We all went to bed quite late, not midnight, sometime around 11pm. We were all exhausted. There is no bathroom of course in the Ger camp, just an outhouse. It's not too bad, just really freezing. Before going to bed I made everyone use the outhouse, kids were not happy, but I was happy no one woke up at 3am and had to use the bathroom. Luckily we brought toilet paper with us. Lincoln had a cold the whole time and used up most of our tissues and toilet paper, luckily we did have barely enough for the 3 days. The host family made sure we had coals before going to bed so our Ger was warm. Around 3am our Ger got really cold and they came in again to add more coal. They added too much because we all woke up dying of heat. We felt like we were going to suffocate. We opened the door for a while and it helped. We all didn't get up in the morning till around 8am. The dogs all started barking and Izzy was too eager to go out and see them. She got all dressed and was first up to pet all he dogs and she made sure to wipe off all the ice that got on them during the night. Mabel also got up and Sawyer. They all went out to help feed the dogs breakfast. The dogs ate bowls of soup basically with good meat in them. They want to make sure they get enough liquid in the morning, so they get soup in the morning and a chunk of frozen meat in the evening. For breakfast our guides came in our Ger to eat with us. The host family brought in fried bread and more hot water for coffee and tea and luckily we had our hot chocolate packets. It was a good breakfast and we were all ready for another day of dog sledding. Lincoln hurt his foot a few days before the trip. He cut it on Grace's broken dog bowl. Probably should have gotten stitches so it could heal faster, but it was fine. We worried about him sledding with it, but he was fine while we were sledding. In the morning we just made sure it was bandaged enough.
Our guide Joel also gave us these warm gloves to wear, thank goodness for these and hand warmers, they saved us!
Today we went further up the river. It was such a beautiful day! The landscape also changed and it was beautiful. We ran into a lot of water when we got closer to our stopping point for lunch. The water is from when the river freezes so quickly the moving water below gets pushed up to the top, so you are dog sledding in water and chunks of ice. It gets pretty interesting and the dogs do not like the water. Kelly's lead dog Luna really didn't like the water. She kept trying to go different ways. Kelly had to get off and help push the sled many times and try and get her to go the right way. We had to wait quite a while for him to catch up. We actually had to eat lunch in a different place on the ice than he usually goes because there was way too much water ahead. So we stopped at this nice place and they built a fire on the ice. For lunch today we had these great Khushuur, they were kind of like empanadas with meat in them. They were really good and hot again!
When Kelly finally caught up with us, after struggling with the dogs in the water, he had ice crystals on his eye lashes. Very cold day!!
After lunch we started heading back through the water again. It sure makes things interesting when you have to help the dogs through the slush. We passed a heard of sheep that was crossing the river and the dogs were all going crazy. We had to hold the sleds till they past.
Our Ger camp was a welcoming sight, we really needed to get warm. I thought my toes were going to all off and Lincoln's toes were freezing also. Our Ger was so nice and warm! I love that they always have it ready and hot for us! Kelly's boots were stuck on him and our guide Joel had to help him get them off. Another cold fun day!! Izzy went to all the dogs and started rubbing them to get the ice off their fur. She sure love those dogs! Luckily we have a great dog at home. Joel said that our dog could be a dog sledding dog, she had the right build. But she would be a wimp in the cold. These dogs are so tough and they start as puppies!
For dinner we ate in our own Ger this time. Our guide Joel and the 2 other guides ate with us. It sure is tight around that little table but really fun. We had really delicious soup with dumplings, potatoes, meat. It was so good. All the kids liked it, they did pick out all the potatoes because they love the potatoes and took mine. We sat around and learned all about Joel's Winds of Mongolia company. How he started dog sledding in Mongolia and stories of some of his clients. He is quite fascinating. After dinner we looked at the stars and Kelly and the kids saw the eyes of a wolf. They were pretty excited about that. We all went to bed earlier, all so tired. The girls were a little silly and it took a while for them to sleep. I woke up around 2 hearing Lincoln really needed to blow his nose. But he had already used up all our toilet paper and tissues. I remembered that I had seen some toilet paper in the outhouse, so I said I would go out and get him some. I was really brave, got my coat on and ran to the outhouse. Luckily there was toilet paper there. After I got back, and did not get eaten by a wolf, the kids were all waking up because it was so cold in our Ger. They hadn't added any coal yet during the night. Kelly got up and added a ton of logs to the oven, but he must had added too much because we were all smoked out. We had to open the door for a while to let out all the smoke. It took a while to get all the smoke out before we could sleep again. Later on in the early hours of the morning the Ger family came in and added coal. They didn't add too much this time so we didn't get too hot. We all slept till 8:30. It was a pretty good night sleep.
Wolf eyes
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