A reasonable night’s sleep. Jen said, “I’m not feeling great”. Oh dear. Packing up we headed back to Ulaangom to find a pharmacy. First we needed to sort out our WiFi issues. That done, because without WiFi, we cant use Google Translate and without that, there is not much chance…
This is such an amazing country. It feels really seriously remote. It is so vast and so sparsely inhabited. Even on the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan it didn’t feel as isolated as this. Just mountains, sky and lakes. Having been quite lost yesterday, we set off down the mountain track…
What a great night. We camped in a very exposed Steppe and at some point in the night I thought our whole setup was going to get blown down the hill back to Russia! The temperature must have been down to about 6deg but we were toasty warm in our…
Up early, for us, before 6am. The Russian border opens at 9am and we were advised to get there in good time. We were there by 8am, to find about 30 cars in front of us, as well as a line of tankers. Presumably Russia is supplying oil to Mongolia.…
Jeez! It’s hard to get a good night’s sleep, on the road. Well, not on it, beside it. The Caranex is our Achilles Heel when it rains. And boy, did it rain last night. I can’t believe the whole thing didn’t collapse under the weight of water that had collected…
Late start this morning as we didn’t wake until 8.30. Camped under trees so no sun on us to wake us. Soon after setting off, we pulled into a cafe car park. Dennis had noticed we had WiFi and wanted to publish the blog (last night we had no signal).…
What an interesting night! It must have been about 4am when there were noises outside the vehicle. I thought, the cows have worked their way over to us. It sounded like a cow was nibbling the side of the wagon. But no cow noises? Oh well, better get up and see whats…
On the road early this morning, after a cooler and undisturbed night. By 9am we had covered 60 miles. What a difference it makes having a good road. For the last couple of days we have achieved just over 200 miles all day. Panic over, my phone has recovered and…
Wed 8th Aug. Last nights camp was selected to be well away from the road so we could get an undisturbed sleep. It was a kilometre or two off the road through scrubby ground, elevated with some shade. Well, the darkening sky was a portent to what arrived once we…
The herdsman who’s animals had surrounded us last night, returned this morning. What a life. Traipsing the countryside trying to find enough greenery to feed your animals. He had a blanket and a small pouch, but no other possessions. I think he came back for some conversation and human company!…