Rocky path

If we have believed yesterday to move on dangerous paths so the today’s ride is an increase hardly to be described. Riding directly on the embankment of the stream the space for us is getting more and narrow. It is getting so narrow that space for the horses Sharga and Bor is not enough anymore. So Bor which is bound on Shargas neck must rise about thicker and thicker rock blocks. The available space is not enough for the packhorses to turn. They would fall flatly in the river. Nervously I sit on Sar and watch Bilgee in front of me. Slowly he rides further. One this we would have to take photos! I call to Tanja considering her directly behind myself. No chance. I deal enough with Naraa and Mogi, she answers. To take the risk to shoot a few photos in the saddle, stands in no relation to the danger to drop the camera by mistake. Undoubtedly it would smash on the rock among us. Suddenly Bilgee has disappeared from my view field. He has to do a way around the rock, I say to Tanja. Because to me at the moment nothing else remains I follow slowly. Riding further I see a narrow path. Carefully I press my heels in Sar’s flank. Slowly he put a hoof before the other and presses his body along the sharp cliff. Sharga follows. The sea bags scrape along the rock. However, Bor stumbles and catches himself. Also his load scratches in the rock. The path widens. I see Bilgee waiting for me. A wide smile goes over his face. Immediately I turn in the saddle. Tanja comes with a grin around the rock. This is a true adventure, I hear her calling to myself. True adventure! I answer and feel my pulse.

In the valley we meet a shepherd: Where do you come from? Where do you want to go?, we understand the usual questions. We ride to Tsagaan Nuur, I answer. Tsagaan Nuur? You better do not go. There it is very cold, he says. To confirm his statement he shakes his whole body as he would have put two fingers in a socket without being able to pull them out again. He exaggerates certainly, I say to Tanja. But I must admit being very impressed by his appearance. I can only hope that he does not frighten off our Bilgee, because he gets the explanations in his language served. Who knows? Everybody we meet speaks of the gruesome cold there, replies Tanja. Yes, yes, may be quite cold. But they act thus as if we rode directly in the icy hell.

Because also in Tsagaan Nuur live people every age and these are absolutely no supermen I have the feeling this here is exaggerated. However, maybe it also is in such a way that it is worse and worse on the other side of the river than in the own village. The bad are always the others and they live always there and not here. At least people have told us this during our trips not only once. Here maybe it behaves with the cold just the same.It is bitter cold there, however, with us it is warm. The Tsagaan Nuur is only 150 kilometer as the crow flies away from here. And this cannot put out the infernal difference. Or makes it a difference?

Tschu! Tschu! Tschuu!, we try to make some distance with our horses after we crossed the mountains. Once more I think of the distance still lying before us.

By the warnings being unsure I calculate our present march achievement. Not exactly what I expected. We had planned seven to ten days up to the aim. As well as it at the moment looks we need 15 or 16 days. And the path should still bee well here. But if the way over the mountains was well then I ask myself what is bad? One oh one. Nevertheless, I think they exaggerate everybody. The way can not become worse, goes me by the head. Tschu! Tschu! Tschuu!, I shout to hold the horses at a trot.

Wind on open land

With the last sunlight we reach another valley. Horses gallop above the dusty steppe. Icy wind whistles and I am thankfully to wear a winter deel. Bilgee would like to ride again at the opposite end. “This is getting to late. Now it is already quite bitterly cold. We should search protection behind the hut”, I say on an old wooden small house looking. Bilgee can be convinced. Near the hut, directly on the shore of the Egiyn Gol, we unload our courageous animals. Everybody follows silently his duties. Our camp is quick established. “Wow this is cold”, I say. “Maybe the people do not exaggerate?”, believes Tanja. “With exaggerating I mean not that they understate, but that it is not much colder there also than here”, I answer.

Tanja complains about ice-cold toes. As Bilgee led a small fire she takes off her shoes and warms her feet near the flames. It is 07:00 p.m. and the thermometer already shows minus 15 degrees. Our camp is in the centre of a high valley. Defenselessly we are delivered to the wind at the open land. Also my toes hurt like hell. I am aware that they are shortly before freezing to death. “This can go quite fast”, somebody warned us in Germany. “Frostbite causes at first only uneasiness and is not possibly noted by you, because the cold has a deafening effect on the tissue. Remember that frostbites mostly begin from minus 12 °C. But with unfavorable conditions like strong wind, dampness or general under cooling of the body frostbites are already possible with approx. 0 °C”, I remember the warning of a doctor.

“And does it become better? Does the feeling come back?” I ask Tanja anxiously. “Yes, becomes better”, her answer calms me. Because she is occupied with her feet to thaw I have taken over the cooking. ÑHave a lookì, Tanja says showing me her shoes. “Ice”, I say amazed. “Yes ice. In the shoe”, she answers. “This means, that the sweat is not outwardly transported and flows separate in the shoe and there it freezes to ice. We have not only noted it because the inside shoe is made of synthetic material and gets not directly into contact with the ice”, I conclude. Immediately I take off my shoe and pull the inside shoe out. “There is water in it”, I am amazed. Because I am occupied with the cooking I put my shoe fast on again. But it feels like in a refrigerator. After the water cooks I try to fill it in the thermos bottles in vain. I am not able to open the fastener. “It has frozen”, I say. “Pour hot water on it”, recommends Bilgee. “A good idea”, I answer and see there now I can turn up the fastener. By the wind we are put out very sudden to extreme conditions. Everything round us seems to solidify in short time. All kinds of fasteners freeze over so as if they were sealed with superglue. Plastic breaks. Even tea in our cup solidifies if we not drink it fast enough. I commit the mistake to take my spoon in the mouth after I laid it down shortly. Immediately it freezes on my tongue
“Ah!” I get a fright, however, there it is free again. As a result my tongue feels a little furry. “You must still go to get water”, says Tanja. ÑOh no. So wellì, I groan and go down the embankment. In the conical light of my forehead lamp I toddle with ice-cold feet above the ice to find an open place. Then I dip bare hands a water bottle in the wet. The pain is amazing. Even more freezing than before I bring two bottles of water back in the camp. Immediately we cook the water and fill in thermos jugs and hot-water bottles.
With minus 18 °C we go in the tents. Trembling we get undressed. “At least we are not put out to the wind any more”, says Tanja. “Thank God”, I give her right. I take my stiffly frozen inside shoes with in my sleeping-bag to thaw them with body warmth. This is a mistake because the shoes radiate so much cold that I do not get my feet warm, even using the hot-water bottle. Then I try to bring my laptop on operating temperatures. It absorbs a lot of warmth from my small hot-water bottle that it is only lukewarm afterwards. One hour I lie stiff in my sleeping-bag till I feel fairly warm and get ready to do my day records. Anyhow I have the feeling the documentation of this trip is more strenuous than the trip itself. While I write my update Bilgee has night shift. At 11:3o p.m. I have to go to pee. The thermometer which I have fastened on the tent square shows minus 20° C. Up to now this is the coldest night of our whole present trip. “My God I am glad when we come healthy to Tsagaan Nuur”. I whisper to myself and try to keep open the eyes till 2:30 a. m. in the morning. Then it is Tanja`s turn. Her shift goes from 2:30 a. m. to 5:00 a. m. This is also no fun It is all the same does not matter which shift one just has. Any shift is tiring. Sometimes it is almost inhumanly tiring.