About 9 hours later we arrived at a ger camp a few kms from the lake. The arrangement was the same as before - one that I would become rather accustomed to over the next few weeks - no running water, no electricity, pit toilet. In the evening when we arrived, the ground was bare but the sky was grey. We awoke to a blanket of fresh snow, which continued to fall all of the next day which we spent at the camp.

Four of us opted to take a guided horse trip to the lake. The camp family dressed us up in thick traditional Mongolian coats and sent us off on 4 of their slowest horses. Because of the weather, visibility was low and there wasn’t much to see at the lake. It is still frozen so we walked out onto the edge of it, but didn’t stay long since we were all freezing. I spent the rest of the day by the fire.

In the evening we celebrated the birthday of another traveler staying in the ger next-door with a few bottles of vodka.