Mongolia - Orkhon Valley

Panoramic view of our next destination: the Orkhon Valley.

Our next destination was the beautiful Orkhon Valley, from which we were to launch our three day horse trek to the alpine Eight Lakes region.

It was a really beautiful drive to the Orkhon Valley which took us over rugged, rocky mountains, forested hilltops and through green valleys. As we drove, we saw more and more ger and more and more herds of livestock: horses, yak, goats and sheep.

We left Shargaljuut Hot Springs and took the shortcut up and over the mountains as the rain wasn't so heavy that our driver thought it was feasible. After driving out of the Shargaljuut area we took a break on a mountain pass; a man on a motorcycle with his two young sons stopped to have a chat. It was the weekend before the beginning of September, which was the first day of school. All over the country, children that had been living with their parents and helping with the family herds were heading back into town for the school year and coming winter. These two young boys lived with their grandparents in a nearby town during the school year, about a two hour drive away. As we were headed the same way, and a vehicle was safer than on motorbike, he asked if we could take the children with us and drop them off on the way. So we had the opportunity to try the very limited Mongolian we had learned in preparation for our trip (to introduce ourselves, say how old we are, where we were from) but I also felt very self conscious taking photos out the window with two wide-eyed boys staring at us as we drove through beautiful and rugged mountain which I would have liked to try to photograph otherwise.

Because there had been so much rain lately we often had to leave the tracks of the road to find passage along the way. We saw people cutting grass for winter livestock silage and more kids on the back of motorbikes being shuttled toward villages for the coming school year. The drive into Orkhon Valley was really beautiful and really striking, as it is a huge plain covered with gray porous volcanic boulders. We saw what I think must be the most beautiful mountain in all of Mongolia as we drove into Orkhon Valley as well (but that might have just been perfect lighting.)

The valley itself is full of ger camps and livestock with tourist vans driving by men on horseback or motorbikes. When we arrived it was drizzling, but we didn't want to sit idle so we climbed to an ovoo on the top of a nearby hill overlooking the camps. Similar to Shargaljuut, there were so many hawks in the sky, with all the wide open steppe to find marmots and rodents to eat. Anytime you looked up you could see hawks in the sky, it seemed.

This part of Orkhon Valley is also famous for the Ulaan Tsutgalan Waterfall, which we walked to the next morning. The river which runs through the valley cuts over a cliff into a gorge, which was only one kilometre away from where we stayed but completely hidden (and somehow unexpected because of that.) There were deciduous and coniferous trees both in the gorge along the river, and somehow it was a little surprising to see the first hints of autumn colours. The nights here were cold: we had a wood stove inside our ger and it was lit every evening to keep us warm through the night. One thing I thought was quite interesting was that the preferred method of lighting the fire with a gas torch -- and then I realised that there would not be much of a consistent supply of dry (or cured) firewood.

The plan was to ride out around midday, but things did not go exactly to plan. We ended up waiting around quite a bit, waiting for our guide to track down our horses.We finally set off around three or four in the afternoon. More on that in the next post!

Leaving the Shargaljuut valley behind

We passed through a lot of valleys and hills like this: covered in bleached boulders.
Somehow this felt even more unreal than some of the other landscapes we'd seen!

The herds of yak (or sheep and goats or horses) would follow the roads as the
easiest path of travel but would then be chased off by approaching vehicles..

We saw several big trucks on the roads during the drive, heading toward
the small town where we'd dropped off the two boys, which was notable as we hadn't
seen any trucks (except on main, paved roads) before.

Driving past a Mongolian town. From the outskirts they pretty much all
looked the same. I really like all the different coloured roofs.

A huge ovoo marking the road

I was immediately entranced when saw this mountain; I couldn't stop looking at
it (or trying to get the perfect photo) the entire time it was in view...

The neighboring ger camp (the view from our ger camp) in Orkhon Valley.
If you look very closely you can see the ovoo on the top of that hill!

A convenient resting spot in the 'paddock' behind our ger.

One of the horses for our horse trek

A silly goat

View of the valley from the top of the mountain

A curious goat came over to inspect the new faces

The Orkhon river

You would never guess there is a waterfall just beyond the river bend..

These volcanic boulders covered the valley

River crossing

Again: the river runs beyond this field and to the waterfall, but you would
never suspect it was there until you saw it!

Hawks flying over Orkhon Valley

We also started to see new alpine wildflowers

Big cracks in the rock at the edge of the gorge

Wildflowers growing out of the rock face

Ulaan Tsutgalan waterfall

Walking along the edge of the gorge to find a way down..

The way down (looking up)

Back above the gorge

On our way back to the ger to get ready for our horse trek!

The view from our ger, watching a herd of goats pass through as we waited for horses

We saw these cute little white and gray birds, but they were so small and
so fast they were impossible to photograph!