Rygsækrejsen 2015-2016: Wet, cold and windy Mongolia

We woke up to the sound of rain on the roof of the ger. The water had also come in through a hole in the roof so parts of the floor was wet. A quick check on the watch revealed the indoor temperature to be exactly 11.9 degrees. We left for breakfast and realised that the weather was as bad as last night. Still wet, cold and windy.

Playing the local “dice” game with ankle bones yesterday, we asked the bones - traditional Mongolian game - about the truck getting out of the parking lot where we had parked for the night. The bones said “difficulties” and after some 100 meters of driving we got stuck in mud. Our sand mats were of no help so our driver backed the truck up and went off road to get better grip – and it worked.

We had a short drive to the nearby village to do shopping for the next three nights of camping. A small village where we could't find any shops. But our local guide found a couple of small super markets a bit further up the road. While waiting for him to find our shopping places we also noticed the distinct white cover of snow on some of the mountain tops in the area. Only a few hundred meters from where we had stayed last night. Goodbye to the warm sunny days,

Shopping and other practical matters were taken care of and then we headed with the truck across the river and up a new valley. Already at tonight's camp site before lunch we set up camp and tents and had lunch before we headed out for walk and climb of a nearby volcano. This camp site was next to a local family's gers so some people chose to upgrade to gers for the night. Some of us stayed in our tents. Nice with the gers because we could have lunch away from the rain and we could also dry some of the wet close later in the gers which were heated from the ovens inside.

The volcano was apparently one of the highlights in the area because getting a bit closer we noticed a lot of cars being parked around it. The climb was easy and on the top we could enjoy the view of the crater below. No crater lake but just a lot of volcanic debris at the bottom some 100 meters down. It took us around one hour to walk around the edge of the crater enjoying the surrounding countryside. Some people, including Luke and Efrat from our group, chose to climb down in the crater.

The weather had improved when we walked back to the camp so we did see patches of blue sky and the occasional ray of sunshine. But it was still windy and cold.

Malene was doing tonight's cooking assisted by the Mongolian ger family we are staying with. They brought in a whole lamb cooked in a metal pot with hot stones in the bottom. Lovely and much needed hot meal because just when we started eating the weather deteriorated into strong winds and the rain pouring down again. It's going to be a long and cold night again. This time in a tent.

Fingers crossed for the nice Mongolian summer to return soon. It feels more like the weather we had at the very beginning of our trip in Turkey – almost 4 months ago.