A Short Day's Ride to Davaa - Day 4 Solo

A short ride today. Only a couple hours after leaving Otgon and family I stop for an afternoon break. This place is called ly. Nuur means lake, and sure enough, a large lake is a few hundred meters distant. Lots of gers around here to choose from. It is a crap shoot, which ger are you going to stay at? Children are a good sign, and most have kids. The one next to where I am now was the one I first approached. I walked in to find a woman sleeping on the bed. So I turned on my heels and a boy led me to his family's log cabin. The invitation to stay the night came quickly. After two helpings of noodles and mutton, I sit by the outdoor stove where the wood pops and bread bakes.

The man of the house, Davaa, has both his hands heavily bandaged. Somehow he burned them terribly, maybe by grabbing hold of the stove's smoke stack, falling over drunk? With my camera I show the family fotos of Tomor and others I have met on my trek. They know many of them.

Many young boys here. Ganza has taken to me. He helps me with my horse, unsaddling and watering. I show him how to use the compass, and he teaches his friends. North, east, south and west in Mongolian are khoid, züün, omon and baroon. The curiousity here is that left is züün and right is baroon, exactly the opposite of the directions when looking at a map. I have pointed this out to a couple Mongols and they laugh and turn the map upside down!

The horse ride was fine. Max responds better every day to my commands. But he is hungry. The grass is short.

Ganza cuts hay with a scythe. I try my hand at it. Muu! Muu! Bad! He imitates my body motion that gives a rising and lowering to the blade. Better is to let the blade ride smoothly over the earth. Not so easy with my few minutes of practice.

All in all, a beautiful day.