In lieu of a rest day, on day 9 we had a short 25km bike ride over a pass to a tourist ger camp near the town of Ikh-Tamir. There were 3 tourist ger camps in this spot as it's next to a famous rock (Taikhar Chuluu). Unfortunately the rock is riddled with graffiti and surrounded by pushy touts (you can get a photo of yourself on a horse in front of the rock). However it looks like there would be some good short climbing routes on it, but you'd have to watch out for the loose candy in the pocket holds (offerings)! An organized (supported) group of German mountain bikers stayed at the camp as well. The tour leaders had clearly brought food for the group as they had much fancier meals than we did in the camp's restaurant.
The next day we pushed on another 70km and set up our tent on a ridge somewhat hidden from the gers in the valley bellow. A couple boys (early teens) on horses came by and chatted with us and just hung around playing. Only later, when their big brother came around looking for them, did it become apparent to us that they had been sent to herd the goats and sheep back to the ger and were slacking off.
On day 11, we stopped in on a great guanz (small roadside restaurant) for a second breakfast of noodles, onion and meat. This fuelled us for a long 80km day in the hot sun. We got to the town of Tariat and went looking for an English teacher who opens up her home as a guesthouse. Since she wasn't home (though her mother indicated we could stay there) we continued on to the national park by the lake known as Tsagaan Nuur. The English teacher found us on the road and invited us to her basic ger camp on the south side of the lake. She also told us our Spanish friends were staying there. Though this was appealing, the alure of a full-fledged tourist ger camp 5km away on the north side of the lake was too much temptation. We therefore declined the offer and found our way to the Kongor camp. We haven't regretted the decision. This place has the best food we've had since (at least) Ulaanbaatar, very friendly staff, and great hot showers.
Day 12 is a rest day at Kongor. We hiked up the nearby volcano and came back for a large lunch. We will probably take another rest day tomorrow as this is (and this time we're serious!) the last bit of luxury we expect to have until we hit Olgii in 4 weeks.
Pictures from days 9-12 are in a new album. Sorry, no inline images today as this camp only gets power from a generator for 2 hours a day.
Map of route for day 9-11 (google earth version).
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