelter… though not so much of the shelter apparent here.

Imagine being here in the depths of a Mongolian winter!

DSC01944 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01944 © DY of jtdytravels

After about a two hour walk, the end of our walking trek was in sight! There, ahead of us, our vehicles and drivers awaited us ….  in the designated parking zone!

DSC01949 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01949 © DY of jtdytravels

We had lunch in the shelter of a large ger.

DSC01948 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01948 © DY of jtdytravels

This time, lunch consisted of a tuna and vegetable mash and black rice.

DSC01951 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01951 © DY of jtdytravels

I needed to have a souveneir of this walking trek… and this felt bird had to fill the bill. It will grace our Christmas tree along with so many other small reminders of so many places we have explored in this amazing world of ours.

DSC01968 © DY of jtdytravels

DSC01968 © DY of jtdytravels

My felt bird was really nothing like the magpies which had hopped around us in the valley. A relative of the European magpie, these Magpies sport beautiful, long iridescent blue, green & purple wings & tails.  Adult black-billed magpies mate for life and stay together year-round. They nest toward the top of deciduous or evergreen trees such as the larches in this valley.

Map of walking trek

Map of walking trek

And so we came to the end of our trek. The map shows the part of the Turgen Massif that we’d walked. Now we would head off in the cars to Achit Lake, the large blue lake on the map. More of that anon

David

All photographs copyright © DY  of  jtdytravels

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