105. We stay in a ger and see wild Mongolian horses
Tuesday 30 October 2007
Having spent two days in the city, we asked Graham Taylor to organise a visit to the Khustain National Park for us, about 100 kms west of Ulaan Baatar.
We visited Graham’s office again before we left Ulaan Baatar
On the way out of town, we saw a clear example of the Soviet legacy to Mongolia – huge belching coal fired central heating and power stations polluting the environment.
The heating and power stations in Ulaan Baatar polluting the environmentDriving along the main exit out of Ulaan BaatarThe Ulaan Baatar Railway StationA Railway Museum near the stationHouses and gers on the outskirts of Ulaan BaatarA small town on the way outWe drove onto the dirt roads againA shepherd we passed with his herd of goats
We drove for two hours gradually into more and more snow covered terrain and then turned south to the park headquarters.
Snow covered sceneryEntrance to the Park Headquarters
Our accommodation is a traditional Ger complete with a beaut little wood burning stove that keeps us very warm.
Our Ger where we stayed at the Hustai Nuruu-Takhi Wild Horses ResortDick relaxing in our warm Ger
After lunch we met a local guide and were taken up into the mountains driving through heavy snow cover in search of the Takhi – the Mongolian wild horse.
We drove into the hills all covered in snowPip standing in the snow looking for the horsesDeer in the Park
The last wild Mongolian Takhi was spotted in the Gobi in 1969. Fortunately, a number of the horses – called after their modern discoverer, Przewalski a Polish explorer who first discovered the horses in 1878, were breeding in Zoos – including Australia’s Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo NSW. Between 1992 and 2004 Takhi were re-introduced into Mongolia at this National Park. They are now thriving and today there are over 150 in the park. After a one-hour search, we discovered a mob of these horses in their natural environment. In this particular case it was a modern Zoo that saved the animal from extinction.
A Takhi Mongolian wild horse stallionA herd of Takhi wild Mongolian horsemaresDriving back to camp through the deep snow
We are now preparing this text in our cosy Ger before going over to the restaurant for dinner – this is a deluxe tourist camp Ger. There is plenty of snow sitting on the ground outside and the temperature is around -11° C as the sun disappears below the horizon for the night.
Dick rigged the satellite phone up onto the Ger’s vertical roof support as Pip typed up the words for the website and we were able to send this and the photos through the roof of our ger as it is made of compressed wood.
Click here to return to the Smith’s Overland main index page – including entry numbers 106 to 112, with short updates on the Earthroamer repairs while we are back in Sydney, preparing for Stage 7 of the trip.
Click here for for entry number 113, the start of Stage 7– when the trip continues from Day 71.
