Next morning was a short ride to the city of Olgi, we had a lazy morning and left almost 10 am on a straight forward road until we reach the lodge where we would be staying, we were supposed to have it as our base before heading to the highlands and tough terrains. In this part of Mongolia, language changes, faces of people change, and the culture and religion change too, as most people here are the Kazakh, who are Muslims and many of them don’t even speak Mongolian language. We have reached the lodge and the owner was in her Landcruiser waiting for us by the main road, to follow her on the gravel until we reach her camp. Akhmaral was her name and we followed her until we reached the main entrance of her lodge, which consists of around 15 Yurts, each of them can take upto 5 persons but each has 3 beds, when I say bed, I mean a wooden board covered with mattresses to make a single bed. However, they were all comfortable! The Kazakh yurts are built differently, they are bigger, more colorful, and you can see colorful carpets on the inner side of the yurt, and the upper part covered with wool. The top can be used as a window, which you can pull the covering cloth with ropes, which you can do it yourself very easily.
Akhmaral
Akhmaral welcomed us with her parents with some refreshment and showed us our yurts, we were the only ones in her camp so we felt more of a privacy. Moments after getting settled, we were called for lunch in the main biggest yurt, which is considered as the restaurant of the lodge. It was a delicious local dish in that region, a roll of bread with vegetables on pieces of meat and some salad. When I wanted to shower, she told us that they don’t have any shower water for the time being because a day before they had a flood and one of the main bridges was washed away with the flood and they had cut of electricity and water, which I consider it the beginning of the adventure of West Mongolia!
We woke up early next day heading to the wild west of Mongolia, the earlier the better as Ogi said, but Ogi was the one who delayed us because he wanted to get some items from the market that we would need, and I could notice Max was getting upset about the delay, but at the end we made it on a decent time. I was advised that day to rest in the truck after 4 days of crazy riding, and also to observe the situation of the road to scout and understand it well technically as we would take it again in 2 days before heading to the mountains. Honestly, I was in need to rest that day, as I didn’t sleep well the night before and started feeling a pain on my lower back. I have been observing the road and it was super crazy with the water crossings and shaky bridges, and I have also witnessed how ancher dropped the bike while crossing one of the rivers. Later one we crossed almost a lake, but it wasn’t as deep as the river we crossed earlier, but that lake was full of slipping rocks, even the tucks struggled to cross. I was observing, scouting and taking notes into my head, how would I cross those strong rivers? And that semi-lake? But I didn’t want to overthink about it until it happens.
We have reached the depth of Olgi, where the nomadic family are living, they have welcomed us with fresh tea and snacks in their biggest warm yurt, that was colorful with hanging carpets, lots of photos of men with eagles wearing huge fury hats and some of the carpets with Quran written on. This is when I realized that I am with another Muslim Kazakh group, the moment we got in, we noticed the cooking pans and pots, and hot they fed the fire with cow dung, the same time they were baking and offering us whatever was ready. We were offered lots of baked food but what was most needed was the hot soup we were served along with the tea, then they offered us an interesting dish which was red cheese, they boil it for a long time in water until it gets red and looks like its deep fried, but it was boiled and tasted great. On the wall of their colorful tent, I have also spotted lots of hanging fox fur which can be ready to make the Kazakh hats. They normally hunt these foxes with eagles which they promised us to see them later on.
To reach there, we had to cross lots of water, drive through lots of tall trees, until we reached an open space on a valley, surrounded by mountains with melting glaciers, and a loud river surrounded by big rocks. The reason why we had to cross lots of water, was because temperature has raised during June and lots of ice melted from the mountains which caused a flood and therefore all bridges were washed away. We were guided to our yurt which was super warm and well prepared for us just to fall asleep, this yurt has also three wooden beds and it is as colorful as the one I have stayed the night before. After I got my bags in, I walked back outside to cut some wood where the axe was to use for warming up in the night. We had another delicious soup before heading to bed early in that warm, welcoming yurt which we would stay in for 2 nights!
At around 3 am, I felt freezing, and I lost the smell of the burning wood, I tried to put on my jacket to warm up but I was too cold to uncover myself, I used my phone’s torch to check on the fire and it was completely shut! I had to walk outside in the dark to get more of the wood, cow dung and lighter to log the fire, luckily, I managed to get on and get back the warmth. I woke up earlier than everybody and walked around checking the river area, it was too embarrassing to see one of the locals was using the “toilet” I tried to disappear immediately before he spotted me, but he greeted me good morning while he was doing his business! The breakfast table looked great that morning, with the surroundings, cows walking around, dogs running here and there, the sound of the river, the view of the mountains, and Sana and Anchar wrestling, while I was having my coffee watching them! I could also spot the eagles flying around and heard their noise, which reminded me that in a bit we would visit them!
Moments after breakfast, Ogi suggested we hurry to watch the eagles because later on we would have a long walk to reach a magical waterfalls area. The eagles were tied on the ground and couple of local men approached us wearing local costumes. They were the hunters and offered us to carry the eagles, then as I started the first to hold the 8 kg huge eagle, he put the fury hat on my head, and then offered me to wear his coat too, I didn’t hesitate for a second and to get a perfect capture, I had to raise my arm high so the eagle spreads its wings wide! We all got lots of photos with the eagles except Max and Monica who refused to wear the local dresses and take the photos. I was expecting to see some hunting activity that morning, but because it was off season, and to hunt, they have to go to specific remote sites. Normally they use eagles to hunt for foxes to use their furs to make their hats, each hat consists of 15 foxes and making these hats are popular in that part of Mongolia! I wasn’t sure if it would be ok to buy one of them and bring to Germany, so I didn’t ask about the price and didn’t show any interest to get them.
We drove in a convoy, the usual trucks and bikes towards the waterfalls area, but we would need to walk for an hour to reach it, so we have arrived to a gated spot, where we parked the car, then walked along the river, surrounded by lots of sheep, horses, mosquitos and wild plants, on a slippery muddy grassy ground until we reach one of the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen! Maybe way smaller than many I have seen, but more beautiful, we have spent around 40 minutes of making videos and photos until we decided to walk back on the same route, walking back was the most boring part of the whole trip, at least walking towards the waterfalls we were looking forward for something. We arrived back to the campsite and Ogi was preparing lunch himself which consisted of fried rice dipped into lots of Soya sauce and meat horse.
I have spent the afternoon and evening collecting wood for the night to avoid waking up in the middle of the darkness freezing and looking for my motorcycle jacket to wear. It was a chilled afternoon and we called off the night early, tomorrow would be a big wet day with lots of crossings! I woke up next day very early and was sorting out my photos and videos, editing a short video of the waterfalls, until breakfast time, I have put my gear on, Katharina and Ogi wrapped my boots with plastic bags and lots of sticker tape to avoid getting wet while crossing. Meanwhile I was making sure that all my GoPros were fully charged then walked around to reduce the stress I was going through! I was thinking that stress would make me do mistakes so I was trying to kick it all out but with no use, I got myself busy playing with that white cute dog in the area until we decided to take off!
We all took off distributed in different directions, each truck took another direction, except me behind Sanaa, we crossed a bit of water, then I noticed Mandala standing waving for us to go on a different direction than that lake to avoid crossing it, instead, we rode over a frozen bit of the river! It wasn’t as bad as I have expected, I just had to slow down before getting onto the ice to start my GoPro which caused me getting stuck on the wooden semi-broken bridge, but I have carried on with a wonderful journey over the frozen river, at least better than water crossing. I was riding towards the running river where Anchar dropped his bike 2 days ago and hoping we could find another shallower spot to avoid this part, but I found myself in front of the same spot again!
I rode back to 50 meters, got off the bike to clean my GoPro, meanwhile I was watching Sanaa crossing without any issue, and another local man approached with his Chinese 125, he stopped nearby the river, and got his waterproof pants and jacket preparing to cross, in the beginning I underestimated him and said let us watch how he would cross then I would do, but the itchy eyes of the whole team watching me and waiting for me to cross made me ride the 50 meters back and got into the water with a steady speed applying whatever I learned from my previous water crossing in previous trips. The moment I got into the water I first felt a bit of rocky part and suddenly the whole bike started diving into the water not even a chance of reaching the bottom! My whole body was in the melted glacier water and if I didn’t hold the handlebar the bike would have been gone away! Apparently, I was mistaken with my measurement as I didn’t expect the water would be a meter deep! I stood up immediately, moved the bike to the other side, tried to get off my freezing gear and find my towel to warm up while Mandala and Sana turned the bike upside down to fix whatever they can do before the engine dies!
While I was changing my clothes, I didn’t want to miss watching the local guy how he would cross, actually the way he did was even better than Sanaa, and it looked to me that he knew every single hole on the bottom of the river, he knew where to stop and when to throttle up until he reached and continued! I felt a bit embarrassed of my failure, but I felt the pain of my lower back getting harder and tougher! This is when I have decided I would prefer to stay in the truck until my gear dries out and I feel a bit better. I got 2 tablets of pain killer and sat on the front seat then we continued. After an hour of driving over a bumpy road, we stopped for a break and regathering, this was when I told Ogi that I am not able to even sit in the car, the pain was killing me and I can’t continue to the mountains. It was a hard decision for me as I didn’t want to end it this way, but the pain was stronger than my thinking and feeling guilty to return everybody back to the campsite.
We all were fine with going back as Max and Monica agreed to and they were concentrating more on the other part of their tour when we get done with the current one. We decided to go back and take it easy until the day we depart by plane to Ulaanbaatar and therefore officially the trip was over, and the pain of my lower back was getting stronger, especially when I sleep or walk, so I was trying as much as I could to sit whenever there was an opportunity. Over dinner, Akhmaral offered a massage and cupping session by her sister who is certified to do so, which was so needed after that long trip, her only condition was I shouldn’t get my t-shirt off, which made me wonder of how she would do the cupping? But after a basic massage over my shirt, she told me after all to remove my shirt so she can stick the cups on my back.
We had a great 4 days of relaxing and eating delicious food, exploring the city of Olgi and visiting its museums, we have decided to fly back to Ulaanbaatar. However, we had to get into a marathon as the weather condition was bad and flights might be canceled! To get to the airport, we had to drive back to the previous city we were at and maybe look for a hotel in case of a delay, but luckily, the flight was on time and we have arrived to the airport on the right time. It was very hard with my back pain and my big black bag carrying it and running to the airport to catch the flight before it gets full, but we managed to get onboard and fly back to the big city.
The adventure of Mongolia took 3 weeks, but to me it felt like three months, a lot of things were happening in one day, and a lot of beautiful scenes, landscapes and attractions I was seeing daily which was too hard for my eyes to digest, my brain to memorizes, my heart to take and my phone storage to keep up. I am remembering what I just wrote when I was in Frankfurt Airport waiting for my bags to arrive, until I got shocked that my bags were still in Ulaanbaatar and they had no idea when they will arrive! So the adventure was still going on from Frankfurt.
