The morning started around 7 AM for me and as all the other occupants of the cabin were women I gave them their privacy and stayed out absorbing the surrounds. We had another 30 klms to go before we had a few rest days for the Naadam Festival. The ride was mostly undulating terrain and our bodies were now getting used to the longer hours in the saddle. We had covered around 200 km by this stage, and the horses showed no sign of fatigue whatsoever.
Aside from a few drink stops and a lunch stop, it was a relatively uneventful ride. The highlight, if you could call it that, was riding past a human skull on the side of the trail. Whilst this might seem a bit bizarre to us, it was 'a matter of fact' for our guides and wranglers. We were told that in older times, when people or animals die, they are taken out to a spot and left for the vultures. This is not common practice today and this could have been from a long time ago.
The town of Renchinhumbe was now in sight, but the longer we rode, the further away it seemed. Eventually we arrived at our lodgings for the next 3 nights. This was the same one we stayed at earlier so we were familiar with the ammenities. Everyone was hanging out for a hot shower and even though the water has to be boiled over a fire before loading it into the shower, it was a welcome relief after several days without. It was also an opportunity for some to do a bit of clothes washing and before long there were items of clothing draped across ballustrades and makeshift clothes lines. With dinner now prepared and everyone reminiscing the past few days it was time for a well earned rest.
The next morning we were told of the Naadam schedule. Now this is very similar to Mongolian kilometers. Where 10 mongolian km means somewhere between 5 and 20 km, 10Am means anytime between 930 AM and 12 PM. All jokes aside, trying to run a festival of this nature would be a logistical nightmare. Even though things didnt run on schedule, everyone was kept in the loop theough the PA system when it worked.
So what really is Naadam?
Naadam (Nayadam is a traditional festival celebrated in Mongolia that iterally means Games.
The games are Horse Racing, Mongolian Wrestling and Archery. Women have started participating in the archery and girls in the horse-racing games, but not in Mongolian wrestling.
The horses raced are between 2 and 4 years old with some races 6 years and over. The riders are aged between 4 and 12 years of age, and races are over distances varying between 7 and 27 kms. When you think about it, here we are sore and tired after a 30km trail walk that takes all day, and these young children are doing this in around an hour. What is even more amazing is some do it bareback!
The Mongolian Wrestling has a lot of ceremony to it. This is really hard to explain but the basic rule is to get your opponent to touch the ground with any part of his body except the hands or feet. Before they wrestle they parade around waving their arms after a referee removes their hat. When one is the victor, he performs the same arm waving before going back to his defeated opponent where they both slap each other on the buttock. The victor then goes to the winners post where he collects cheese cubes and then shares with the eagerly waiting crowd.
As much as we tried to find it we couldn't find the archery. We really wanted to see it and maybe even have a go, but no one had any idea where it was being held. Some said it was cancelled due to lack of entries but I was told an award was presented to the winner.
The festival ran for 2 days here and ended with a concert and party. With a ride out planned for 1030 AM we settled for an early night as I was starting to fwel the effect of a head cold coming on. Ann had already suffered with it for a few days and now it was my turn.
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