Three Camel Lodge

After breakfast we hopped back into the Landcruisers for our drive back to Three Camel Lodge.  For those looking for the Four Seasons of The Gobi, this is as close as it gets.  The luxury gers have an attached bathroom with large showers. I think everyone was excited at the possibility of not trekking across camp with clothes in tow.

We stopped to visit a nomadic family to see exactly how they live.  This family has two gers, one for cooking and one for sleeping/living.  We were offered the grandfather's snuff bottle as a form of welcome.  We were also offered cheese they had made from yak milk. After greeting us, he resumed his work on his main mode of transportation, a motorcycle.  It was a very interesting peek into their lives.

We had a little time after lunch to gather our pictures before the afternoon event.  Several local competitors were brought in to demonstrate the events held during the annual Naadam festival.  There are three different contests these athletes compete in during the July festivities : horsemanship, archery and wrestling.

First up were the wrestlers.  As you can see in the picture, the wrestlers wear blue briefs and a small open jacket when competing.  The jacket is the result of a female sneaking into the competition and winning several years ago.  Now, there is no doubt about the sex of the competitor.  The Mongolians are quite proud of their wrestling heritage and are very competitive in international competitions like the Olympics.  The wrestlers with us today hold jobs such as airport security, plumbers and hotel workers to support their wrestling .  Before each competition they all do the Eagle Dance, paying homage to the great hunter.  

We moved on to the Archery competition .  We had two people demonstrating their skills.  The woman is a champion and was fun to watch.  She took several steps to prepare for her shot, the last of which was pointing the arrow into the sky.

Finally we watched the horsemen first capture then ride horses from their herd.  Mongolians have a horse centered culture with children learning to ride not long after they walk.  A family's wealth is measured in the horses they own.  They never actually tell you the number of their herd but tell you the number of stallions they own.  

Motorcycles are now used to help herd the horses.  Once the herd was gathered near us, they chose horses to lasso as part of the demo.  Next, the riders passed by us and scrapped up the long pole they used to capture the horses.  The next challenge was to  grab a whip left on the ground. In their final and most difficult challenge the riders scooped up small sheep bones from the ground.  The number of bones they are able to grab indicated their skill level.  These riders are amazing.

After dinner, we gathered outside one of the gers to take shots of the stars and the Milky Way.  The sky is so dark that it was easy to spot the Milky Way and get great photos.  Since this was our first night shoot, there was a learning curve we had to get past.  However, I think everyone eventually got great shots.

Tomorrow: First day of School.