Hustai NP to Karakorum

Our first stop this morning was at the Hustai National Park to see the critically endangered Takhi horses, a drive of just over an hour.  En route we stopped at this ovoo, a sacred stone cairn and shrine.  Built as a conical heap of rocks, wood, and branches, an ovoo serves as an outdoor altar or dwelling place for local spirits, mountain deities, and masters of the land.

Travellers traditionally adorn them with bright ceremonial scarves (known as khadag, frequently blue to represent the Eternal Blue Sky) and leave offerings like stones, coins, or food to pray for safe journeys, weather and good fortune.  

It is customary to walk around it three times clockwise and add a stone or branch to the pile to show respect and invoke protection.  

Whilst our lot were doing that I spied a little creature, which I think is a Mongolian Gerbil.

About 1/2 hour later we arrived at the park.

Half the group skipped off to the loos and the rest of us headed for the visitor centre as apparently the ranger we were due to meet hadn't yet arrived.  We passed this just nearby which, according to the plaque, is part of a 2009 Delta-2 space rocket. 

Unfortunately no sooner had we got into the visitor centre than our ranger appeared, which was a shame as there was lots to see and read in there.

Our two vehicles headed off in convoy to an area the horses had been seen in recently and on the way passed lots of marmots scurrying around but, as often is the case, we simply ignored them and pressed on in search of the horses - a great pity as there is a large population of marmots in the park and they seemed quite tame.  I'm quite sure if we'd stopped the vehicles, got out and stayed quiet for a while we would have had lots close by for photographing.  Instead here's a picture of one I nicked. 

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Whilst looking them up online I also found this interesting piece of news.  In 2020 a Mongolian teen from the western province of Govi-Altai died from suspected bubonic plague after consuming marmot meat, according to local health officials.

Tarbagan marmot is used to make a Mongolian dish called boodog.  For centuries, Mongolian’s have cooked marmot meat by inserting preheated stones into the abdominal cavity of a marmot.  The skin is then tied up to make a bag within which the meat cooks.  However, this cooking method often prevents the meat from being thoroughly cooked or reaching high enough temperatures to kill harmful pathogens.

The favoured mode of transport when looking for virtually extinct animals.

It was quite overcast but the scenery was beautiful.

Wildlife at last, a mountain goat - albeit heavily cropped, as it was a long way in the distance.

We must have spent over an hour looking for and at horses.  The ranger set up his scope (always bad news as it means you generally can't see the animal with the naked eye, unless of course you're Ian who can see for miles).  Even through the scope I struggled.

Now for a little game; on the next series of photos just look at the left hand one and try and spot the creature.  Then look at the right hand one and see if you were correct!

Sometimes Ian would give me helpful clues like "it's just next to that rock"

This is an easy one.

Eventually I got my eye in a bit more.

I didn't realise at the time but I have a goat on the left and a horse on the ridge.

All a bit of an anti climax but here's a better picture of what we were looking at.  Takei or Przewalski's horse (named after a Russian geographer and explorer) were extinct in the wild and only reintroduced in 1990 to this national park and a couple of other areas.  Some genetic characteristics of Przewalski's horse differ from those seen in modern domestic horses, indicating neither is an ancestor of the other, eg. Przewalski's horse has 33 chromosome pairs compared with 32 for the domestic horse also they don’t have a forelock. Their ancestral lineages split from a common ancestor between 160,000 and 38,000 years ago, long before the domestication of the horse.  The Takei horse has long been considered the only remaining truly wild horse, in contrast with the American mustang and the Australian brumby which are feral horses descended from domesticated animals.  I did think we had some at nearby Oare Marshes in Kent but they are Konic ponies (a similarly coloured, squat animal but definitely a domesticated horse).

Pity we didn't have time to revisit the Visitor Centre on the way out but miles had to be driven.  Funnily having spent so long trying to spot horses, back on the main road they were positively getting in the way.

And hitching a ride.

Along the route we stopped in the drizzle to visit some stupas up on a hill.  I tried to find out their name but Google Reverse Image Lookup kept telling me they were the Erdene Zuu Monastery which I knew was absolutely untrue so I contacted Selena Travel (VJV's agents in Mongolia) who advised that they just call them "the stupas on the hill" as they don't have any specific name.  According to local information, they're very modern having been built by local people around 2013–2014 for religious purposes.

It seemed quite a long drive but we've finally arrived in the Orkhon Valley about 300 kms west of UB and on the outskirts of Karakorum which was once the original capital in the 13th century and served as the political, cultural, and economic heart of the empire under Ögödei Khan (third son of Ghengis).  Only it was destroyed by Ming Dynasty forces in the 1380s.

Our home for the next 2 nights.  

There's another tour group staying here too, Germans we later found out, and I love their vehicles which are UAZ-452 off-road vans commonly known by the nickname "Bukhanka" (meaning "loaf of bread") due to its distinctive rounded, boxy shape.  This iconic Soviet-designed 4x4 utility van has been manufactured with largely unchanged styling since the mid-1960s.  Built as a rugged all-terrain workhorse, it features four-wheel drive and a robust chassis designed to handle extreme off-road tracks and remote rural landscapes.  I think I’ll stick with our more modern ones.

With spring, summer and autumn being condensed into about 3 months, this large polytunnel must help enormously.

Karakorum in the distance.

There are already quite a few gers here, but more are being constructed. 

We might have arrived in glorious sunshine but judging by the laying water it had clearly rained heavily before we arrived.  When the cases were offloaded from the minibuses, the staff kindly delivered them to us only they didn't use the paths but dragged them across the grass and then walked into our ger without taking their shoes off and presented us with suitcase wheels clogged up with mud - we were less than impressed and spent the next 15 mins cleaning the mud off the cases before calling someone back to sweep up the mud they'd left on the floor.  Which she kindly did, only to then empty the dustbin literally outside the door!!!

Half the group have new gers with a lovely view across the fields, unfortunately the rest of us are several rows back and have older styles ones with a central fire and chimney flue and from the amount of water on the floor the roof leaks.  Still we have our own little bathroom and everything looks just about OK.  We're almost the farthest away from the restaurant area but the staff all seem very sweet, if a little young/inexperienced/dim and the wine is reasonably priced.  Tonight there is a buffet meal so I'm sure I'll fine something edible.