Terelj was one of
the only places that I had planned to visit before we arranged to do
the story with Panoramic Journeys because I had read that you could
do some independent hiking in the national park, so after breakfast,
I asked the newly returned husband how we could do some walking in
the forest. His response was to wave vaguely in the direction of some
hills on the other side of the river that ran past the bottom of the
camp. When I asked that how we got across the river he said that it
was very shallow – but then added that it was 'crazy cold'.
After some cajoling,
I managed to convince the others to accompany me and off we went. We
took off our shoes and socks and stepped gingerly into the clear
river. It was true, the water was shallow – only about ankle depth
– but it was also true that it was 'crazy cold', so cold that it
made you knees ache, so cold that it made Sarah cry. Once we were on
the other side and had our shoes and socks back on, we headed in the
general direction of the hills. Once again, it as a lovely sunny day,
and before long we had made it to a patch of tall trees. But then our
progress was halted by another arm of the river. We walked along the
bank for some time, looking for a fallen tree or some other way of
getting across, but eventually the girls gave up and all three of
them turned around and returned to the camp.
I wasn't so easily
defeated and kept looking for a way across, which I duly found in the
form of a series of fallen trees. The hillside was now closer, but I
still had another arm of the river to cross, and then another and
another... It turned out that the river was braided to an incredibly
frustrating degree – each time I found away across one little
stream I would quickly come to another and have to walk up and down
the bank looking for a way across. I finally came to the conclusion
that the only way I would make it to the other side was to take off
my shoes and socks and walk through the river, which I duly did. Oh,
the cold! My legs almost gave up at one point, but then, success –
I was on the other side.
I quickly scrambled
up the hillside – lunch wasn't far off and I still had to make it
back across and find my way home – which had a large rocky outcrop
that looked as though it would offer a good view back over the river.
As I crested one section of rocks I spotted something white in the
grass – on closer inspection I found what looked like a pile of
very large dog poo, and near it was another, and then another. The
grass looked as though it had been pushed down and I can only
speculate that a pack of wolves had used this quite sheltered spot as
a resting place sometime not too long ago.
A bit more
scrambling and I made it to the top of the outcrop and yes, it did
offer a magnificent view over what is definitely an extremely braided
river. I quickly snapped of a multitude of photos and then headed
back towards the camp. The fact that was retracing my steps didn't
make things much easier – if anything, I think I spent more time in
the water – and I was very pleased when I finally had my shoes and
socks back on and walked back to our ger. Which was empty – athough
I had made it back by the scheduled lunch time, it had been served
early, so I went across and joied the others for a meal of fried
noodles and meat.
After lunch we
convened the School of Mum and Dad for a while and we all did some
reading. I finished the stash of New Yorkers I brought for this leg
of the trip (I still have a few in UB) and started on my Kindle –
bought especially for the trip. We had some soup for dinner and then
snuggled up in the ger, all of us feeling a little unwell.
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