Travel Photography | 31: Gobi desert: day1, Yol Am Valley
After a short walk, we were picked up by two local guys driving a minivan. They gave us the first price on a one-day tour and took us to one of the hotels for breakfast.
After gaining back our strength, we set up a searching party to hunt down the best deal. Vladka, Jasper, Chris and myself went. Soon enough a prospect was found. An old man with a Russian UAZ automobile (Finnish army still uses these I think). He gave us a good price for the driver, car, and gas for four days, three nights, 415 000 Tögrök which would translate to approximately 40e/person. Added to that, he told us he could get a minivan for the same price because there was no way all six of us would fit in the UAZ.
After a short negotiation with Greg and Elise, the deal was done. We paid him the price of gas up front, packed our stuff in the car and Chris accompanied our new guide, Tumee (later to be known as Tumee Khan) to the gas station so he wouldn’t just bolt with our stuff and money. Rest of us went for the supermarket to get food for the whole trip. We cooked every night in the comfort of our very own ger.
First stop was Yol Am (Eagle Valley) some 60 km from Dalanzadgan to the west. We walked some 3 km inside the snowy valley and it was just great. Cool to see places that wild horses still run free.
It felt just like spring in Finland, the snow melting to the small stream running in between the cliffs, birds chirping, small rodent's running from tunnel entrance to another, fearing for their lives. They were pretty darn fat too! Great snack for a hawk.
These types of shamanism prayer posts were almost everywhere. They were composed of various contributions by passers-by, such as stones, bones, skulls, tires, rags, money, steering wheels, exhaust pipes, you name it. Apparently, you are supposed to lay your contribution on the pile and circle it three times clockwise to receive a blessing.
After the 2-hour walk, it was back to the vehicle and to the ger camp!
The first night we slept in a working ger. There was cheese fermentation process going on all over the ger. We got to taste some goat cheese and yoghurt too, for me it was only ok but some of the guys liked it a lot.
Tumee, the gentleman always lit our fire and took care of the practicalities like collecting our money and giving it to the ger owners. The ger accommodation was 5000 tögrök each (~2,8e) which was more than ok for us. Sleeping next to the fireplace instantly reminded me of military training I did a few weeks back. This was nothing compared to that so I was pretty happy I got some training in advance. Cooked some pasta in tomato sauce and went to sleep. In the fireplace, we burned some camel shit and coal to stay warm. The temperature drops 20-25 degrees during the nights!
The owner of the ger was visiting.
A ger under construction. Very interesting installation method. Snapped some from the gers we stayed in for structurally inclined people 😉
Photo by Greg.
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(First published 19/10/2011 at LiveJournal)