At Delger Camp

Today we spent the day around our ger camp, Delger Camp, just below Hongo Khan Mountain.  We're about 250 kilometers west of Ulaanbaatar. 

After breakfast, we hiked about 8 kilometers to the Erdene Khombo monastery, which is led by a woman who is the granddaughter of an abbot. It's a simple monastery with only 2-3 monks. It was restored less than twenty years ago.  You could see the ruins of the old monastery there.  It is definitely a scenic place, sitting at the end of a valley.  Along the hike, we didn't see too much wildlife but the views were excellent.

After bussing it back, I tried out the showers. It's really just a spray nozzle attached to a plastic container filled with water that was pressurized by a hand pump.  Simple but effective, enough to get clean enough.

After some rest, we visited a nearby family. They lived in a ger with four girls.  We sampled some homemade  products -- dried goat curd, milk tea, and goat cheese. The host also had us sample some snuff, though I didn't get much of it.  In return for their hospitality, we gave them some gifts that we had pooled amongst ourselves.  After, we went outside, where the older girls were milking the goats. I took a turn at it, but I wasn't especially good at it. Definitely a new experience! After that, the goats were released from their corral and we saw them united with their kids, who had been roaming the hills during the day. It was a loud and boisterous reunion...

Right now, it's after dinner and a storm has rolled in. I'm listening to rain come down on the roof of our ger. Time to read and had to bed. We're on country time here, so I should be asleep by ten.  It really is nice being in the middle of nowhere...!