On Tuesday last week I travelled to Khovsgol Nuur in the north-west of Mongolia. Lake Khovsgol is the largest lake in Mongolia in terms of volume - being 136km long and some 262m deep! Over the Winter the lake freezes to a depth of 1.5 metres, which allows for vehicles to cross it on their way to Russia (although oil trucks are prohibited). For the past few years, the local community has been holding an annual Ice Festival, so this gave us a great chance to visit the region.
Scenes from the drive (just one flat tire, which must be record for such a long trip on the Mongolian off-road tracks)
Driving on the lake to the ger camp
We stayed beside the lake at a Mongolian family's ger camp. During the days before the festival, we spent our time horse sledding on the frozen lake, horse riding and hiking in the forrest and hills, and in the evenings listening to the sounds of the ice cracking and water gushing against the ice on the lake.
The festival was a two-day event with lots of traditional activities including horse sledding, ice skating and Russian van races, as well as sumo wrestling, tug-a-war, curling, bowling, fashions on the field (children, men and women categories) and even karaoke! One particular highlight of the festival was the fish khuushuur (a deep fried dumpling filled with fish), which we enjoyed with some milk tea in a ger. I also loved admiring the colourful deels and animal-fur headwear worn by the locals.
On the first day of festival I had my first experience on the ice slide (shown above). On my second attempt, I reached the bottom and was in the progress of standing up (in my large and heavy felt boots) when a Mongolian man standing on his feet slid down the slide towards me. Before I could get out of the way, he had knocked right into me, taking my legs out from underneath me, which resulted in me falling awkwardly on to the ice. Luckily I was with people skilled in first aid and had locals to take me to the closest hospital in the village of Khatgal, about 10 minutes drive from the festival. The local doctor did a great job fixing up my wound with 3 stitches; the international doctor back here in UB was quite impressed. Apparently the staff at that rural clinic are used to treating such types of injuries as they are often experienced by locals as the result of drunken brawls and horse falls.
With one of the kids from the family we stayed with on the lake
I didn't want to leave Lake Khovsgol, but the experience has made me even more eager to get out into the Mongolian countryside as much as possible. It is such a beautiful and unique country. While at Lake Khovsgol we were told of a proposal in the 1980s to mine the rich phosphorus around the lake. The Mongolian people at the time resisted this heavily due to the great environmental risks to the area, so it was rejected. Unfortunately, a similar idea has been proposed in the past year, but hopefully the Mongolian people will continue to fight against this for the sake of the beauty and purity of the lake.
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