Hello travelers, adventure seekers and steemit users. Today i want to share my story of 5 day travel on a horseback to a wonderful lake in deep forests of Mongolia.
First, let me introduce myself. My name is Daramjav (it is easier to call me darma) and i was born and raised in Mongolia. From very young ages i loved to travel around Mongolian countryside and experience a traditional nomadic lifestyle of Mongols. Currently, i am 22 years old and just graduated from Medical University. Me and my friends are passionate travelers too and every summer we travel around the country. But this year, we wanted something special and unique. Something dangerous, difficult and adventurous. We were bored of "comfortable" traveling,going by a car and spending nights in a resorts or tourist camps. It was exciting and nice to see a clean nature but we always felt like we are tourists, not travelers. So we decided to go fora a remote lake in taiga forest called "Blak Lake of Khag" also called "Black Pearl of Taiga".
It is considered as one of the 8 wonders of Mongolia. It is inaccessible by a car (even the toughest ones can't reach it) and because of this, fortunately, not a lot of people goes there. Most optimal way to reach this lake is by a foot, horse and some special bikes or helicopter. Not everyone can afford bikes or helicopter, so lot of people go there by a foot or a horse. After serious discussion and budget planning, our group consisted of 6 people and we moved from city of Ulaanbaatar (capital of Mongolia) to the nomad families lands to rent a horse. We hired a small van to take us there and told him to pick us up after 5 days.
(all necessary items are loaded and ready to move).
We barely knew the directions of the nomad families lands and because we moved from Ulaanbaatar at sunset, we got lost at night in offroad conditions. So we decided to spend a night at river side until sun comes up.
(Boys had a nice sleep outside in sleeping bags)
After waking up, we looked around and found ourselves in a completely different place as we expected. And we had to cross multiple rivers to get back to our planned road.
"Typical Mongolian offroads."
After wandering around for a while we finally found our destination. After having brief lunch, we prepared all of our luggage to be loaded on horses.
(Preparing the bags, tents, sleeping bags, emergency items and food)
We were all set and ready to go for our trip. We rented 11 horses and 2 local guys to guide us. 6 horses were for us to ride, 3 horses for luggage. We worried about the load being too heavy for horses but herdsmen assured us that 50-60kg of load is nothing for a horse. Indeed the loaded horses were freely moving and did not show any sign of being tired.
By the road we stopped to have a drink from a natural well of mineralized water. It has a very specific taste and refreshes the body and has various benefits for our health (not scientifically proven, but does no harm)
It felt great to finally breaking out of the boring city life. The weather that day was great with bright sunshine, cold breeze and fresh air. On the first day, we traveled for 4 hours and 15km's. As sun was about to set, we decided to set a camp near the river and spend a night there.
(Camping near a nice cold river)
)
(Cooking time)
(Cooling down in the river)
(Time for a fire and beer)
On the next morning we continued our journey to the lake. Our legs and crotch was sore from riding a horse the day before. So we had to endure some pain, but it was worth it. This days journey was longer than day before, it was almost 50km ride through mountains and it would take almost 6 hours. With excitement, energy and some pain in our asses, we continued our journey.
(Climbing a mountain)
(Parked at the mountain top)
We periodically stopped to let our horses rest for some time. As day was going on, we were beginning to get tired and soreness in our legs was getting worse. But the nature and air were so great that it acted as an anesthetic for us. The calm, wild forest and valleys were such a beautiful sight. I felt all my pressure and stress from routine depressing life going out of my mind and body.
After 7 hours of traveling, we finally arrived to Black Lake.
We arrived at the Black Lake during sunset and all of us were exhausted. We cooked our meals, drank some shots of vodka and proceeded to sleep.
(Morning at the lake)
(One of our guides. Cool guy)
The lake was so clean and there were very few people at the lake. Only 2 or 3 groups of people were staying at different sides of the lake so we weren't disturbed that much. We went to our neighboring group to borrow a fishing rod.
It was kind of a boring experience to fish in a Black Lake as fish was so abundant that we were catching 3 fishes in 1 minute. So we decided to just swim in the lake and have fun.
We had spent a nice day at lake and feeling sad that we have to leave tomorrow. On the next morning we met some guys who was just arriving at the lake.
These guys have walked for 3 days and was exhausted. They were running out of food and supplies so we helped as we could. The guy with the bicycle was travelling alone and met other guys on the way here.
Preparing to leave the lake. The way back to land of nomads was 2 days away. And it seemed like it was going to rain hard.
On the way back we gone past an abandoned house which was built during socialist times. Nowadays, this house serves as shelter for travelers. It has basic needs left there by travelers: Salt, sugar, tea, cooking oil and etc. So people could use them if they lack some of them and in return they would leave something else.
On the way back, we were hit by a heavy rain. Fortunately it didn't last long and we were not so wet and cold.
(We spent 4th night here. For some reason i dont have that much photo of that day)
On the last day of our trip, we climbed a mountain which is 2260m of elevation from sea level and returned to nomad family.
(Descending from mountains to steppe)
We arrived at nomads family and gave our horses back. We packed our stuff and waited for our van to pick us up.
We kept waiting and waiting. As there is no mobile connection there, we could not call the driver. But i was sure that he will keep his promise and come pick us up on 5th day.
(waiting and waiting)
He never showed up on 5th day. So we decided to spend another night there and hoped he will come next morning. Our supplies already ran out and we had no food to eat that evening. But generous local people have gave us food for the evening. On the next morning we understood that the driver will not come any time soon, so we decided to manage without him. And once again the kind and generous nomads helped us with a pick up truck.
So we climbed the truck and driver would drop us at the nearest place where we can catch a ride to city.
(I was the luckiest one because i sat in front passenger seat (i am the one in orange t shirt btw). All my friends were at the back, but i assume they liked it)
On the way back to the nearest village, we called 2 of our friends to pick us up. They kindly agreed and picked us up in no time.
We were back home safe and sound. We all were sunburnt, dehydrated and with sore butt. But i am sure that it was worth all of this. This journey costed each person about 200 dollars, which is heavily underpriced for such an experience. The horse rental was the most expensive thing in the journey. It costs 20$/day to rent 1 horse. But then again, i am sure that it is worth all the money we invested. I uploaded just a fraction of photos that we took during this journey and told you the same amount. As i am new to blogging and writing for people, you may find my story not so fascinating. But i challenge you to come to Mongolia and go to same journey as i did. I am 200% sure you will not regret it. Thank you for reading this post. I wish you all the best.