Explore the Lake -- 8/1

Jim on a horse. Guess who is happier?

We started the day with an hour horseback ride up a hill overlooking the lake. One of the horses had an unusual speckled coat, and I was eager to ride him. He was a good match for me and I felt pretty comfortable in the saddle, despite not having ridden for 20+ years. The only problem was the saddle, which was kind of rudimentary. Ropes held the stirrups to the saddle, so trying to get both sides even took some doing. Plus the stirrups were attached further back than I am used to, causing the ropes to rub against my calf and making proper foot position difficult. They gave Jim the biggest horse, who was happy to be at the end of the line. Mine was more interested in being first. All in all, it was lots of fun, and makes me think I could take up riding again.


It was a fine day and I sat in the sun and read for a while, waiting for the second horse ride group to come back. After lunch, we took a 20 minute boat ride to a spot further north on the lake, where we landed and hiked around for a bit, picking up yet more rocks. The 5 lbs of wine I brought with me will apparently be replaced with 5 lbs of small rocks...

Hiking the ridgetop peninsula where the boat took us.

We tried to get to the top of this hill.

So maybe I didn't get to the top, but the view is still pretty great.

Back at the camp, we decided to hike to the top of the hill behind the camp. Billy had told us he had taken his last group there and it took 50 minutes, but the route was too strenuous. He said we could find a path. HA! We walked across a pasture, thru a fence, and finally did find a path of sorts but it kept going further south than we wanted, so we took off cross country, straight up. At the 35 minute mark, we were 95% of the way to the top, in an open meadow with a glorious view, but I had had it. We had picked up an entourage of flies which were only kept at bay by swinging our arms. I found a rock to rest on and Jim went up a bit higher. We came down cross country too, as straight down as we could, and made it back to camp in 25 minutes... just over an hour round trip, when we had budgeted about 2 hours so I could be back in time for my massage.

The massage was great and I got done in time for dinner. After dinner, we were supposed to have a campfire by the lake, but it rained, so it was moved to the fireplace in the restaurant.  The Mongolian staff sang a song for us, then we discovered it was kind of a competition,  and we had to trade songs with them. Our group was a bit challenged and we sometimes sounded kind of sick, but it was a wonderful evening of cultural exchange. I found it interesting that most of the Mongolian songs were in a minor key, which gave them a sorrowful sound. Tomorrow we are up early for our trip back to UB.