Slept okay last night but woke each time Sara came in to put coal on the fire. It was freeing when we woke up though as she was meant to put more on at about 7am so it would be warm when we got up. She didn’t come in until 8am but the fire had gone out so it took her till 9am to get it started. So when we got up it was a mad dash to get your thermals and all your layers on. We all slept in our clothes and even hats last night as we suspected it might get cold at some point.
We went to the food Ger tent at 10am for breakfast, which consisted of sausage, rice with peppers in and donuts and chocolate filled buns. Drinks were the usual Mongolian tea and warm fresh cranberry juice with all the bits in. I asked Jenny what was for lunch and explained I don’t eat a lt of meat at home so if there could be extra veggie food rather than just for Tracey then that would be great. It was easier to say that than offend when I kept leaving the grisly and fatty meat. She asked if we were all warm enough so we all said it was cold in the morning so no doubt Sara will have it like an oven from now on lol.
After breakfast we went back for a bit of a rest in our Ger’s to catch up on our journals. The fire wasn’t so hot so I stood another log on but got rumbled as Sara came in soon after and could hear the fresh log crackling in the stove lol. She then took out all the ashes and put fresh wood and a bucket of coal on. We had to keep making excuses to open our door to let some cold in as it was roasting (what did I tell you lol?)
At 12pm we all went up over the hill to a local Nomadic family that lived in another Ger camp. There were two families living there. The first family invited us into their tent and offered us milk tea (which is a local drink made with herbs and fresh cows milk and a bit of salt. It was really nice to be honest and you couldn’t really taste the salt. In their Ger they had a small calf lay near the door tied to the wooden slats . The calf had been born yesterday and was really small. Apparently, they keep it inside for about a year as it is too cold for it to survive outside otherwise. We chatted for a while and then as we left gave them some of the supplies we bought from the supermarket (flour, cooking oil and sugar).
Next we went to the tent next door where another family lived. They had horses outside that they raced in national races and had won quite a few prizes and medals. The woman explained that she had won a solar panel as one of their prizes. We were again offered some milk tea which was brewing when we got there. I think they were expecting us a lot later as she had lots of cookies laid out ready to put in the oven.
Instead they gave us different cookies and sweets with this 'tea'. The people didn’t speak any English so Jenny translated for us if we asked any questions.
Once we got back to camp we had lunch, which was a kind of Greek salad followed by dumplings. Luckily I got the veggie ones which where filled with rice and peppers rather than the meat ones filled with mutton. For dessert we got a kit kat LOL, not a traditional dish I’m sure.
Straight after lunch we played archery just outside the Ger tents with home made bows and arrows. It was hard to play with your gloves on but if you took them off they froze in a matter of minutes.
We had another sleep after Archery and then all met up again for dinner. This was a Mongolian barbeque, which was rice, vegetables and potatoes (for me and Tracey), mutton (for the others) as well as a cold cabbage and gherkin salad. For dessert we got homemade banana cake, which was really nice. We played cards after dinner and then got Jenny to write our names and family’s names in Mongolian so that we could copy it for our postcards.
Just before the sun went down and it went completely pitch black, Jason asked if we would take a pic of him for this facebook lol. Wel he kept his gloves and scalf on so he wouldn't freeze. LOL
Got to bed at about 11pm.