Sixth summary – Survival on the white lake

Day: 437

Sunrise:
07:05

Sunset:
18:40

Total kilometers:
2525

Soil condition:
Asphalt

Temperature – Day (maximum):
15 °C

Temperature – day (minimum):
minus 12 °C

Temperature – Night:
minus 5 °C

Latitude:
49°01’460”

Longitude:
104°02’800”

Maximum height:
1281 m above sea level

What a wonderful feeling it was to enter our heated yurt for the first time. The bite of the cold could do us little harm in here. Even though Ayush was a strange fellow, we got along with him for the first few weeks. We overlooked his greedy nature. Bilgee showed me how to use the chainsaw. He helped me make a loft bed to protect us from the extreme cold of the ground, which doesn’t even stop at a yurt. Together with Tanja, he made felt pads that we needed as additional insulation and put all his know-how into making the yurt winter-proof.

As agreed, Tulgaa appeared to drive the horses back to Mörön. It was not easy for us to say goodbye to them. As Tulgaa said goodbye, he spoke of completing the route in three days. In the end, he needed three weeks. We later learned that the horses arrived at the military half-starved. We still don’t know who was to blame for the disaster that followed, as the sword of Damocles of starvation hovered over the animals for months after the winter.

After Bilgee had made his way home, we felt lost in the first few days in this strange place, but quickly got used to the new situation. The weeks were filled with a lot of organizational work. Another unforeseen hurdle was the corrupt mayor of the village and the mayoress of Tuwa. Neither of them wanted to allow us to stay with the reindeer nomads for more than a maximum of ten days. Living in a yurt was also forbidden. The women sensed money and thought of restricting us with permits, which were expensive. The backing actually came from the mayor in Mörön. He paved the way for us.

In order to get the consent of the Tuvan nomads, we took a four-wheel drive bus to their Taiga camp, which is about 40 kilometers away. Although our request to spend the winter with them was well received, the outcome of the Council of Elders was sobering. “You can only stay for a month for now. We don’t want strangers to intrude too much into our lives. We don’t want to share our problems, our arguments and our secrets with you,” it said. Although the cost of moving to the taiga with a yurt, equipment and food for six months was considerable, we were not deterred from our dream of spending a winter with the last Tuvan reindeer nomads.

Then a technical disaster set us back. Due to the extreme cold, my laptop’s hard disk died and buried a lot of my data. Weeks of work were destroyed. It was a nightmare and took a lot of energy. We sent the computer from the end of the world to Mörön in a four-wheel drive vehicle. From there, we took the plane to Ulan Bator, Beijing and then Frankfurt. It took six weeks until the good thing, actually equipped with new software and hard disk, found its way back to the taiga.

If we had previously been predicted to be plagued by boredom in the remoteness of the world, that was an absolutely wrong assumption. On the contrary, we were happy when nothing out of the ordinary happened. Once, for example, we thought that our Mogi had lost an eye that his rival Jack had bitten into. It looked bad. Fortunately, only the eye socket seemed to be affected because it recovered. Every day Tanja had to go to one of the cut holes in the Tsagaan Nuur to carry drinking and process water for us.

I was busy chopping and sawing wood every day. The supplies ran out faster than expected. Unfortunately, Ayush had not kept to the agreement and only got a load of wood. When we ran out of firewood at minus 45 °C, we had to think about what to do next. Shortly before the trip to the reindeer nomads, we finally received the second truckload we had financed. Even though we couldn’t take them with us into the taiga, the former mayor of the village didn’t give us any money back. On the contrary, he suddenly demanded well over twice as much from us to move to the taiga with his four-wheel drive truck. As we hadn’t anticipated the costs and there was no ATM in the village to withdraw money, the challenge was once again almost insurmountable. “No money, no truck,” he insisted stubbornly and emotionlessly. Saraa spoke to her cousin who then lowered the price to double the agreed amount. Still far too high. But since he had influence as a former mayor, none of his neighbors wanted to mess things up with him. Which is why no one was prepared to take us to the nomads in their own four-wheel drive truck. And perhaps there is a balancing justice after all? On the day of the planned departure, Ayush’s truck suffered serious engine damage. The cost of repairs amounted to several million Tugrik. Now we were able to set off in another truck after all.

We look forward to your comments!