Mongolia and the nomads

Joining a gang with similar interests, a trip was booked in the nearby countryside with view to getting into it ASAP and experiencing nomadic life. This was done through a group called Ger-to-Ger (who are a bunch of %*@*$!) and the next 5 days proved to be a roller coaster of disappointment, frustration and wonderful experiences.

We took a public bus to Terelj National Park and had a very 'snug' journey- wedged between bags and locals. One elderly fellow was using me as a standing post and I had to firmly anchor myself to keep both of us upright. No, it's not that he's losing his balance with the ageing process - he was able to communicate through mime that vodka had been consumed. Not a selfish character, he did also pull out the bottle and shot glass, attempting to share with the rest of the bus. On arriving at the last bus stop we came across a local and let him know that we wanted to camp. He was kind enough to walk us to a beautiful spot.

Waking bright and early and excited at the prospect of meeting the first nomadic family we were going to stay with. We then waited 6 hours in the dust and sun, waiting to get picked up. We didn't get picked up. We couldn't figure out why. Back we went to our spot and camp was set up again. We were despondent and running out of food and water. Maybe we would just have to free camp on our own.....

The next day we rang the *@#&*!! and, I won't bore you with details, but we eventually found ourselves on the back of an ox cart, crossing vast open spaces "little house on the prairies" style.

Eighteen kms and I don't know how many hours in the blaring sun, we found ourselves with our first family. The man of the ger was 31, his wife 28 and they had two kids. Grandma was in another ger up the hill and friend's with kids were also about. We set up our tents and were sat down to a traditional Mongolian craft lesson. Whilst ma then cooked up dinner, we hung out with and corrupted the kids. It all seemed pretty innocent, kicking a ball around, teaching ring-a-rosie, hand clapping games and a bit of picking them up and spinning them about. All good until they picked up by the hands their 1 year old little brother and spun him about violently in an unrestrained manner. What brilliant fun we had shown them! We all jumped in with a no! put him down! and managed to wrestle him off them. The poor fella looked bewildered and dazed and on placing him on his feet, found that he was unable to stand. We then had to lay him down on his back and all peered down at him in concern - a spinning mass of white faces, no doubt.