Mongolia
When
June to Sept
Price
From 3 200€ excl. flights
(based on 2 people sharing)
How long
6 nights
Ideal length
Lake Khövsgöl, in Mongolia's far north near the Russian border, alone holds nearly a quarter of the country's freshwater reserves and ranks among Asia's purest lakes. Nicknamed the "blue mother," this expanse of water surrounded by taiga forest and mountains remains the land of the Tsaatan, Mongolia's last reindeer herders, whose nomadic way of life contrasts sharply with the arid steppes of the Gobi Desert.
Lake Khövsgöl, nicknamed the "blue mother" in Mongolian, stretches over a hundred and thirty kilometres in a tectonic depression nestled among taiga-covered mountains, in close proximity to Russia's Lake Baikal, with which it shares its geological formation. Its waters, among the purest in Asia, stay frozen for nearly five months a year, a period during which locals traditionally cross the ice on horseback or by truck to reach the opposite shore.
The Tsaatan, whose name literally means "reindeer people," rank among the last nomadic reindeer herders in the world, a community reduced to a few dozen families living in the taiga north of Lake Khövsgöl. Unlike the rest of Mongolia, where horse and camel herding dominate, the Tsaatan depend entirely on reindeer for milk, transport, and moving their camps several times a year following lichen pastures.
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A Ger Camp on Lake Khövsgöl
A camp of traditional gers on the shore of Lake Khövsgöl, a wood-fuelled central stove, a dinner prepared from regional dairy products and locally caught fish.
A Night with a Northern Steppe Family
A night under a ger with a herding family from the northern steppe, an introduction to mare milking and a tasting of fermented dairy products made using ancestral methods.
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