In the morning Dimbe saddled up all the horses, and started asigning them to riders. he had chosen horses for a few of us, and then came round to me. he looked me up and down, chose a horse for me and motioned for me to get on. as i was about to get on he asked my weight, and Dawa translated "80kgs". at this Dimbe let out a loud exhalation/groan of astonishment, and chose me another horse, who i named "Bumbar", after emma skirving. Bumbar was the fattest stockiest horse of the group, but once he got up and running he could go quite fast, though he took a bit to stop - just like em.
saddling up
one of Dimbe's daughters showing us some drawings from school
The trip was awsesome. Basically we would wake up in the morning, pack our tents and backpacks, and put them in the truck. Everyone would sit down to a ready made breakfast, pack the last of the gear into the truck (to be carted to the evening's campsite, though the van followed us throughout the day) then jump on the horses and ride for a few hours till the middle of the day. Here we would get off our horses, sit down to a ready made lunch, then jump on the horses again for a few more hours until the evening.
Almost every night's campsite had either a creek or a lake next to it, and upon arriving we would set up our tents, then sit down to a ready made dinner. While it would be exciting to say that we did our own cooking, washing of dishes, and carried everything on our backs, we actually did none of this - it was very very cruisy. we really didnt have to do much, and could just soak up the mongolian countryside - hence, awesome.
first night's campsite
some local boys we later met swimming
the wind picked up quite strongly every afternoon just for an hour or two (often when we were trying to put up the tents), which we used to dry our washing.
breakfast the next morning - clockwise starting from Kent - Kent, Kel, Bec, Nairden (driver), Dawa (translator), (cook and Dimbe's wife), Aghougar (guide and cooks brother), Dimbe (guide), Anika (taking the photo), me.
typical drink stop
this day was the first time id galloped on a horse. was a bit terrifying at first, kinda like being on a mountain bike that you cant control, and knowing that youre going to fall in a few seconds. thankfully i didnt fall and no one had an injuries. once i got used to it it was great - cant beat riding three abreast with your mates galloping over a grassland valley in the middle of the mongolian countryside.
That night over dinner i asked Dimbe if he would give us some lessons on mongolian wrestling - instead he opened a can of whoop-ass. It was all a bit fun to begin with. Nairden helped put on the orange sash, we had a few laughs trying to do the Eagle Dance, but when the ceremony was over, it was just me (or kent) facing off against a burly mongolian dude who knew how to wrestle, and must have thought it amusing that these aussies were even trying.
Synopsis - i juuuuust won my first bout against Dimbe, but by the flogging i got from him in the second, and the flogging i got from Aghougar after that, makes me pretty sure they were going easy on me. As you can see Kent didnt fair that much better.
Nairden also got in on the action, after putting on my sash he lifted me up like i was nothing. I think seeing us get our butts kicked was the funniest thing any of them had seen in a long time.
