Dragon Ridge and my Mongolian horse "adventure"

  Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur, Mongolia
Friday, May 13, 2005

Got up to the wife making sweet pancakes.  Divine.  The salty tea is not really growing on me though.  It's still kind of...  hmmm...  wrong.

After eating, I ordered a fast horse for a few hourse starting at 11 and went down to the lake and back for my run.

The friggin' horse wouldn't go, so after a few minutes they had me on a lead. :(  Whatever.  We worked it out so that I got to lead the horse myself again after we visited some caves.  The leader just stayed behind me, whipping my horse.  Obedient sucker.  Really.  Actually, he was behind me whipping my horse for so long that the damn horse started to run anytime he leader even came near.  Towards the end though (possibly because home was in sight?!) he followed my directions - we both wanted to go the same way.  What a great adventure.  Or something.  The second cave we went to was really cool - it had a really thick ice floor - you could see into the darkness a long way, following the light air bubbles trapped there.

When I got back, the boys made pasta.  Mmm.  I sat and relaxed outside reading my book for hours and then went for a hike - up behind the ger, up and along the top of the rocky ridge to the lake.  One rock looked like an animal head and it was realy close to a really rocky ridge part that looked like a spiky dragon back or something so I hereby name it Dragon Ridge at the White Lake.  I think I could start a fantasy book based on that alone...  Hmmm... 

I walked out on the spit (look at the map really close up and you'll see it) and then went back to the ger for diner.  Soup again (as requested!)

This lake is amazing. I could stay here.  I could walk for days.  It's just a slow meander - a relaxed wandering - that takes me up mountains, around crests, out to the lake, across valleys...  It's so beautiful.  There are horses, goats, sheep, yaks, cows, and, every so often, a human.  Not too often though.  Mostly it's empty.  Mostly.  I did come across a valley that was completely empty except for an outhouse (which I found terribly convenient, yet very confusing).

The lake IS melting quickly, but it'll still have ice on it when we leave tomorrow.