HAPPY CAMELCamel Riding at Black Lake (13 days)p. 1
Camel Riding at Black Lake
inZavkhan Province
(13 days)
13 Days 2 Nights in Hotel 4Nights Tented Camp
6Nights Ger Camp
Happy Camel invites you to discover the natural and cultural wonders of Mongolia, one of the last remaining seldom-explored countries. Largely inaccessible to the Western world until only recently, Mongolia offers a rare glimpse into an ancient nomadic culture that has changed little over the centuries.
The traveller will discover this untouched country by exploring the rare combination of ancient traditions of Buddhism, nomadic horse-based culture and natural beauties such as the high mountains, the grasslands and the desert region.
Hiking Camel Riding LakesKharkhorin Monasteries Museums Sand Dunes Family Stay Tsenher hot spring Khar Lake UliastaiSenjit Rock TerkhiinTsagaan Lake Extinct Volcano
Trip Type: Camel Riding Western Mongolia and Central Mongolia
© Happy Camel Travel Co., Ltd.E-mail: el
HAPPY CAMELCamel Riding at Black Lake (13 days)p. 1
Quick Itinerary Reference
1st day arrival in ulaanbaatar
2nd day drive to karakorum
3rd day thenher hot springs and hot spa
4th day drive to terkh white lake
5th day free day in terkh white lake
6th day lake tselmen
7th day drive to black lake
8th day camel riding at khar lake
9th day camel riding to mukhart oasis
10th day camel riding to senjit stone arch
11th day camel riding to the camp
12th day flight back to ulaanbaatar
13th day departure
© Happy Camel Travel Co., Ltd.E-mail: el
HAPPY CAMELCamel Riding at Black Lake (13 days)p. 1
Map of the Itinerary
© Happy Camel Travel Co., Ltd.E-mail: el
HAPPY CAMELCamel Riding at Black Lake (13 days)p. 1
1st day arrivalin ulaanbaatar
Upon arrival at the airport you will be welcomed by our team. We will bring you to your comfortable, centrally located hotel. Ulaanbaatar is fast-growing modern city with more than 1.3 million habitants.Depending on your arrival time, city tour can be organised.
City sightseeing includes Bogd Khan's Winter & Summer Palace, a series of beautiful traditional buildings in which the eighth Living Buddha and the last king lived. It is now a museum displaying fascinating artefacts and costumes associated with the last king as well as his collection of stuffed animals.
We will stop at the Gandantegchinlen Monastery. It is the largest and most important monastery of Mongolia. We will scroll through the different monasteries and see the magnificent statue of MigjidJanraisig, an 82-food high statue gilded in gold and covered with silk cloths.
We will finish city tour with Zaisan hill to have a view of whole Ulaanbaatar. The city sightseeing tour takes about 4 – 5 hours.
You may have to check the famous folklore concert famous of its throat singing before going back to the hotel. In the evening your tour guide will give you a short briefing about the trip and answer all your questions before he takes you to a famous Mongolian restaurant for the first taste of Mongolian food.
(Hotel, B)
2nd day drive to karakorum
After an early wake up, we will set off for a driving day to Kharkhorin.
Kharkhorin is the site of the 13th century capital of the Mongolian Empire created by Chinggis Khan. The founding of Kharkhorin started on the ruins of Turug and Uigur cities in the Orkhon valley at the eastern end of the Khangai Mountains in 1220 by the ChinggisKhaan's order. It was completed 15 years later during the UgedeiKhaan's reign. The town was a very cosmopolitan and religiously tolerant place.
The silver tree, part of Möngke Khan's palace has become the symbol of Kharkhorin.
The highest peak of its prosperity was from 1220 to 1260. The specific feature of this stage is that Kharkhorin existed as the great capital of the Euro-Asian Empire with Mongolia as its core and as the centre of politics, economy, culture, religion, intellect, and diplomacy and the prominent tie of international relations.
Between 1260 and 1380 Kharhorin lost the status of the Great Mongolian Empire and became the capital of Mongolia. When Kublai Khan claimed the throne of the Mongol Empire in 1260, as did his younger brother, Ariq Boke, he relocated his capital to today's Beijing. Kharkhorin was reduced to the administrative centre of a provincial backwater of the Yuan Dynasty.
In 1368, the rule of Mongolian Yuan Dynasty collapsed and the centre of Mongolian government was shifted to its homeland after 110 years since KhubilaiKhaan moved the Empire capital to China in 1260. It gave Karakorum a chance to prosper again.
In 1388, Ming troops under General Xu Da took and destroyed the town.
Today nothing is left from this legendary city.
In 1580, when AbtaiSain Khan together with his brother, lord Tumenkhen, visited the 3rd Dalai Lama and expressed their wish to build a temple in Mongolia, he advised them to reconstruct one old temple in Karakorum. The temple in Takhai ruins that was restored in 1588 according to the Dalai Lama's recommendation is the Main Zuutemple of ErdeneZuu monastery.
Now ErdeneZuu Monastery is all that remains of what once was a huge monastery of 100 temples and about 1.000 lamas residing there. We will explore the grounds of ErdeneZuu Monastery surrounded by its massive 400 m X 400 m walls. We will be guided around the 3 remaining temples: Dalai Lama, Zuu of Buddha and Lavrin Temple.
Another place we will visit will be Kharkhorin's New Archaeological Museum. It is a small museum but housed in a modern well-run building with good lighting and display cases with clear English labels. The exhibits include dozens of artefacts dating from the 13th and 14th centuries which were recovered from the immediate area, plus others that were found from archaeological sites in other parts of the provinces, including prehistoric stone tools. You'll see pottery, bronzes, coins, religious statues and stone inscriptions. There's also a half-excavated kiln sunk into the museum floor. Perhaps most interesting is the scale model of ancient Kharkhorin, which aims to represent the city as it may have looked in the 1250s, and is based on descriptions written by the French missionary William of Rubruck. Another chamber exhibits a most recent addition, a Turkic noble tomb with wall paintings and artefacts, including gold items and jewellery. There is a short video of actual burial site.
(Ger camp, B, L, D)
3rd daythenher hot springs and hot spa
We will be driving westward in the direction of Khangai Mountains. On average, the Khangai Mountains are 2500-3000 M above sea level and are composed of mainly granite, intrusive chert and sandstone belonging to Palaeozoic era. The Khangai Mountains is about 800 km long, ranging from Zavkhan province territory to Tuv province. They function as the continental divide of the world water system.
The green mountainsides and the network of smaller and larger rivers offer excellent pastureland for the herds of horses, yaks and cows.
In the afternoon we will reach Tsenkher hot spring resort. This resort has a large open-air pool at its customer's disposal. The hot water of the pool flows continuously in from the hot water spring. At the spring, the temperature of the water is over 80 ° C. A complex pipelines system regulates the water temperature. Some will spend hours sitting in the pool talking to their friends while staring at the stars or scanning the nightly nature around them.
(Ger camp, B, L, D)
4th daydrive to terkh white lake
We will leave the ancient capital city to a direction of north-west. In the afternoon we will reach Tsetserleg town to visit a local museum about Mongolian tradition and Buddhism in early 18th century. The museum once used to be a famous Buddhist temple before being destroyed by the Mongolian government with Soviet influence. After lunch we will continue our driving to the Terkh White Lake. The lake is surrounded by extinct and craterous volcanoes, and was formed by lava flows from a volcanic eruption many millennia ago. As a result of the volcano eruptions the landscape is covered with black volcanic rocks.
(Ger camp, B, L, D)
5thdayfree day in terkh white lake
Today we will relax around the White Lake (also named the TerkhiinTsagaanNuur). In the morning we will make an excursion to the top of KhorgoUul Volcano and we will pass the gorges that lead from Tariat to the volcano. The volcano crater is 200 m wide and 100 m deep and is covered with trees at the back and around the opening of the crater. To the south of Khorgo there are numerous basaltic "Gers" formed during the cooling of lava; some of the Gers have gates and upper holes and reach 1.7 m high. Also we will take a look in the Single Man cave that is very small at the entrance but quite big inside. We will have lunch at the Ger camp. Afternoon is good to plan for some optional activities such as trekking in the valley, taking a boat on the lake, swimming, riding a horse or visiting a local family to get introduced to nomadic life.
(Ger camp, B, L, D)
6thday lake tselmen
Today we will head westwards passing Ikh-Uul and Tosontsengel village
ofZavkhan Province. End of the afternoon we will reach Telmen Lake. Telmen is a beautiful lake which hosts abundant birdlife. The lake lies near the boundary between the forest-steppe and steppe ecosystems. You will find different kinds of landscape around the lake such as sand dunes, beautiful mountains, green forest and several rivers and other lakes.
Lake Telmen, a closed lake basin, is slightly salty (about 4g per liter salinity). Here you can see the rare desert flower “Zambaga”. We will enjoy some hiking and relaxing near the lake.
(Tented camp, B, L, D)
7th daydrive to black lake
We will drive to another natural beauty, one of the wonderful places, Khar Lake of Zavkhan Province. This driving will be completely adventurous and breath-taking. In the later afternoon we reach the Ger camp near the lake and take a rest before leaving for 4 days camel riding journey through the picturesque area.
(Ger camp, B, L, D)
8th day camel riding at khar lake
After having breakfast at the ger camp our camels will arrive and camel guide will lead us in the scenic valley of Black Lake along the enormous sand dunes. Including today we will overnight in tented camp for 3 nights and lunch will be picnic along the way. This experience make you feel the unique lifestyle of nomads while you spent some time with us. You will learn how to engage with two humped Bactrian camels of a Mongolian desert.
(Tented camp, B, L, D)
9th day camel riding to mukhart oasis
Our ride today will take us through the great sand dunes to reach Mukhart Oasis. It is an amazing place where a river takes its source within huge walls of sand dunes and is a home to several species of birds. Once we reach the oasis, we will have enough time to explore the area. We are witnessing the uniqueness of Mongolian landscape, mixture of desert, grassland and great lake. Mukhartriver that arises beneath the sand dunes and flows throughout the desert and finally join Zavkhan River. Enjoy your hike.
(Tented camp, B, L, D)
10th daycamel riding to senjit stone arch
More riding to Senjit Rock located on top of a hill. In ancient times the rock used to be solid but the strong wind carved the gate into today’s formation over millions of years. The size of the gate is 6m in width, 3.5m in height and a natural beauty of area. We will overnight near the stone arch.
(Tented camp, B, L, D)
11th daycamel riding to the camp
The last day of the camel riding will be the longest ride. The camel guide leads us straight back to the camp. Before finishing the camel riding there will be an opportunity to visit the camel guide’s Ger for some tea and to know little bit about his life. Finally we will get back to the ger camp and rest.
(Ger camp, B, L, D)
12th day flight back to ulaanbaatar
We will take an early flight back to Ulaanbaatar, the capital city. After two hours of flight in Ulaanbaatar, our team will take you directly to your hotel. You may enjoy the free afternoon to catch up all the places you haven’t visited yet. In the evening we will have a farewell dinner and share some unforgettable moments of the trip.
(Hotel, B)
13th day departure
We will transfer you to the airport depending on your scheduled time.
B = BreakfastL = LunchD = Dinner
price includes
- Airport transfers
- Land transportation
- Domestic flight
- Hotel stay
- Ger camp
- Family stay
- Meals - 12B, 10L, 10D
- Tour guides/Camel guide/Packing and Riding camels
- Camping and kitchen equipment
- National park entrance fees/Museum and Monasteries entrance tickets
price does not include
- International flights
- Visa fee
- Optional activities fee
- Extra food and drinks
- Travel Insurance
Delays
We are not responsible for any additional charges incurred arising from the delay or extension of a trip due to weather, equipment failure, illness, or other causes beyond our control. No refunds can be made for any unused services or accommodations on the trip.
Transport
Toyota Land Cruiser - 80, 100, 105 series are the best-known qualified 4×4 SUVs for Mongolian roads and off-beaten tracks. It has 4 seats. Comfortable and air-conditioned.
Delica- Japanese vehicle has 5 seats with air-conditioning system. The quality is good on dirt road and during long driving hours.
Furgon - A Russian military vehicle has 7 seats. Not fitted with seat belts and no air conditioning system.
Food
Traditional Mongolian food based on different type of meat: mutton, beef, goat, horse and camel. As well as we eat diaries and usually heavy meals due to our radical climate of cold long winter and hot dry summer. However nowadays our food culture is becoming more diverse and you can easily find international food in restaurants and buy diverse imported food at supermarkets. We will do our best to accommodate your food requirement. Please let us know in advance if you have any special food requirement.
Accommodation
In Ulaanbaatar you will be accommodated in the best and most comfortable hotel. The hotel is centrally located, in walking distances from shops and museums.
While in the countryside you will overnight in the gers of ger camps. Gers are the traditional felt tents of nomadic herders. Each ger is furnished with a wood stove and beautifully painted furniture such as beds, a table and stools. Gers are based on double occupancy. Each ger camp has its restaurant, western style toilet and hot water showers.
Most visitors find their stay in gers, which provide an authentic taste of Mongolian culture and adventure, their most enjoyable experience in Mongolia.
Each time we will travel far from the usual tourist tracks, we will have no other solution than to overnight in western style tents because no other accommodation is available. We will however do our best to offer you the best available service. For this a special jeep will accompany us with camping and kitchen equipment. We pride ourselves on the level of comfort we provide while camping in these remote areas, but camping is not for everyone. It is important to remain open-minded and physically willing.
Remark
Mongolia is a developing country in terms of infrastructure. The standard of the roads is very low, with no tarmac outside the capital. As a result be prepared for bumpy and dusty rides.
Travelling in a seldom-explored country, with very little infrastructure requires flexibility, tolerance, a spirit of adventure and respect and understanding for cultural differences. The trip itinerary is subject to changes due to weather, trail conditions, government restrictions, or other reasons beyond our control. We will however do every attempt to adhere to the given schedule.
© Happy Camel Travel Co., Ltd.E-mail: el