Day 31: Terelj National Park, Mongolia

We left Ulaanbaator this morning with a driver and car (4 of us, all 100kg or more, plus the driver) in a little Toyota something to drive out to a Terelj National Protected area. We just about killed this poor guys car on the roads here.

We finally got to see some of the incredible beauty that awaits us when we leave the capital tomorrow for our trek west. Mongolia is truly magnificent, and very untouched and pristine.

As we entered the park, we came face to face with our first Bactrian Camels. These camels are very endangered in the wild, but are domesticated in Mongolia.









We stopped first at a rock formation that looks like a giant turtle. We decided to climb it, when, stupid me, had the video camera in my pocket, and it caught on a rock, and proceeded to fall and smash 3 stories below on the rocks. Great. That was our last Video camera.

We went down, picked up all the pieces, found the memory card that had blown out 1/2 way down, and walked to the car.

After a bit of bending and piecing back, I finally got the battery back in, and...would you believe, it still works. Way to go Sony.

So after a short snack of canned Peaches in the parking lot, we drove further down the road to a wonderful Buddhist Monastery, nestled in the hill.

Then we started to hike. It was uphill for about 1km, then across a suspension bridge built for people at least 80 lbs less than me, followed by about 5 million (ok, I exaggerate) steps to the Monastery itself. Exhausted in the heat, we all got to the top.

The Monastery was interesting, with pictures of great spiritual leaders around the perimeter. They had each story written in both Cyrillic and English.

After we finished there, we went on to a Mongolian settlement, where Rotko (Petar's Dad who has joined us for a portion of the Mongolia leg) had a Mongolian friend he had made 5 years previous when he was here. His name is Bajra.

We ended up walking through this incredible GER camp, asking the local people if they knew a "Bajra". After about 10 minutes, we found him, walking back to camp, and his face lit up when he saw Petar'd Dad, and he yelled out "ROTKO" with a big smile, and they hugged. It was great to see.

Bajra arranged a traditional meal and horsback ride for Cory, Petar and Rotko. I had to decline the ride due to a lack of compatibility with horses, in that they make me stop breathing :) Instead, I made friends with some other travelers who were staying in the village, two hikers from Denmark, and one from Italy. The two guys from Denmark had been hitchhiking the world for 7 months, and they were all great fun to talk to. We went swimming in the local, pristine river, which was FREEZING cold.