Terelj Area, MongoliaSunday, August 16, 2009
After ten days in the "big city" of Ulaanbaatar, we got out into the Mongolian countryside at last. And glorious it was! Leaving about 9:30 from our apartment on the outskirts of UB, we drove about 1.5 hours to Gorkhi-Terelj National Park. The park lies about 40 miles to the northeast of UB and while there are patches of bad road, the road is mostly quite good.
After ten days in the "big city" of Ulaanbaatar, we got out into the Mongolian countryside at last. And glorious it was! Leaving about 9:30 from our apartment on the outskirts of UB, we drove about 1.5 hours to Gorkhi-Terelj National Park. The park lies about 40 miles to the northeast of UB and while there are patches of bad road, the road is mostly quite good.
It's fantastically beautiful countryside, but I am not quite sure how to describe it--gently rolling hills with interesting rock outcrops, short grass (lots of grazing animals here), land that seems to just undulate (although rather pointily so at times).
We had a very nice lunch at one of the ger camps--where city folks and tourists go to relax and enjoy nature--and then many in our group went for a short horse ride. Indeed, this was Frank's first horse ride--
Along the way others in the group stopped to "hold" eagles--it's quite an amazing sight, too, because these trained hunting birds are BIG!
We hope to see a bit more of the countryside before the famous Mongolian winter descends...
