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Day 5

Unlucky with lots of luck

 

8 August 2013​

Waking up hard ground is never a pleasure but you do get used to it especially when you go to bed with painkillers you get a “decent” night sleep, even Chloe had an ok night sleep after all her drips. We packed up and got breakfast provided by the family of that camp, we got some bread, jam, tea and some rice with sugar boiled in you can guess it.... milk! After we’ve filled ourselves up, we picked our new horses saddled them up, thanked the family and left. We had to navigate towards a bridge, so we cantered off but Chloe had another crazy bolter, every time when Clare and I came close to her it took off. But suddenly Chloe hopped off and had to fix up her saddle because it had slipped, all done and go again. Chloe shoots off on her bolter while Clare and I are going in a nice easy canter, but before you know Clare and her horse hit the deck and make a brilliant slide over the grass! The horse had slipped over a big fresh mountain of cowpoo! Both horse and rider get up very confused about what happens until Clare looks at leg... from ankle to hip she’s got a lovely big cowpoo skitmark. I need to hold on tight to my horse and make sure I’m not falling off from laughing, Clare grabs her horse, gets back on and is laughing now as well. We make a 3rd attempted to make our way to the next station but then we see that Chloe, about 200meters in front of us, lost her rainjacket unnoticed so we decide to pick it up for her and carry it along until we catch up again. Through the marshlands and through little stream of about 2 meters wide but easy 1m deep! Clare and I finally find the sand/rock track that takes us to the bridge and the little soum we have to go through.  We are cantering along and are only a few km’s from the bridge and suddenly Chloe pops up out of nowhere and we ride on again together. We get up to the bridge, and OMG! That is probably the most unsafe bridge I’ve seen in Mongolia so far! It’s an old wooden one with big holes in it everywhere! The horses have clearly never seen or been over this bridge before because they are terrified and don’t want to move one step forward, I get of my horse, who I have named “Scooter” and see if he will be led over the bridge but, no. Chloe keeps saying that we might have to go through the river underneath the bridge, but it looks rather deep and it’s a fast streaming river so that’s out of the question in my opinion. So I get back on Scooter and convince him that it’s really ok to step forward, finally he moves forward but he’s making sure that his butt is still touching one of the other horses behind him. With our hearts up in our throat we cross the bridge and it’s holes and all 6 of us have a big sigh of relief when we’re safe on the other side. In our little map book we get the information that there is a little shop in this soum with some non-traditional foods, so Clare and I are on a quest to find this little shop. We asked a few people where the delgüür (д϶лгγγp/shop)is, a few of them just look at us with a blank face and another man laughs at us, we must’ve pronounced it wrong! But before we know we’ve found if ourself. While I hold the horses first Clare and Chloe walk in and buy themselves some coke, chocolates, sweets and other things. Then it’s finally my turn! I buy a can of coke, bag of sweets, chocolate and a bag of chips, Clare and I are on top of the world and are thriving on our sugar rush! This is what we were dreaming of the day before when we were so tired!

When we rode out of the soum I took my mobile phone out of my bag a tried if I had any reception, and before I knew my phone was beeping about 10 times receiving messages from my other half. I gave him a quick call to say hi and give an update on how everything was going and it was great to hear how he and everyone else at home and around the world were following me!

Phonecall made, all our ‘junk’ food gone, so it was time to make a move to urtuu 13. Squeezed in between the river and rocky cliffs with only a livestock track we got to the next station. Urtuu 13 was a well-known family in Mongolia as their daughter had represented Mongolia in one of the Olympics in judo and she had won a bronze medal!  The father of the judo champ was in a wheelchair, he had a car accident a few years ago and was now paralysed below the waist but still lived in a ger and managed it all well. Our horses vetted through without any problem so we could a new ride. They had some good sized horse at this station, Clare and I picked both chestnuts. Clare’s horse was saddled and good to go, my horse wasn’t too happy about the saddle and had a good buck and carried on like a bronco for the first minute. When it had cooled down one of the Mongolian guys got on him and cantered of without a problem, phew, I thought this one is going to be ok. With the message “be careful when getting off as they are a bit shy” be cantered away, along the jeeptrack through the valley. The horses hang a bit to the left for the first few km’s and we thought that they would do a U-turn and head back to their mates at the urtuu but.... they hang left the whole 40km! So that’s why we called then “The Lefties”. Luckily it was an easy ride through the valley without many obstacles because my right arm started aching a lot and if it would’ve been a technical track then I suppose I would’ve ended up somewhere else. A couple hundred meters out of urtuu 14 we carefully got of the Lefties to give our legs a little stretch and walked in, took the saddles off, vetted them through and picked a new horse. They offered us yet again a matching bay pair of horses, while they saddled them and made sure they were broken in and rideable, we had something to eat. Offcourse we got some milky tea, dried curd and bread on offer, but before I knew they came out with some vegetarian sushi for me and dumplings for Clare. We stuffed our faces full on all the food, laid down for 5 min, filled up on water and went back to get on our horses. The horses are being held each by 2 people, we get carefully on them and then we get the message: “Do not try to get off these horses during the ride until you’re at the next station.”  That was a slightly terrifying moment! As far as I knew there wouldn’t be a reason to get off the horse as I had been to the toilet (the hole in the ground behind the grass). Then 2 of the Mongolian herders get on their horses, take the leadrein and lead us out for the first 2 km’s. So far my horse and Clare’s both behave fine but seem just a tad shy when you move you arm or leg a bit more in their sight. The herder carefully and slowly gives me my leadrein back, canters beside me for another 200meter and then stops, looks if we’re ok and turns around back to his ger. Finally the ground is good going and is not unstable anymore because there are no more gerbils and their holes to worry about. In a steady pace we canter over the empty flat plain with big hills ahead of us, where our first high pass will be. We find the track that leads us over the hill and zig zag up on the hill, every now and then we have to stop at a puddle to offer our horses a drink and we enjoy the beautiful scenery. The scenery is amazing on top of the hill and it’s definitely a moment to celebrate that we’ve made it to the top and make sure we show the rest of the world how awesome it is up here.

Clare takes her GPS out of her pocket to check how far away we are from the next station, about 15km. She puts it back in her pocket but somehow the GPS detaches itself from its leash and falls on the ground.... Great! How the hell are we going to pick that up when we’ve been told NOT to get off the horses until the next station?!! I’m testing out if my horse shies or if he’s scared when I stick my hand out or leg he hardly moves, Clare does the same on her horse but he nearly gets a heart attack! It’s clear, I get of my horse to grab Clare’s GPS because my horse seems to be the most “quiet” out of the 2. Carefully I get of my steed and before I know he starts spinning around like a windmill and trots with great force right on top of Clare’s GPS! I manage to settle the little rat and pick up Clare’s GPS... it’s got some serious complications and is officially in a coma, I don’t think it will be working any time soon without undergoing any life threatening operations.

I give the GPS back to Clare and get ready to hop back on my horse, however he’s not too happy about it and before I know he pissed off! I’m trying my hardest not to let go of the reins but after being dragged for about 30meter over the ground with a pair of hooves close to my face, I decide that it might be better to let go of the reins before I get hurt! While I’m laying on the ground Clare screams and asks if I’m ok, I am but just GET THAT ******* HORSE! She gallops after my horse towards the pineforests down the hill, the only thing I can do is stay here and hope that she can catch my horse. I walk little bit down the hill to see if the horse is down there somewhere, I can’t see anything, I sit down on a rock for a moment and enjoy the amazing views and the beautiful flowers everywhere.  After 10 min I hear a howl.... Is that a wolf? A vulture or eagle? Phew, no it not! It’s Clare on top of the hill with my horse next to her! I walk back up and thank Clare dearly and take over my horse again. My leadrein has snapped and there is only about 40cm left. Getting back on my horse was going to be a bit of a task without a 3rd person to hang onto the horse, so we walk into the pines. We make sure there are lots of trees in a little area, set Clare’s horse in front of mine while Clare holds mine super tight and on the count of 3 I manage to get back on him! I’m a bit shaky and the adrenaline in rushing through my body but I’m unharmed back on my horse and we can continue. Down the hill and we’re at  urtuu 15. We ask if someone can hold our horses while we carefully get off, 1 loose horse was enough for one day, we untack the horses and say goodbye to them. Still full of excitement we tell the crew at the station what happened and lucky us, the herder tells that he hasn’t got any horses of that kind, phew! We fill up our camelbags, eat some food and pick a new pair of horses, this time we get 2 matching chunky chestnut geldings and the Mongolian herder tells us that we can get on AND off these horses without any problems. This leg is an easy one through the valley with beautiful scenery and good riding weather, we give the horses a drink at one of the creeks, a little nibble of grass and we’re on our way to urtuu 16. The horses were travelling great, they weren’t fast but they we’re willing and happy boys. By now it’s 8.15pm and we’ve got 10km to go, we’re not going to make it to station 16, so it’s time to find a Mongolian family who is willing to offer their home to some weird looking white strangers. In front of us are 2 sets of gers, we walk up to the first one, there are about 7 kids running around and playing, we’re wondering if it was a good idea to go here as it seems rather busy. The father comes outside and we ask if we can stay the night, but he say no. Slightly relieved we say goodbye and walk up to the next family, a lady walks outside followed by an old man in a deel with a belt and a massive silver belt buckle. We ask if we can stay the night here with our horses and they say yes. We untack our horses and the lady takes us to the creek 50 meter away from their ger, the horses have a good drink and we wash our hands and face. Back at the ger we ask the old man if he has a picked and a long rope to try the horses onto for the night, 5 min later he comes back and ties our horses to the rope and we invites us to come inside. After getting some milky tea we explain with the maps what we’re doing, we give the kids some colourful shoelaces and hairelastics. The lady trows a thin mattres on the ground for us and we roll our sleepingbag our and go to sleep.

Click here: Day 6 - The 2nd high pass
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