| 25 May 2010: Altai Tavan Bogd National Park, Mongolia (48.6670, 88.7242) |
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| After driving on what seemed to be one of the worst, never-ending roads ever (averaging about 50km every 90 minutes), we finally arrived at our camp. This turned out to be a serendipitous day because this family was in the process of packing up their home and the next morning would be moving from their winter camp to summer camp and we were invited to join them! |
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As we arrived in camp, this herder rode up on his majestic looking horse with its mane blowing in the wind. |
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As the full moon rose, I climbed the mountain to look down on this family’s winter camp home, nicely sheltered by the mountains. |
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After suffering enough in the cold, I retreated to the warm interior for dinner and some more salty milk tea. |
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The next morning, the family was awake at 4am to start packing their ger and belongs for the move to summer camp. |
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Even the family cat needed to be packed up, but it did not seem too happy about its treatment. |
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Getting to summer camp involved crossing a major river. It reminded me of playing Oregon Train in school; kind of scary if you think that your entire life could be washed away in an instant. |
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Then they rode off into the sunset towards the lush valleys of grass recently uncover by the melting snow, satellite dish and all. |
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| We followed along as they encountered each obstacle and got a real feel for what is involved to be a nomad (funny enough, comparing our lives to theirs, Rasa and I feel like modern day nomads). The next task was to set up the new home, which Rasa and I happily helped with. |
Dear Rob and Raza:
Keep sending the blogs!
Hope all is well on your end!!!
Best,
Hi Rob,
What unique experiences you and Rasa are having. I’ve really enjoyed your out of the way journies.
I had a meeting wioth Carolyn this week re Honduras and she told me that you have been accepted at the State Department. If this is true .. congratulations!! Tell me more.
Hello Ed,
We have been lucky to have so many opportunities to travel but with our school loans, all that will be coming to an end soon.
But hopefully, we will be able to continue it within State. I am still going through security clearance now but should know more next month. I’ll make sure to post something in the blog when I have news.
Thanks for asking.
Reminds me of my Coast Guard days on Attu Island in Alaska, where we waited for the snow melt so we could get to the other side of our 8 mile wide island with our WWII Vintage vehicles. No, it wasn’t 1942, it was 1962! The army did hike the perimeter of the island during WW2 and it was purported to have taken 30 days.
Hello Pat,
Tell me about it. I did some work up there in the Aleutian Chain and those islands are desolate but after sitting cooped up for three months on a ship, any walking was welcomed.
Rob:
Thanks for adding the date and the link to google maps. The linked worked perfectly! Now I can see where you are!
Great photos….as always.
Best regards,
Hi Jim,
Thanks for the suggestion. I will try to add the Google Map link as often as I can but sometimes I will not be able to access the internet to set it up. But I’ll always add the coordinates if I have them.
Cool. Annie, Miles, Paul and Susan.