Apparently, all was not well in the Song-Kul yurt camp. Mice had been terrorising some of my fellow travellers. I personally found the mice to be rather cute. They also lived in burrows, making them hard to catch!
I went for a walk up the hill behind the yurt camp. Probably only a 100m high hill but at 3000m above sea level, my lungs were begging for oxygen. I did however enjoy the views from the top of the hill.
In the afternoon, I was off horse riding. My last experience on such an animal was apparently the most funniest thing my family had heard about, riding a donkey down the side of a volcano. Well there is no humour in this story. I had a lovely grey horse that wanted to eat grass a lot. It also liked to run other horses off their path. I’m proud to say, I managed to get the horse into a trot and then a canter several times. Far more thrilling than walking I must say.
For dinner I was able to try the legendary “kumis”, fermented horse milk. It had a smokey flavor to it. Not too bad, but not something I’d race off to drink again. At this moment the guide informed us some goat polo was going on by the lake, so we wandered down there to see some serious goat polo. So serious in fact that the police were present to referee any disputes. Sure enough the first goal was disputed.
Goat polo
Unfortunately the festival that the goat polo was playing at was to start in earnest the following day when we left Song-Kul
Song-kul