by Jeremy Barnes, of Colby College
First two weeks of the program have passed and many things have happened.
Our group, with matching hats (minus Rebecca).
We were in Ulaan Bataar (OO-lan bah-ter, or UB) for the first week or so, where our never ending stream of adventures were as enthralling as they were scintillating (shopping at the State Deparment Store, hiking on a nearby mountain, touring the National History Museum, driving out to Hustai National Park (and seeing Przewalski’s horses!!!), visiting a very cool Buddhist temple, and meandering through the (not actually illegal) black market. As a complicatedly boring result of temporarily losing some of our luggage in Beijing, we left Ulaan Bataar with Rebecca racing to try and catch our train. She didn’t make it.
The hottest thing in UB.
Trains are a truly majestic way to travel. The proposition of being trapped in a 40 square foot box with three other people for hours does not sound appealing, for sure, but travelling in a bed? Game changing. It’s also quite fun to see how many people you can cram into one cabin. We were up to nine and nobody even passed out, though it did get a bit stuffy after a few hours. Anyways, after a long night’s conversation and a good night’s sleep, we were in Erdenet!
The train. An old Soviet affair of maximum luxury.
Our time in Erdenet revolved almost entirely around trying to find a place that was open for breakfast early enough, and fixing up our furagon, which are old Soviet vehicles of staggering unreliability (and impressive comfort). It was also the first time I had seen a vehicle started with a crank. With breakfast finally achieved, we quickly left Erdenet and drove to Murun, to meet Rebecca and continue on our journey.
Taking advantage of our furagon breaking down to look at some birds.
We were spending the night at Lake Khuvsgol, with some of the family of Tumursukh, director of the Horidol Saridag Strictly Protected Area (where we’re working) and living legend. A beautiful place on a beautiful lake with lovely kind people. They have a cool dining hall with lots of impressive dead animal bits, where they fed us a delicious dinner of chicken (more on this later), and set up the sauna for us. We dipped in the lake, hung out in the sauna, and went to bed.
I left my pillow, Possum, there. They’re going to have their own adventure up to the Darhad Valley, and I eagerly await our reunion.
It turns out that Possum, as well as being a source of never-ending comfort, may have doubled as a good luck charm. Katie was hit fast and hard by some kind of food poisoning. I had been feeling in some way out of sorts the whole trip, so I didn’t realize that I was next. Note: eating chicken in Mongolia is not usually a good idea. It’s imported long ways with dubious care. It also turns out that protracted furagoning over unpaved roads and gastrointestinal difficulties do not play nice together.
An unrelated picture of a vulture. Death comes for us all.
We did make it, eventually. Camp is beautiful, and spirits were high. For most of us. By morning it was clear that at least four of us were sick: Katie (recovering), Joscie (with not a stomach problem somehow?), Evan (who was totally fine before, but now was practically bedridden), and me. We had a slow day.
Great success! Our beautiful camp.
The next few days were slow as well. While I felt impelled to imbibe simply vast quantities of no fewer than five varieties of laxatives, I was feeling better. Others were not faring so well. Soon after Evan had recovered, Chris was hit by the same thing. Rebecca and Rhia picked up a pair of respiratory issues to mix it up a bit too. If our research is near as varied and interesting as the assortment of ailments we managed to pick up, the semester will be a roaring success.
A view from near camp.
Despite my grim portrayal, things have been great. People have been taking everything in good humor, and it’s brought us closer together. We have to wait on some of the people from the parks anyways, and we’ve managed to be remarkably productive in the interim. Should everything go according to plan, we’ll be off into the mountains shortly.
All photos from Katie [Tennis] because she’s the COOLEST 🙂