July 24 (Thursday) – Drive to Tsambagarav Mountain

A very long drive today through some beautiful countryside.  

Today was a great day for a picnic.  We drove about 3 hours over gravel roads, some filled with water…

through gorgeous scenery with remote family gers…

and lots of livestock (camels, goats, sheep, horses and a few cows).

And a few camels. 

Along the way we drove through a very green valley.  The valley was so flat that the small river flowing through it seemed to spread very wide, making it so green.  A lot of animals were grazing here. 

A horse statue near a village on our route.

Our destination was Mt. Tsambagarav,…

Lunch at Tsambagarav-Mountain

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    Video 1 from our lunch spot
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    Video 2 from our lunch spot
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And its glacier (rapidly receding due to climate change).  Gorgeous location for a picnic (pizza and some Mongolian ribs, selected by our guide).

We are at a very high elevation. 

We had some riders come by as we were picnicking.

This is truly a harsh, dry, beautiful and dramatic area. We had great views from our lunch spot.

Some vultures along the route...

and some ravens.

They were working on a nearby carcass of something. 

Then it was the three hours back to Oglii.  Our guide, Bez took us to a nearby Turkish restaurant for dinner...although we didn’t recognize many of the dishes as Turkish.  And there was no baklava so that was a disappointment.