Terkhiin Tsagaan – the White Lake

Terkhiin Tsagaan, the White Lake

Getting the van nice and early after our nomad adventure was a little bittersweet for this cowboy, it was the part of the trip that I was looking forward to doing the most. Either way we needed to press on to another of Mongolia’s natural wonders, Terkhiin Tsagaan, known in English as White Lake.

After seeing Khosvgol Nuur we were all a little skeptical about visiting another lake and having it meet one tenth the beauty of the blue pearl but it was next on the list. We drove for seven hours on ass busting roads and pulled into our ger on the lake which at first was a little lackluster. After getting settled the sun began to set and we got ready for our daily ritual of watching the glowing orb dip beyond the hilly distance. The moment the sun began setting behind the mountains we knew the place was top notch, the sky exploded with incredible colours that made for an amazing contrast against the silhouette of the mountains in the foreground. O yeah, forgot to mention the almost perfect reflection that was cast across the entire lake and after a couple beers and a few rounds of thirty one we called it a night.

High Stakes Game of 31, few thousand tugrik on the line

Khorgo Volcano

Up and at em early as always, we ate some stale bread and made our way towards Khorgo volcano where we were going to hike for the day. En route the Wizard locked up the brakes and motionied to me and said ‘agui’ one of the only Mongolian words I picked up from the phrase book: cave. Wiz went in first and I followed through a narrow opening that I could barely fit through. We didn’t come prepared so I used the camera as a flashlight and periodically sent off the stock 60D flash to give us an idea of where we were headed. The labryinth was quite confusing and we really couldn’t see much of anything so after twenty minutes we pulled the pin and met up with the rest of the group to head to the volcano.

Caving with the Wizard

Our guide Omra was supposed to do the hike with us bout came down with a disgustingly serious eye infection. To make matters worse the day before she got the nomads to apply a home remedy to treat the eye. I am sure you are curious as to what the process entailed but it’s not for the faint of heart. The nomads went up to the guard dog/wolf and plucked a whisker from it’s face which made it go buck with anger. No one got attacked and stage one was complete. The whisker was given to Omra who poked the sore on her eye and waited for the puss to ooze out. Hmmmm sounds like a great medicinal remedy for the old eyeball, in reality, it made things obviously worse. Since she didn’t want to do the hike looking like a pirate we continued on without her.

After easily reaching the top of the volcano we decided to make our way around the crater which made for some excellent views. The volcanic eruption rendered the plains below into a volcanic moonlike wasteland with very sporadic spurts of growth amongst the blackened rock. This landscape, coupled with the bright red volcanic sand made for some great photo ops.

Livin' On the EDGE! of Khorgo Volcano

The volcano climb came easy and we started our long walk back to camp as the Wizard needed to take Omra to the doctor. Jackie and I went one way and Matt went the other, all in hopes of finding something cool. Our first little stroll through the volcanic wasteland took about an hour and was not strenuous at all. Looking for a challenge and what I believed to be a shortcut I convinced Jackie to climb up and over a mountain to reach our camp. Against her better judgement, she trusted my garbage sense of direction and we eventually got lost and split up due to a little flip out on my behalf. After reaching the top of the mountain I realized we went the wrong way and had to turn around, go down and circumvent the entire mountain…wrong again Jarrett, wrong again.

Hanging on the shores of white lake after the ordeal

We finally made it back to camp where we headed out to a rock formation on the lake to gain a killer vantage point on the lake. We wasted the night away wandering the lake shores watching somewhat tame horses bath and drink from the waters edge and retired to the old ger camp nice and early.

Casting Spells from a Hundred foot rock on White Lake

To see more pictures from the White Lake Adventure, Click Here.