Having spent two days in the city, we asked Graham Taylor to organise a visit to the Khustain National Park for us, about 100 kms west of Ulaan Baatar.

We visited Graham's office again before we left Ulaan Baatar

 

On the way out of town, we saw a clear example of the Soviet legacy to Mongolia – huge belching coal fired central heating and power stations polluting the environment.

The heating and power stations in Ulaan Baatar polluting the environment

Driving along the main exit out of Ulaan Baatar

The Ulaan Baatar Railway Station

A Railway Museum near the station

Houses and gers on the outskirts of Ulaan Baatar

A small town on the way out

We drove onto the dirt roads again

A sheperd we passed with his herd of goats

We drove for two hours gradually into more and more snow covered terrain and then turned south to the park headquarters.

Snow covered scenery

Entrance to the Park Headquarters

 

Our accommodation is a traditional Ger complete with a beaut little wood burning stove that keeps us very warm.

Our Ger where we stayed at the Hustai Nuruu-Takhi Wild Horses Resort

Dick relaxing in our warm Ger

After lunch we met a local guide and were taken up into the mountains driving through heavy snow cover in search of the Takhi – the Mongolian wild horse.

We drove into the hills all covered in snow

Pip standing in the snow looking for the horses

Deer in the Park

The last wild Mongolian Takhi was spotted in the Gobi in 1969.  Fortunately, a number of the horses – called after their modern discoverer, Przewalski a Polish explorer who first discovered the horses in 1878, were breeding in Zoos – including Australia’s Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo NSW.  Between 1992 and 2004 Takhi were re introduced into Mongolia at this National Park.  They are now thriving and today there are over 150 in the park.  After a one-hour search, we discovered a mob of these horses in their natural environment.  In this particular case it was a modern Zoo that saved the animal from extinction.

A stallion Takhi Mongolian wild horse

A group of female Takhi wild Mongolian horses

Driving back to camp through the deep snow

We are now preparing this text in our cosy Ger before going over to the restaurant for dinner – this is a deluxe tourist camp Ger.  There is plenty of snow sitting on the ground outside and the temperature is around -11° C as the sun disappears below the horizon for the night.

Dick rigged the satellite phone up onto the Ger's vertical roof support as Pip typed up the words for the website and we were able to send this and the photos through the roof of our ger as it is made of compressed wood.

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