An amazing stay in Mongolia, the family we stayed with were so welcoming and such a lot of fun. We flew Eagles, helped with the animals (much to their amusement) baby goats are just the very cutest creatures I have ever seen, rode camels, ate a lot of weird food and drank copious amounts of vodka!! It was the time of the Kazak Nauryz festival, one of the oldest, non-religious holidays on earth, welcoming the return of spring. Needless to say, we were asked to eat with so many different families. Each family we visited greeted us with tables groaning with sweets, biscuits and always the centrepiece was a silver platter with a sheeps head on it. The eldest male member around the table (usually Doug ) was asked to say a blessing and then cut a small piece of meat off the head and pass it to each person around the table - difficult if veggie, but managed without offending I think!!
The other tradition is that if a bottle of vodka is opened it has to be finished - fine if there are 20 of you around the table, hard work if there are only 5!!!!!!
We slept in gers which were great, the toilet was a long drop a short walk away, the temperatures were -20ish at night but we had a stove blazing most of the night so we were very snug....
The scenery around us was empty, bleak, snowy but always beautiful - I adore the feeling of absolute freedom.
Oh, run out of time so the pictures will have to speak for themselves......sorry....until next time
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