In the summer of 2010 while making a journey with friends through Mongolia, Belgian born art historian and painter Katrien Elsen met Baterdene Bayarmagnai, on the way back from Murun to Ulaanbaatar. Out of this encounter ripened the seed for refurbishing Harganat ger camp started by Baterdene in 2007 on a sandbank overlooking the stunning Delger Murun river valley.
Growing up in the area as a young boy, he learned the traditional nomad skills, even winning four times the Naadam horse races and later started guiding visitors to all corners of this vaste country. As one of the first fly fishing guides, he came to know this sport intimately as the way to protect river species, by catch and release. Uuran Uurgach, the first fly fishing store in Mongolia, was started up and provides the necessary gear to our lodge.
With a modern touch, using natural materials and new building forms, it took some years through all kinds of weather, sun, rain, wind and snow, to open it. As a place rooted in rich Mongolian culture as well as wild free nature, Harganat River Lodge is a place that connects people from all over the world, in a majestic spot on this planet, where you feel the magic in the air, like it began with two people from very different cultures coming together.
