Thursday 14th May
We had another good breakfast and then packed up and set off across the desert again. We didn’t have to go too far before we were on a tarmac road which was much more comfortable. Kharakoum is called a city but it was just about the size of a large town.
The Erdene Zuu Monastery is on the edge of the city. It is walled and has 162 Stupas around the perimeter. A stupor is a white building that sometimes contains ashes or ancient manuscripts. This monastery was founded in the 15th century by the second son of Chinnghis Khan. It is still a worshipping monastery so there were a number of monks wandering about.
In the monastery grounds there were quite a number of market stalls. The stallholders were very insistent that we buy souvenirs. We had to barter which I am not very keen to do but we got a few bargains. One stall holder was following us pestering us to buy.
We then set off into the desert to find our next camp site. This time it was by a river and surrounded by trees. Alan had difficulty finding the ideal spot for the facilities so we ended up with three.
We hadn’t been there very long when a herd of Yaks wandered by. Fortunately they didn’t linger.
The wind had started to blow and it was quite cool so we didn’t take too long before we were wrapped up for the night. It was still blowing strongly in the morning and we had quite a lot of bother getting all the tents and equipment stored away.
