Special trip photos – Bashang Grasslands, 2012/07/20

In July we headed north to Hebei Province for two days of hiking in the rolling hills of the Bashang Grasslands.

We arrived late on Friday night, and settled in to our guesthouse after dinner.

On the Saturday, we did a loop hike, getting up to about 1,400m above sea level and encountering a bit of rain. The hike took us through a small village on the way back to our guesthouse. After hiking, we had free time until dinner.

The dinner on Saturday night included roasted lamb, a performance of traditional Inner Mongolian song and dance, and mandatory toasts of fermented mare's milke "for good luck". That's what they said, anyway!

The good-luck mare's milk didn't stop us from getting in another hike on the Sunday, and it was a good, interesting one, too: strong winds, and all sorts of weather on the way up to what's known locally as a "spirit pile", a cairn of rocks on the highest point in the area.