Ramblings of an Irishman: Day 20

[Taken on the way to the ger camp]

Ali and eagle

Dawa, our guide, with our driver

Sharing a ger with Jake and Dom

Horse riding yesterday was amazing fun. A peaceful walk to a wild gallop, I don't think I had much control over what speed my horse was going. I named her Sam, for the Sam Maguire. Dom had Gary for Gary Neville, Seb had Bruce, Nicci had Penny (white), Kim had Colin, Kelly had Buddy. Lukas showed his competitive side, spurring Bastard on to a wild pace. Hollie had Queenie, and Andy had Chewbacca.

To make the horse go faster, one shouts 'chu'. We rode out to Turtle Rock, and returned. Myself, Dom, Hollie, Kim and Jake climbed the nearby ridge to watch sunset. I did a bit of rock climbing but lost a lens cap in the process. Fortune smiled though, and I found it after a quick search. Jake captured a nice time lapse of shadows chasing across the valley, and did it manually - good effort!

Face-off with the horses

Turtle Rock!

The lads

Horse cam!

Wild West shot

Still one of my favourite photos of the whole trip - Hollie was
completely unaware what was happening right underneath her

Climbing to sunset

The sun sets on Hollie

Dinner of dumplings, and then we all bundled into the yurt for some cards. The hear from the the fire was intense, and everyone was in shorts and tshirts. Team Swiss taught us a new game - "Farmers and Werewolves", a psychological battle of divide and conquer. We managed three games, the first two I was a werewolf. We won the first game, and I was the last survivor of the second, though we lost. I was killed off early on in the third game, but found it difficult to stay mute, making an eejit of myself again.

Our cruel gamesmasters

J'accuse!

***

Woke up at 5.30 this morning to watch the sunrise. Dom, Lukas, Kelly, Seb & Nicci, Brigitte, Andy, Hollie & Kim came too. The sunrise itself wasn't anything spectacular, but the light changing across the next valley was beautiful. The whole experience was amazing. On Andy's suggestion, I ran down to the camp which was still in darkness, and watched the sunrise a second time.