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Going to Mongolia, I wasn’t sure what to expect, although I had heard that the food wasn’t that good. I arrived in time for the opening ceremony of the Naadam festival – and what an amazing experience that was. A spectacular and colourful event with horse processions, music, sky divers, fireworks, gymnasts, dancers and parades from different provinces of Mongolia. I also got to see the archery and wrestling contests along with a horse race where I soon found after asking when we would see the horses that in Mongolian “soon” means an hour and “near” means a mile or two!

I continued my journey into the desert areas, staying in my first traditional ger was great experience, and the food was much better than expected! I think my favourite area was Eagles valley, where I walked for 2 km in lush green valley with a beautiful stream together with lots of horses, to a find a small area between some rocks. Behind the rocks there were the remains of a glacier – it was so totally unexpected that it took my breath away.

My favourite experience of my whole trip was being invited into a camel breeder’s ger to try the airag (fermented horse milk). It was great to speak to the locals through an interpreter to find out more about their life, but I will admit the airag was disgusting!