It was mainly on made roads, therefore I think the drivers were a little bored.

The Deer Stones are bronze age monuments which weren’t actual tomb markings, but were part of a funerary process. They are called “Deer Stones” because of the representations of flying deer on them, however they can also have human forms, and other animals. Some of them are remarkably well preserved for being carved around 1000 BCE.

That afternoon it was time to go rafting. We had a blow up raft and thankfully the OG car group (Jorge, Anne, Slyvia, Luke and me). Kathy and Sandford (minus video recorder) came along in a couple of kayaks. As Hashi isn’t really a water person, and none of the drivers have really been on water before, we got to go down the river by ourselves (yay!).

As the current was reasonably fast flowing, we mainly got to sit and watch the scenery go past, from time to time paddling when we needed to choose a particular branch of the water course. I can safely say that, despite bits of water that flowed a little faster, there were no “rapids” to speak of.

To ensure we were ok (although I am not sure what they would do if we weren’t) Jagga and Taivna were sent to keep an eye on us. When we saw them we decided to do a 360 degree spin in the boat (on purpose unlike a couple of other times), which elicited an “oh my gad” from Taivna. Thankfully they didn't see when we sort of got beached in the middle of the river on some shallow rocks and Luke and Jorge had to get out and push the raft off...

We saw some great wildlife on the water, including a herd of horses which were standing by the waters edge. As we went past, they nodded their heads at us, so we nodded back. The whole herd then moved closer to the water and stared at us when we went by. I wish I had had a camera to catch them.

Anyway we had a leisurely 90 mins on the water before arriving back in camp.

The other group to go rafting was what I would call a disparate group. Quite a few type A personalities. Luke decided to take out one of the kayaks and follow them, for a bit of a laugh. Unfortunately as they had the guide from the camp go with them, the opportunity for it to go completely pear-shaped was lost. It did sound like a bit of a nightmare however, with people either not having paddles, refusing to paddle, or deciding they were going to steer from the front and just drag their paddle in the water, and to top it off, even with the guide they got lost.

This allowed Luke time to give Muugie and Taivna (who were waiting) time to mess around in the kayak – for possibly the first time in their lives. Apparently Taivna handled it quite well, whereas Muugie struggled a bit.

In the meantime back at camp, I had been adopted by the camp owner’s 11 year old daughter, who first decided that I could play jump rope with her (I really just needed to have a shower, besides a couple of dips in a freezing lake I hadn't showered for 2 nights and was looking forward to a read), and then when that was done and we had exchanged pleasantries (where she told me I was as old as her mum), having run out of content, I got her to teach me how to say “nice to meet you” in Mongolian, to build up my nice vocabulary. I then met her kitten, so not all was lost.

That night after dinner we ended up sitting with the family who owned the camp, the male owner was a guide for many years and his English was perfect, and all the children could speak various amounts of English too. So, we could sort of have a conversation. Hashi joined us and we rocked out some of our more tame bad words, much to the amusement of the family. In return we were taught “I love you”, which Luke was able to terrorise Taivna with.

It was a really lovely evening and after Luke and I were both crawled over by both of the younger children, it was time for bed and moving to a nothing camp the next day.

It was a long drive day, and the only thing we really got to do was to climb up another extinct volcano. It wasn’t as high this time, and had a crater lake… well a boggy hole filled with water about 20m in diameter. Luke climbed down to the bottom to walk around the “lake”, and even skipped a stone, he said he got a 7, and claimed the world record for skipping a stone on that “lake”.

As always the scenery and wildflowers were beautiful, the volcano standing lonely on a plain.

At the top, Luke had left his bag (which only had our water-proofs in), which Hashi decided to hide. When we couldn't find the bag and it was time to leave, I got a little worried. When I found out after a good 5 mins that Hashi had it, Taivna got to learn a new English expression – “arsehole”. We got to learn it in Mongolian too.

To back-track a bit. There are three "manly" arts in Mongolia, which every man (if he is a "real man") should be accomplished in – wrestling, horse riding and archery.

Luke had ridden a horse in Gun Galuut, had wrestled both Muugie and Taivna, but had yet to do archery. We had been promised it a couple of times, but hadn’t got to do it. Tonight was the night!

After dinner the bow was strung, and Taivna provided the target (by bending over near the target). Luke did a good job and made him skitter. I was pleased with my efforts. I had both Luke and Taivna’s arse’s to aim for, and I got quite close. Therefore just to confirm – Luke is now a real Mongolian man (and has the bruises from the bow to prove it)!