The dog spent most of the night barking at his own echo but fortunately we were allowed a lazy start. After breakfast Emilie showed Bob how to make friendship bracelets and following half an hour of intense concentration Bob proudly presented a powder blue chain. After, we walked to the partially frozen lake, half a kilometre away, and photographed the reflection of the snow capped mountains and surrounding trees in the still water, dotted with mini icebergs. A collection of exotic looking wildfowl milled about on the ice and as we listened it was possible to hear the ice on the lake melting and cracking in the strong Mongolian sunshine.

We returned to a brief lunch of soup, containing transport themed spaghetti, before heading out to meet our noble steeds who had been rounded up for our horse trek to the nearby waterfall. Bob mounted first on a grumpy dun called Horrible Horace and I followed suit on a bay furball we dubbed Chewbacca. As it was Simeon's first time in the saddle he was lead by our mounted guide, so leaving the lead horse position for Eegii and his black gelding, Barrack...

We filed gently through the maze of rocks, settling into the surprisingly comfortable saddles, mine with a snazzy denim cushion, and we worked out that the Thelwell rib kick did nothing and the stubborn beasts were controlled purely by Mongolian voice commands. Eventually we came to a river which the ponies crossed surefootedly and we dismounted at the edge of a circular canyon to see the spectacular waterfall tumbling into it. The horses were immobilised by having their front legs tied together and we descended the rather precarious route down to the plunge pool. The sinkhole, filled by the roar of the water which echoed off the gnarled pines at our backs, had sheets of ice embedded in the cliffs surrounding the cascade and a group of Buddhist monks watching from the cliff tops. During a brief rain shower we returned to the horses, mounted, and headed back through the stream, with Simeon now deemed self sufficient. Seeing the open plain ahead Eegii went through the gears on Barrack and with confirmation (in Mongolian) from our guide we followed suit. Chewy excelled himself, doing almost exactly what he wanted, which involved a lot of canter and high speed sitting trot, and Bob eventually coaxed Horace to follow suit, aided by a few stern words from the guide at his rump.

We chased Eegii over the undulating ground, back to the gers and were all grinning ear to ear as we dismounted, releasing our steeds from their tack, who immediately headed off to join the herd. With a slight John Wayne stagger we thanked our guide and retreated to our ger for a well earned cup of tea and a few hands of cards.

We ate supper with the family and then set out to enjoy the evening sunshine. Bob managed to leave her pet goat kid Doris behind briefly as we headed to the frozen lake to see the sunset. We returned to the ger, warmed by its crackling log fire and I foolishly tried to learn the French game 'ballotte' from Emilie. It was excruciatingly unnessecarily complicated and having lost several hands I stepped outside to marvel and the incredible starscape overhead before getting into my sleeping bag.