Mongolia - Shamans, musicians and Przewalski's horses Naadam Ride

Ride the Mongolian Steppe from Terelj National Park following the Nomads as they saddle up and set course for Ulaan Batur and the annual Naadam – the Nomad Olympics of Mongolia.

Last year’s ride birthed a new tribe made up of 8 international cyclists, 3 Shaman’s plus their 3 translators of ancient ancestor Mongolian, one multi talented musician,and a support crew of camp kitchen staff, drivers, mechanics and cultural interpreters.

The Shamans enacted traditional rituals channeling the voices of ancestors at one of our evening camps. Dawa, our throat singing, mouth harp and horse head fiddle playing flautist entertained us whilst we ate our traditionally barbequed lamb chops (and our seven cheeses vegetarian salad).

Naadam with its (eye) opening ceremony, wrestling knockout, Narnia-esque archery competitions, and horse-races is a bucket-list world event which this year we are programming mid ride as a rest day, a chance to see other people being athletic.

Following straight on from the horse-racing on Day 2 of Naadam, we travel on to Hustai national park,  a refuge for Mongolia’s wild creatures, and home of the rehabituated Przewalski horse.
A real conservation win –  the Przewalski horse is a truly wild horse and the only surving wild-horse ancestor, snatched from the cusp of extinction by genetics genii.

Red deer, steppe eagles and marmots frolic in numbers rarely seen elsewhere. A new addition to our itinerary, we are looking forward to using bikes for wildlife spotting on this stop and smell the wildlife add-on to this year’s trip.