Terelj National Park - The Ger Camp

Pictures: Craig's / Mary's

After a night in the UB Guesthouse (thanks for the recommendation Matt), Craig and I left at 10am to Terelj National Park, about 80km from Ulaan Baator. We had planned on staying 2 nights in the Ger Camp, which would include 4 hours of horseback riding and meals.

It was beautiful weather when we got there, 20 degrees; enough to give both of us a slight sunburn on our faces by mid-afternoon. There were 6 of us from the UB Guesthouse that would be sleeping over that night and going horse riding. Unfortunately, Craig and I had to wait til 5pm to go riding due to luck of the draw and lack of horses. By 5, Craig and I could see that the horses were tired, but the Mongolian Guide was determined to get those horses to go for one more ride that evening.


Craig and I got on the horses and before I could even get my balance, my horse starting running straight for the stall, where they would stay for the night. Unfortunately the roof of the stall became shorter and shorter as we quickly ran into it, forcing me to lay back on the horse and roll off it. I don't remember much of the incident except that I hit the side of the stall and ground hard - and ran out as quick as I could before being ran over by the horse.

I ran to the Ger to inspect my wounds - and I was cut up pretty badly. Both my knees had deep cuts and I could start to see bruises forming on my arms, tights and butt. The Mongolian Guide ran up and in broken English asked if I still wanted to ride, but I could barely sit down on the bed, let alone get back on a horse.

My bedtime came quickly due to my desperate need to rest my beat up body. Craig and I shared the Ger with a German man, named Thomas and the 3 of us had a terrible time trying to fall asleep. The Mongolian family's dog barked half the night - then we felt the presence of mice running around inside the Ger. Thomas had left some dinner on the table and the mice helped themselves to the leftover food. If that wasn't bad enough, the 3 of us woke up to extreme cold. We heard what sounded like rain hitting the Ger, but when we looked outside, we were shocked and horrified to see that snow was falling, quite heavily.

Craig and I are used to snow and cold, but we had left most of our warm clothes back at the Guesthouse - thinking we wouldn't need much more than a long sleeved shirt. So for 3 hours, Thomas, Craig and I huddled together in the Ger, playing card games, until the Mongolian family came up with warm tea and dry fire wood. We told them that we all wanted to go back to Ulaan Baatar that day.

By noon, the van came and all 6 of us headed back to Ulaan Baator. We just wanted to get back to our warm jackets and buy warmer clothes for the unexpected snowfall. After we got back to the Hostel, I saw what damage the horse had done to my body. Bruises the size of fists covered most of it. I soon learned from other backpackers that I'm not the only one who had fallen off the horse in the past couple of weeks. Many people had fallen off and returned with dislocated knees or broken wrists. I realized how lucky I was to walk away from the incident with just a body bruise.

The rest of the day, Craig and I walked around Ulaan Baator, bought our tickets to Irkutsk, Russia, and met up with two guys from Ireland, Scally and Ollie, and a girl from Wales, Ruth, who were all taking the same train to Irkutsk the following night......