At Monkh Tenger --7/28

The hills we hiked up with our camp in the foreground.

Ovoo at the top and a clue to what we walked down

Today, there was an optional museum trip that Jim and I skipped in favor of hiking up the nearby hills. Our first idea was to try to get to the wooded area on our left, but unfortunately, a river blocked our path and the only visible bridge was to the right. So instead, we crossed the bridge and hiked to a ridge line with 3 high points and 2 informal monuments. It was pretty steep in spots, but grassy, easy terrain.  The way down was more challenging.... rockier, steeper, and less clear which way would work. A couple times we headed off in directions that I thought were dead ends, but Jim always found a way to continue. Round trip, it was about 2 hours and I got in  the 10,000 steps I try to walk each day very early.
I spent  the rest of the day relaxing for me, and Jim caught up with email on the camp's computer. 

At 6  pm we had an archery contest, men vs women. Everyone got two shots in each of 2 rounds. There were people on both teams who had  never picked up a bow before. The women had a slight advantage with a closer target, but a weaker bow. Women won 4 to nothing.....I hit the target once, but the woman who did best was a total newbie. If close had counted for the men, Jim would have scored. Too bad I didn't bring the camera to the contest!

To keep the bugs out of our ger at night, they covered up the central hole. Since gers have no windows, this makes it REALLY dark inside. It was a good thing we brought our headlamps. The overhead light in our ger was broken and the table lamp plug wanted to fall out a lot. We DID enjoy the double bed, tho it would have been better if there were more of a mattress on the solid wood platform.