Yak Tails
(Mongolian herd animals.)
Here’s our campsite from our second night in Hovsgol Province. As soon as we got settled in, along came this big flock of sheep and goats, just checking us out and letting us know it was their pasture we had chosen to sleep in. A herd of yaks wandered past, too. Of course the pasture came complete yak pies, goat pellets, and sheep pellets, but really it didn’t smell too bad, and it was charming to wake up to the “baa” and “maa” of the kids and lambs right outside our tents. As the days passed in Mongolia, we would learn that all the grasslands we saw were pasture, and no matter where we camped we were just guests on the herd animals’ turf.
When I got up in the morning, there was frost on our tent. I had been toasty in my sleeping bag all night, but it turned out that both Morley and Pacey were cold even though they went to bed with all their clothes on. I did put on all my warm layers before leaving the tent, and I stood on a big rock brushing my teeth and shivering. We had checked the weather online before we came, but we had no idea it would be this cold in mid-June.
As I brushed my teeth I watched the sun’s rays moving up the valley until they struck the grass just across the creek from me and steam started rising. So I walked over there, and ah-h-h-h-h it felt warm. The valley we were camped in was long and narrow, and here and there on the slopes were low log structures roofed over. We learned that these were winter camps, and the structures were shelter from the cold for the smaller animals. Families would come back to the same camp year after year, and set up their gers (yurts) to live in. The camps were close enough together that I imagine the winter must be a pretty sociable time.
As we drove up the valley it looked like almost everyone had left for their summer camps, but soon after we pitched camp a motorcycle came and passed slowly by while the two guys riding it looked us over. Pretty soon another motorcycle cruised by, and shortly after that another. I don’t know how many came by in all, that evening. Tulga says it was just an example of how fast news travels among the nomads, the news that foreigners were camping in the valley.
I was surprised to learn that the herders bring their animals to the low grasslands for summer and to the mountain valleys for winter. It was just the opposite of what I expected. The reason is that the wind on the grasslands will help keep the flies down in summertime, but the narrow mountain valleys like the one we camped in are more sheltered, providing protection from the wind in winter.
The yaks are shy, and so it was hard to get a good yak photo close up. Namuul said the yaks are the smartest of the herd animals, and he called them “the homesick animal,” because they were brought to Mongolia from Tibet many centuries ago. They’re very cute, and I spent a long time trying to get a photo of their bushy tails. As we drove through the grasslands in the following days, we saw mixed herds of yaks and cows, and occasionally bulls that were a cross between yak and cow, called a “hainig” (or something like that) in Mongolian. The hainig were huge and shaggy, with a yak head, big horns and a horse tail, sort of like they were put together by Dr. Seuss.
Mongolians use all their herd animals for meat and milk, and they make lots of things from their hides and hair. I went nuts in the market buying hand made straps of braided horse, yak, camel, sheep and goat hair which are sold for everything from saddle girths to strapping a ger together. I also got a couple of gorgeous camel hair blankets.
Horses, yaks and camels are the beasts of burden. The camels are the tallest, and the horse herds are the prettiest as they prance and run across the grass. All the animals we saw were healthy and pretty well fed, even though it wasn’t the fat season. The summer monsoons begin in mid-July, and that’s when the grasses will really grow and the animals begin to fatten up for winter.
