Claire and Jeff's Travels: Terelj National Park and Ger Camping

The last two days we went camping in a ger in the Mongolian National Park Terelj. The Mongolians are historically a nomadic society and for generations lived in gers, which are circular tents. We spent two nights in the ger with a Canadian couple from Halifax.

Gers usually have a 20 foot diameter

The family we stayed with setting up the fire inside our ger

The dogs made sure the cows didn't come too close to the gers

The landscape

The token camel hanging out

Us at the top of a short hike

On the first day we were allowed a 2 hour horse riding allotment. Unbeknownst to us, our "guide" was the son in the family (who seemed to let the boy do all the chores). I thought he was about 10 but turns out he was 15. He berated us the entire time we were trying to ride the horses as none of us had any clue how to ride one. The horses also kicked each other and were unresponsive to us, probably because we had no idea what we were doing! The "guide" even left us halfway through to find our way back. It was not exactly the best horse riding experience.

I should have known before we were in for it!

Our guard dog we nicknamed Bear.

The second day we were lucky enough to see a representation of the Naadam Festival that occurs during mid-July. There was a large group of German tourists who were bused in for the day and we walked over to see the show. The Naadam Festival is something like the Mongolian Olympics with a type of wrestling, horse races, archery, and other events.

The wrestlers

The first night and all through the second day we got one of the few rainstorms the area will see. It was quite cold during the rain, but when the sun came out late in the afternoon on our second night, it was absolutely beautiful. The highs were the upper 50s, lows in the 30s. We are also so far north that the sun sets around 9pm and rises around 5am.