Trekking with Rudolph

Monday 14 June 1999 - Thursday 17 June 1999

From Khovsgol, we headed further east and then north up into the mountains in order to find horses and a guide who could take us to visit the Tsaatan (or "Reindeer People").  En route to Tsagaannuur ("White Lake"), we endured yet more of the joys of travelling Mongolia-style, first getting stuck in mud and then getting stuck in the middle of a river trying to get from one side to the other.  Eric saw this as the ultimate photo opportunity (much to the chagrin of our driver!) but it all added to the sense of adventure.

We arrived in Tsagaannuur the following morning and organized a guide and horses.  Eric was still hurting from our last ride and opted to walk, so we used his horse to carry the tent and cooking gear we would need for our overnight stop.  The Tsaatan people are a small ethnic group of Mongolians who live off their reindeer and move further and further into the mountains as the summer approaches in search of a colder climate for their livestock.  It was to be a two-day journey on horseback and one that, with hindsight, we would probably not have made.  Having said that, the trek was amazing and took us through some astounding scenery (and weather).  The Tsaatan people keep very much to themselves and still live as they have for thousands of years, eking out a subsistence existence and bedding down in wigwams made from reindeer skin.  Sadly, however, they were more tainted by the influence of western tourism than anyone else we came across in Mongolia, wanting money in exchange for the photographs we took of them.

Once back in Tsagaannuur, we spent a night around the lake before setting off again, this time south towards central Mongolia.  We were introduced to a French anthropologist who was living in Mongolia and studying Shamanism:  an interesting topic of conversation for the evening!  The next day we retraced our route back to the regional capital of Moron, arriving by early evening. We were both shattered and, desperate for anything resembling a shower, checked into the one hotel the town had to offer.  It was hardly luxurious, but there was running water (albeit not very hot), food and beer, all of which we had seen little or none of since we had left UB over a week before.