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Diary w/e 20 August
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| 14th AugustThe day dawned bright and clear - at least, we assume it did. We didn't. We had a bad night's sleep because of the cold (we never got our feet warmed up, and that's not a great start!). We did a bit of tidying in the car - we were able to get rid of some of the worst of the mud that had got flung in the back with the recovery equipment at 1 am. Our plan was to head back to Khatgal, send an email to the UK operators of the camp we were looking for, and clean everything up a bit in a stream somewhere. We found the river below Khatgal very convenient. It was a bright sunny day - a good washing day in fact (which was just as well). We washed the worst of the mud off the car by driving it into the river up to the axles and throwing buckets of water at it - very therapeutic. We washed our shoes by scrubbing them in the river (now at least they're clean, even if they will take a couple of days to dry), We dropped all the other mud-covered recovery equipment in the river and scrubbed it before spreading it out to dry. We watched the birds hovering up and down the river looking for fish (and occasionally diving down and catching one). We cleared most of the WD40 out of the hardware box (the can of WD40 had accidentally been packed with the lid of the box pressing on top of the aerosol, so it had emptied itself all over the contents of the box, and then collected in a nice slippery puddle at the bottom). We made ourselves sandwiches for lunch by the river - very pleasant. I actually managed a wash in the river - so I'm not smelly any more (Rich still is). A Mongolian girl approached us rather hesitantly. It turned out she and her boyfriend were on a motorbike that had broken down a few hundred yards away, and she was wondering if we had any spanners they could borrow. I drove over to the wounded motorbike with her and our complete tool kit. The drive sprocket on their back wheel was no longer attached to their back wheel - which was going to make forward locomotion a bit difficult. Two out of the original four bolts holding it on were missing, and the other two were in a terrible state - one was stripped altogether and the other was badly bent. After a bit of coarse engineering with a hammer, a vice and a range of spanners and spare washers, etc that I had, they managed to get themselves mobile again - but probably not for long, I suspect. In the meantime, Rich had noticed we had a rather more serious problem - the tube on our rear spare wheel holder had broken, so we could not carry the spare on the back until we could get a welded repair done. This rapidly moved to the top of our list of priorities for the day. The motorbike couple had indicated that there was somebody in Khatgal who did welding, so we needed to find them. But first things first, Rich's stomach required attention. We took it into a cafe in Khatgal where we found a new favourite dish, Mongolian Goulash. That was great, and even better we found an American lady called Trina, who lives here with her family as missionaries. We had a good chat, and she said we should ask Gamba at the MS Guesthouse (Bill Gates gets everywhere, doesn't he?) So we drove over there after we had eaten and Gamba said we should drive out to the site where they are building a small tourist airstrip terminal building - even though it was now after 9 pm, he said there would still be people there; they are living on site until the job is finished. So we drove over there and found a load of blokes hanging around looking bored - we were their entertainment for the evening. We showed them our problem and they rapidly caught on. We agreed a price of 10,000 for the work and someone started up the generator for the ancient arc-welding equipment they had. We rushed to disconnect the car batteries - we remembered that arc welding will fry the electrics of the car unless you do this. We managed it just in time - they weren't interested in waiting! They welded a large piece of heavy reinforcing rod inside the tube and after 20 minutes the job was done. The only protective equipment they used while welding was a pair of sunglasses for the welder. His mate kept on hopping around as sparks burnt him while he kept the work in place with his foot. We paid them the 10,000 (£5, and the work done on 5 minutes' notice on a Monday evening at 9.30 - not bad). Now we will just have to see if it stands up to the punishment it is going to get over the next few weeks. At least it took the wheel without showing any obvious signs of distress. After this, we decided we had time to take up Trina's invitation to drop in. We went roughly where we thought she had told us, and pulled up outside a tidy hasha. We were very surprised when another American bloke came out to greet us and explain that we were actually a good quarter of a mile from Trina's place - which he happily directed us to. In this small village in the middle of Mongolia, what are the odds of looking for an American family, going to the wrong cabin and finding another American called Brian who can direct you where you need to go? So we finally made it to Trina's place in the twilight. Her boys were out the back playing soccer - football - with some local lads, and Rich and I joined in for a bit. Then when it got dark, we were issued with an invitation to park up in their hasha for the night, if we wished - an invitation we rapidly accepted. So tonight we are parked up on another very chilly evening in a small piece of North Carolina in Khatgal, mostly looking forward to breakfast! All at GPS N 50º 25' 57.15", E 100º 9' 54.32", altitude 1,616 metres. 15th AugustNot a bad night's sleep, all things considered. The dogs set up a racket at one point, but only for half an hour or so. I was determined not to be cold tonight, so I wasn't - but there wasn't much room in my sleeping bag because of all the extra clothes I was wearing. Trina's eldest son, Juda (15) had issued us with a fairly low-key invitation to breakfast if we liked. We had said that sounded great, and by 9.30 I was up and out of the tent, just in case they were early risers. I wandered down to the edge of the lake to clean my teeth and rinse my hands and face. It was a perfect blue sky morning, with birds flitting around and not a lot else going on. Trina's hasha is in a fantastic spot, at the southern end of the village where it meets the last twist of the lake before it turns into a river. They have marvellous views south across the lake to the far shore - only about a quarter of a mile away at this point. Her husband Micky is away in UB on business at the moment, so we didn't get to meet him unfortunately. Brian appeared from up the lane and we chatted a bit. He is an ex Peace Corps volunteer who worked in Mongolia and has since come back. He has married a Mongolian lady and lives in the village with her and her child by her previous marriage. Brian is hoping to get work on one of the many wildlife preservation projects going on around the country - that is his background. He was able to tell me that what we thought was a funny duck floating down the river the previous day was in fact a Guillemot, and the smaller white/grey birds we had seen fishing were Terns. All the children came out and we played a bit more soccer (without Rich's help - he was hiding in the tent still). We gave them a guided tour of the car, with the opportunity to climb all over it and they enjoyed that. Then we were called in for breakfast. It was the best breakfast we have had for two months - juice, scrambled eggs, (sweetened) yoghurt, a thing called granola which I have not come across before which is really delicious - a sort of cross between nut crunch and muesli, lightly cooked with a bit of butter and sugar - homebaked blueberry muffins (fantastic!) and tea. Rich ate hugely. We chatted with the children some more - Juda, Jonah, Jaez and Jessie (I have probably spelt some of the names wrong - sorry guys!). They have a pretty unusual lifestyle, but seem to be really thriving on it. Trina in the meantime was entertaining some English folk who had turned up out of the blue - a guy called Andy who works locally in the tourist industry and his parents (Liz and Mike, I think) who are out here on holiday - they live near Clitheroe. I joined them in the conservatory (they call it the greenhouse, but that doesn't really do it justice) after I had finished my breakfast for a brief chat before they had to be moving on. Trina's place is really interesting. They have a good sized plot and they have built the most marvellous log cabin on it, complete with cellar and proper double glazing. Micky has built a fabulous stone alcove for the cooking stove inside - really beautiful stonework (that is his craft). They also have a couple of gers, the greenhouse and more - very much home from home (though they have to generate their own electricity and get water from the lake). We would happily have stayed there longer, but Rich had noticed that our lovely welding job had failed on the short trip back from the airstrip last night, so we needed to go back there to try to fix it, and we wanted to head up the west side of the lake towards the really pretty mountainous areas further north, with one eye on the "Nature's Door" camp, where we might stay. So we headed off to the airfield, promising to drop by again at Trina's on our way back if the timing worked. At the airfield, we didn't have much difficulty explaining why we were back, and this time the head welder (that's my guess, anyway - it was a different and rather more careful guy from the one who had done the quick repair last night) got involved. He wanted the whole wheel carrier unbolted from the car so he could do a proper job on it. He spent a good half an hour at it, and the end result is a repair which looks much more robust - but we shall see. They didn't want any more money, but we managed to slip the head welder another £5 for his trouble, which went down well. Then, after a few problems getting the batteries reconnected, we were on our way. The only other discovery we made there was that one of our rear brake callipers seems to be leaking brake fluid - so it seems our brake problem is becoming less mysterious! At this stage the fluid level is not dropping quickly, but if it starts to then we can probably get around the problem by clamping off the rear brake circuit - which will leave us with good braking on the front wheels only, which is better than rubbish (or no) braking on all four wheels. The journey up the west side of the lake was very "interesting". For lots of the way we were criss-crossing or actually driving along a large dried-up river bed. This was the selfsame river which apparently washed away a thoughtlessly parked Toyota Land Cruiser a few weeks ago, so we were pleased it hadn't rained much recently! And as it is our only route back, we need to keep an eye out to make sure it doesn't rain much again before we head back south. The track took us up hill and down dale, through (or round) various deep mud patches and washed out bridges; it was a real test for the suspension and our repaired spare wheel holder - which seems to be holding up so far. The suspension itself is making all sorts of twanging and boinging noises on the really rough stretches - hope it's going to be alright! Finally, after about 15 miles of this, we found the Nature's Door camp right beside the lake, where the staff rushed out to greet us in English as if we had been expected. Yes, they had space to put us up, though we would have to stay in a ger for the first night as the rooms in the lodges were all occupied until tomorrow. We had a late lunch of really nice tomato soup and shepherd's pie, then we retired to the shower block - where Rich spent about 20 minutes under a strong stream of hot water, scraping off the layers of accumulated grime and pong. My shower only took 5 minutes! We also tried out the toilet blocks - which are a bit different as they are effectively earth closets (but they are clean and hardly pong at all). They major heavily on the environmental impact angle in this camp. We met a Dutchman who used to work for Rover in Holland, who wanted to hear all about the car; and the only English guest, a retired teacher called Elizabeth who is here for a week's walking before returning to her VSO post in China. She told us about the fabulous ridge walk in the mountains to the west of the lake which she didn't feel able to tackle on her own. Some food for thought there, but Rich is not at all convinced! Then we read for a bit before eating again (a late-ish dinner) and tucking up in our ger with the wood stove belting it out - it is going to be really warm in here until the stove goes out, I wonder what temperature we will have then? It has been a non-stop sunny day, so I'm guessing it will be cold tonight... So tonight we are feeling clean again (though we have a stack of dirty laundry), and mostly wondering what activities we will try tomorrow - will we even risk a horse ride? All at ... GPS N 50º 35' 29.96", E 100º 10' 50.68", altitude 1,638 metres. 16th AugustI woke up at 8am freezing cold. There was a person due to come in and light the fire at 8:30, which would have been nice of them, but I wasn't going to wait for that because I was too cold to sleep and needed to do something, so I started to make our fire up again. All we had as tinder was matches (which I wanted to keep), so out came the knife and I shaved the side of a split log, stopping each shave before the end of the log so that each thin curled shaving of wood stays attached to the main piece. This creates a veritable bush of thin dry wood that lights easily and burns well. Basically I am god of fire, and we had heat for another few hours. Someone had said we would be at breakfast at 9, so I was obliged to leave my hard earned comfort to eat some bread, butter (sort of), jam, salami (sort of) and cheese (sort of). An entirely inoffensive but uninspiring breakfast - bring on the Shreddies. I went back to the ger to try and take advantage of the heat and sleep for a bit longer, but it didn't happen because I had swallowed a couple of cups of tea without thinking about it. We packed up and moved to the cabin (with walls!) which we will be sleeping in tonight, and decided horse riding would indeed be a good idea. We opted for roughly a three hour trip after lunch. A note on Mongolian cookery: Shredding root vegetables and mixing them with oil and a mayonnaise like substance IS NOT FOOD. So don't be fooled by the fact it is on a plate next to a knife and fork. AND YET, they still insist on displaying this substance to you before or with EVERY meal. I don't understand it. Often stupid foreigners are forced through politeness and ignorance to ingest it, but they needn't bother as it provides neither sustenance nor pleasure. Horse riding was yet again a pleasure. We set off for a three hour trip, but it ended up at five because we took the long way round a couple of times. Dad will explain the details because he is good at that, but now I can say I have cantered along the shores of lake Hovsgol. I would have galloped, but the poor horse was only small and she wouldn't go any faster no matter how hard I kicked or whipped. Also, I would probably have fallen right off. We had much better mounts than last time - mine was so willing I named it "Flash" and Rich's was so lazy it was changed within 5 minutes. His new mount was a bit dull, but at least it showed willing when it needed to. It was initially named "Gordon", but then "Ah-ah, Saviour of the Universe" (or just "Ah-ah" for short), to go with mine. Queen fans will get this, nobody else will. Our guide was a local man called Batidilgur. He had a little English, which was quite impressive considering he is 54 and only does guiding part time - his main occupation is his herd of 10 horses, 4 cows and 300 or so goats and sheep. Like all Mongolians, he was very quiet but very direct with his questioning ("How old are you? How many children do you have?" Etc...) He was already starting to think about his migration in a couple of months' time across the lake (when it is frozen in November) to the winter pastures he uses. He led us gently up hill and down dale through some fantastic country, climbing up to about 2,000 feet above the lake. We had superb views all around and began to get an idea of just how big the lake is - the northern end is completely out of sight, and it must be at least 20 miles across at its widest point. There is also a marvellous range of mountains running up the western side of the lake - peaking out around 3,000 metres (so about 5,000 feet above the lake). There looks to be a marvellous ridge walk (as Elizabeth thought) which would probably continue for about 40 or 50 miles - maybe one for another year! It was great fun to be actually riding my horse rather than feeling like I was being towed along like a broken down car. Flash was very responsive but also used his own common sense when I asked him to do daft things. We went uphill mainly along tracks, though at one point we were filing precariously along the top of a very steep slope that turned into a cliff about 30 feet down from us. We stopped two or three times to give the horses a rest and enjoy the views - over the lake, across the mountains and down the very deep dried out river gorge which we were vaguely following. The mountains are mostly covered with pine, larch and spruce, except for the top few hundred metres, which are bare rock (of various different colours along the range) and very spectacular. During the whole 5 hours, we didn't see a single other person. As we came down, it was best to give Flash a very general indication of the desired direction, then let him do the rest as I leaned back as far as I could in the saddle. He picked his way carefully over fallen trees, through muddy patches and thick forest, without stumbling once. We finally reached the lakeside again and the pace quickened as the horses sensed they were on the home stretch. It suddenly became very easy to get them into a trot, and even a canter along the grassy side of the lake. After stopping for a final rest amongst a herd of goats, all too soon we were back at the camp (five hours after setting out) and I was wishing it could go on longer - I really felt I was beginning to get the hang of this riding thing (at least when the horse is shorter than I am!) Had dinner - yet again with shredded root vegetable stuff - and in a fit of extravagance, ordered a bottle of red wine to go with it. But no cigar, there was one bottle of wine left in the camp, and it was white. Oh well, dad has an amazing capacity for such liquids, so we bought the bottle. I didn't like it, it gave me stomach pains - although I think that was mostly me still feeling the effects of last week - so dad drank most of it, and afterwards he was very keen to go and chat to people (everyone) and to tell me how miserable I was for wanting to nurse my horse ravaged legs back into shape in bed. Suffice to say my laziness at this particular point was pretty deep set, so I hung around because I couldn't be bothered to move, and we chatted with a retired American woman who didn't think very much of the travelling habits of her compatriots, and a woman called Peia who reminded me strongly of Dr Caroline Todd from the TV series Green Wing. She turned out to be Italian (English mother hence the accent) and quite a character, all of which was just faintly unnerving for some reason. Tonight we are mostly making the most of the two hour electricity budget for the evening. GPS same as last night. I needed to get up and go to the toilet block for some reason in the middle of the night. It was about 4 am and absolutely magical. Why are there so many more stars in Mongolia than we have in England? The moon was up and about half full, so it was quite bright. No clouds. The odd shooting star, and looking across the lake I could see no lights at all, anywhere. Absolute silence, apart from the gentle breeze and the slight lapping of waves on the shore of the lake. I enjoyed it so much I sat out on the veranda for a while, just to soak it up. Then back to our cosy bedroom inside. 17th AugustWe decided we needed to be on the move again today, so we picked up our laundry, paid the bill and were on our way by noon. Rich didn't quite make breakfast, and was devastated to hear afterwards that it had been cheese on toast (four slices) - very nice! We drove north along the west shore of the lake - the idea was to see how far we could easily get and then find a nice secluded spot to camp out for the night. We drove extremely slowly along the track - it has been quite severely damaged in places by the rains and there are patches of deep mud and places where the track suddenly disappears over a steep drop into a dried up watercourse (which was obviously carrying flood waters into the lake a few weeks ago and washed away the road in the process). After about 12 miles we had passed all the tourist camps (about half a dozen) on the lakeside and were waved at by the driver of a stationary UAZ jeep. We thought he might be in trouble so we went over to help. In fact, he just wanted to warn us that the track westwards up into the mountains has been so damaged by the rains that it is extremely dangerous ("You probably fall off") and the track up the lakeside is also likely to get us caught up in mud or bog. He was waiting for a party of tourists who had gone riding in the mountains. We thanked him for his advice, and said we would push on up the lakeside track as far as we could get and then come back (unless we found somewhere nice to camp up there). After about 200 metres we came to a large muddy patch which reminded us very much of the one we had got stuck in a couple of days before. We had no wish to go through all that again, so we bravely turned tail and ran. Just a few hundred metres back past the waiting driver we found a lovely spot on the shingle shoreline where we ran the car up to the edge of the lake and then mooched about. Rich thought it would be fun to build a shelter out of some of the driftwood that was lying along the shore. I mended the fridge wiring (working 100% again now), took a few pictures, made lunch (chicken pot noodles and jam sandwiches - not particularly nutritious, but we were both happy with it) and put some of my wet laundry out to dry in the sun. There were quite a few mossies around, but they didn't bite much. We saw a couple who were obviously on a kayak camping tour of the lake - a great way to see the wildest parts, as long as you've got the stamina. The UAZ driver wandered down the beach and admired Rich's work, asking if he was Robinson Crusoe (the best English we have come across for a while!). Then it clouded over and started to rain a bit. It rapidly stopped, but the overcast and slightly English weather stayed with us for the rest of the day. The lake looked really clean and clear, and I had read that its water is drinkable - so I thought I would give it a try. It tasted pretty good, and so far so good! Rich has been inspired to try out a technique I read about in Tim Slessor's book "First Overland" (the story of the first ever overland trip by Land Rover to Singapore). He has taken his nick-nacks out of his ammunition box and has filled it with water, dirty socks & boxers and washing powder before sealing it up again. The idea is that the bouncing around of the car will provide the necessary agitation so that after a day of driving his smalls will be clean without any effort on his part. We shall see. We had only been here a couple of hours when a Mongolian drove up on his motorbike. He came over to say hello, and to explain that he was here to harvest grass and/or make hay for his yaks (or maybe he was saying he wanted to chop me off at the knees with his scythe and feed me to them?) I explained that we were just going to be camping here for a night. Zayat (that was his name) gestured that he was also here just for one night, then he filled his bowl from the lake, went back across the track and put up his tent. It made quite a pleasant change (especially for Rich) that he didn't want to squat and stare at us for a while or peer in detail around the car. I guess he has work to do and only a limited amount of time to do it in - there is already the slight feel of autumn just around the corner, and Batidilgur had told us yesterday that the first snows could arrive as early as September. I was keen to see what this all looked like from the top of the mountain, so I suggested a walk up there to Rich. I left on my own. After 2 hours of steady climbing I reached the top and was treated with magnificent views all around the lake, including the sight (just) of the Land Rover as a pinprick on the shore. It took me another hour to get down again, and I was evaluating the track to see if we might get up it tomorrow in the Land Rover. I came to the conclusion that if there is no more rain, it should be feasible and the payoff would be great. During my three hour walk, I saw precisely nobody and no evidence of human habitation anywhere. The full extent of the lake became clearer - even from the top of the mountain, I still could not really see the northern shore of the lake, just some hazy mountains in the distance in that direction. Not surprising, really, as the far end is perhaps 100 km away (the lake is 135 km long and 39 km wide at its widest point). And as for the ranges of mountains all around... Apparently there are lots of really wild animals around here, like brown bear, moose and even snow leopard. I decided to hit them with my camera if anything attacked me; luckily, nothing did. I found Rich had been having a maintenance session on the car. He had whittled a new driver's doorknob out of driftwood and fitted it with the old spring and a cable tie. It actually works! He has also had a go at making the passenger door a little less noisy, but complains that this Mongolian Araldite is just not up to the job...Still, with the aid of some plastic tape he has made it all a lot quieter, which can only be a good thing. Let's see how long it lasts. I have challenged him to make us a new brake calliper out of driftwood, and he's thinking about it. The old one is still leaking brake fluid, and now you need three pumps of the brake pedal to bring yourself to a halt. Sounds like the ideal vehicle for a trip to the top of a mountain and back again. Should be ok - not many of the slopes are worse than one in three or four... I cooked some good old pasta and pesto for dinner, then we ambled around doing a bit more tidying and sorting before heading up to bed in the tent with the sound of waves breaking gently on the shore of the lake - while it is calm where we are, there was a huge storm across the other side of the lake a little earlier (loads of spectacular lightning) and the waves caused by that have worked their way over to us. Again, there is no sign of any lights anywhere this side of the horizon. That's rather special. So tonight we are mostly being lulled to sleep by the waves at GPS ref 50º 44' 55.77" N, 100º 14' 04.00" E, altitude 1,627 metres. That proves that either this lake slopes or the GPS altitude readings are a bit dodgy - how can we be right on the lake shore here and yet 11 metres lower than last night (when we were again right by the lake)??? 18th AugustUp and at 'em! Our night had been a bit disturbed because of the waves on the lake. At 11 pm, they were of the "lulling to sleep" variety, but by 2 am they were more of the "man the lifeboats" type. We were kind of half asleep, and half worrying that we were about to be swept away by some freak wave. Of course it never happened, and the waves had simply doubled in height - from 6 inches to a foot. But they were much more noisy. So that is our excuse for sleeping in until nearly 11 am today. I got up and made breakfast (surprise, surprise), and was rapidly joined by Zayat's brother from across the road, who had arrived after Zayat last night and was now inviting himself to us for breakfast. Zayat was getting on with scything the grass, and was probably relieved to be without his brother who was, to be honest, a bit of a pain. He plonked himself on a vacant chair (vacant because Rich was still in the roof tent) and happily accepted handfuls of Shreddies and a bowl of milk, plus a cup of tea. He couldn't speak, though his hearing and understanding were fine. He gestured that we shouldn't think of driving further along the lakeside - we would get stuck. And we needed to be careful going up into the mountains because we would get to an obstruction and have to reverse back down. He did us a bit of a favour by getting us moving. At the cost of a tin of sardines (which we didn't want anyway) and 1,000 Togrogs (50p) we got rid of him on good terms as we drove off. We had decided to give the hill a go after my reconnaissance on foot yesterday. The first thing we saw was another Toyota Land Cruiser parked up where our friend had been yesterday. He moved off the track to let us past. We then stopped at the beginning of the nasty section, as we had yesterday. This time, we did not bravely turn and run: no, this time we bravely pushed on after giving it a close look. I was driving slowly and carefully over a very narrow section between deep mud on the left and a big hole in the track on the right, and Rich was shouting out instructions. "Go right, go right!" he shouted, so I did by a couple of inches. Those were the inches that separated us from the big hole on the right, into which our right hand back wheel neatly fell, dragging the front wheel with it. We were stuck in (literally) something of a hole, and with the car leaning over to the right at 30º to 40º it was going to take a bit of work to get us out without tipping the thing completely over. The angle was so great that even though we had less than half a tank of fuel, it was leaking out of the filler cap. We only had traction on the front right wheel, and that was never going to be enough to get us out. The Toyota driver came over. He was driving a couple of American tourists, whom he had dropped off an hour or two earlier for a hike in the mountains. He was now simply waiting for them to come down - which would probably be at least another couple of hours. He was a really nice guy - he is an unemployed mining engineer from UB who makes a few bob over the summer by driving tourists around, but he has no current prospects of a "proper" job - very upsetting for a well qualified professional. We learnt all this as we hurriedly unpacked the car to lighten it and reduce the chances of it rolling over as we got ourselves sorted out. Anyway, he was very happy to help us get ourselves out, so we asked him to drive a little uphill to the left of our car and attach one of our ropes from the back of his car to our roofrack, then pull a little uphill. The idea was that this would rock our car back enough to the left to give our left wheels some traction to pull us out. It worked, which saved us a long winching job. After we had repacked everything and thanked him for his help, we set off up the track proper. It rapidly became very steep and windy, with lots of places where you had to place one wheel horribly close to the edge of the drop to avoid some obstruction or hole on the other side. But with care it was not too hard and we soon reached the top of the track (passing some slightly upset looking American hikers on the way!) We drove out onto a large gently rounded hill top, from which there were fabulous views right up and down the lake. There was also a little cluster of ovoos, with the usual vodka bottles, money, buddhist scarves and other adornments. The views were superb, but I was tempted by the sight of a large mountain peak a couple of miles away and about 500 feet higher which looked as if it could easily be reached on foot and would give even better views. Rich expressed himself quite happy with the views he already had, so I set off on my own (with the small hand-held GPS and some wet weather gear, just in case). At the top of this main peak (which, for those who want to look on Google Earth, was at N 50º 47' 43.9", E 100º 11' 23.8", altitude 2,648 metres) I got even more spectacular views all around, and took some more piccies of the view and a short panorama video which we will put on the website when we can. To the east was the lake, almost immediately below me; and to the west was range after range of mountains, disappearing into the blue distance. There were some quite tasty looking ridges radiating in many directions, and it was a lovely spot to sit and be for half an hour. During that time, I was actually dive-bombed by a couple of birds who were obviously not keen to share their mountain with a mere human! But I could see nobody and no sign of human habitation in any direction. I thought I had better get back to the car before the weather changed or Rich drove off without me. When I got back, I found he had been doing some more re-arranging in the car and had at least got the things out to make lunch (cheese and sausage sandwiches). Yummy! He explained that he found the car a very satisfying size of space to live in - it was small enough to keep everything tidy (unlike his bedroom) and it was a realistic objective to have everything on it working properly (except apparently the brakes!) After lunch we decided to head half way back down the mountain to a flat patch we had spotted next to the track where there were excellent views. We would camp there for the night unless we started to have doubts about the weather - we did not want to be driving down that track when it was being made slippery by rain, or after more bits of it had been swept away by floodwaters. As we took the camping chairs out of the car, it started to rain a few drops, and the wind was strong and cold; so that decided us. We took the track right back down to the lakeside and then drove a couple of miles further on (to avoid any possibility of meeting Zayat's brother!) before pulling off onto a flat area which had obviously been used for camping before, about 20 yards from the lakeside - hopefully far enough for the wave noise not to be a problem. Rich cooked up a really great curry from a tin of curry sauce we had brought with us and a rather dodgy can of cowmeat ("beef" would not really be an accurate description!) bought in Russia somewhere and I collected driftwood and lit a campfire. Even down here it is quite windy and chilly, but at least the rain has gone away. Another fantastic Mongolian night sky full of stars, and not a fire or a light to be seen anywhere. This really is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, and I will be sad to leave - but we need to push on and so tomorrow we will head back towards Moron and onto the next leg of the journey. Hopefully we will have time to drop in on Trina and her family on the way through Hatgal (after Rich has eaten some more of that goulash, of course, and stocked up on chocolate). So tonight we are mostly listening to more waves, soaking up another starfilled sky, warming our toes by the fire and thanking our lucky stars that the hole in the track was not a bit deeper - all at GPS ref 50º 43' 30.66" N, 100º 14' 49.55" E, altitude 1,608 metres (this lake definitely slopes!) 19th AugustA much better night's sleep! I bounded out of bed at... well... 10 o'clock, actually. I was full of energy, having slept so well - and so long. So it was down to the lakeside with a bucket to do an all over wash and a change into a completely fresh set of clothes. I smell wonderful, and the hypothermia is wearing off now. I also washed some clothes, including the first such experience for my microfleece, which still produced brown water on the fourth rinse! As usual, I preferred to sleep than wash in a freezing lake. Our last carton of UHT milk bought in UB has churned itself into butter so I had to make up some more of the dreaded powdered milk for breakfast cereal and tea. It's surprising what you can put up with when you're hungry and it's a beautiful sunny day (albeit with a slightly chilly breeze). With my clothes hanging out to dry on a couple of bushes on the lakeside and a nice hot mug of tea in my hand, there wasn't a lot wrong with the world. Rich briefly inspected the state of his ammunition box/washing machine. It was fermenting nicely, so he decided to give it just one more day - the long drive down to Moron should do the trick nicely. I went for a bear hunt in the woods with my spade, but didn't find any. Apart from the brakes (and a slight reluctance to start first time, probably due to the accumulated effects of manky diesel in Mongolia and Russia) the car seems to be in pretty good shape - it has a mysterious ability to regenerate itself, we think; maybe something built into all Land Rovers on the production line at Solihull? We were able to dump all our rubbish at a special place set aside for the purpose a couple of miles away from our campsite - the only public rubbish dump we have seen anywhere in Mongolia apart from the countryside (which the Mongolians do unfortunately seem to use - but as there are so few of them and so much countryside, it isn't yet a massive problem). While we were there, we carefully used some of the wet wipes which G had left with us for manly stuff like cleaning the solar panel, windscreen and mirrors - even the lights! So we had a muddy Land Rover with very shiny windows for the drive back to Moron. And Rich still had a dirty face. Pausing only to drop off the room key which Rich had accidentally brought with us from the Nature's Door camp a couple of days before, we drove to Khatgal, where we went into the same cafe as we had eaten in before and I unveiled my fluent Mongolian: "Heuer Goulash" I said. This seems to have been understood as "two stone cold plates of goulash, please", which was not quite what I intended. I thought it safer to point at the cans of drink we wanted, just in case we ended up with vodka instead, like everyone else. It was Saturday, and even though it was early afternoon, there were already a few men (mostly young) already reeling around under the influence. Very sad. We didn't take long over lunch - there were a few guys who planted themselves next to us and started talking to us, which was frankly a bit rude and we just wanted to leave. The strangest part was when asked "What are you doing now?" One responded simply "Drink" - then we popped into the shop to buy some supplies - Rich stood right behind me whispering "buy chocolate" in a slightly weird and hypnotic voice until I did, to go with the rather less essential foodstuffs. Then after topping up with diesel, we drove over to Trina's house to pay a farewell call. They were all in good form, expecting Micky back from UB any day now, and treated us to fizzy orange flavoured drink with sugar in it (that seems to have been roughly what it said on the tins). Dad's mouth turned orange, but I think only I noticed. We also saw some pictures from their family album of home in North Carolina - a beautiful self-built log and stone cabin (well, more of a mansion, really). It looked absolutely fantastic. We needed to push on fairly quickly so we could complete our 100 mile journey to Moron before it was too dark. So we headed off and had a fairly uneventful drive back to our campsite of a week ago, a few miles to the east of Moron. There we ate a snack supper of bread (fresh - well, freshly bought, anyway) with dodgy cheese and preserved meat products - Rich went for the Tesco's strawberry jam option instead. And didn't regret it for a second. Rich turned out his washing machine (an ammo box with clothes, soap flakes and water in the back of a car being shaken to bits all day gets dirt out of anything) and hung its rinsed contents up to dry on the washing line along the side of the car. I was horrified to see 13 pairs of socks and one pair of boxers. What does that say? It says I never need to wash my boxers. Then we got the maps out to plot our return journey in outline. That took us another hour or so, by which time it was very dark and time to tuck up. So ends another fun day, at GPS ref N 49º 38' 1.15", E 100º 20' 10.39", altitude 1,575 metres, and tonight we are mostly looking forward to seeing the famous White Lake tomorrow and who knows, maybe even climbing the (hopefully extinct) volcano just above it. And driving home... 20th AugustA day of driving - and what driving. A record for us - we were on the road by 11 am after doing all our chores. We drove and drove, from Moron (goodbye for the last time) down the track towards Shine Ider (funny name) and Jargalant, on the way to Terkhen Tsaggan Nur (Great White Lake). It took us nearly 10 hours of driving, and we still didn't quite make it - 155 miles in nearly ten hours tells you all you need to know about the state of the tracks. It was bumpity bumpity nearly all the way, with several new squeaks, boinks and screeching noises being added to the car's repertoire. The brakes unfortunately are not regenerating themselves, so we need to anticipate all hazards well in advance - about three footpumps' worth. The route was certainly beautiful, but the driver had no time to look - a deep hole would swallow a wheel or a stray rock would crack the differential if attention strayed for a second from the road. There was a certain degree of tension in the cab to start with due to the different driving styles, but that eased off as the day went on. Even with our GPS software (running on the 20 year old USAF maps) and the proper up to date half million scale maps we bought in UB, we are still finding it tricky to get the right route sometimes. We found, for instance, that there is a new bridge over the river near Jargalant, but not before we had driven four or five miles up and down the river looking for the ford which was shown on the maps. And very often it is hard to tell whether a fork in the track is really a fork, or just another piece of the endless braiding (in which case the navigator's answer to the question "which way should I go?" is "Either, it doesn't matter.") At least half a dozen times today we have had to cut across country back to the right route when we had been lured off by what seemed like a simple dualling of the track, and only discovered our mistake after a mile or two. Generally speaking it is best to navigate by valleys - you work out from the GPS and the map which valley you should be heading down and then you can relax for a few miles. We stopped for lunch in Shine Ider at nearly 4 pm. As we pulled up in front of the little row of shops in the centre of the village, we saw the Toyota driver who had helped us out at Khovsgol the other day. He had his US tourists with him this time (they were just taking a brief stop in the village). They told us they were travelling for about 6 months, about two in Mongolia and then they were heading to Europe before finishing up in Turkey in December/January. Where do these people find the time? Their guide was kind enough to ask a local for us where we could get some lunch and we ended up in a little cafe where they opened up for us even though it was mid-afternoon on a Sunday. We had goulash freshly cooked to order for us, which was very nice after the disappointment in Khatgal the previous day. We were stopped for nearly an hour, so we needed to hurry off again (total restaurant bill £2.30, including drinks.) The country was getting more and more beautiful - it reminded me very much of Scotland in places, especially when the sun went in! We saw thousands of marmots today - we have seen loads all over the country, but they seem to be particularly common around here. Very sweet looking little things. The day was basically bright, and slightly less chilly than the last few - but there is still a nip of autumn about and there seems to be a general urgency around the place on getting in the hay harvest and doing all those pre-winter jobs. The road was generally around 20 mph standard (though the Mongolians generally drive at about 35 on it!) and as we want our car to last all the way back to England, we are generally going a bit slower than the locals. But as we only met about ten other cars all day (mostly UAZ jeeps or Forgan minivans), that doesn't really matter. But there was one stretch of several miles which we could only pass at walking pace, it was so rough and bumpy. No problems with mud (thank goodness), just really rough rocks and boulders to bump our way over. Still, we did it in the end and got to within sight of White Lake at around 10 pm. I was pooped, but Rich cooked a pasta and pesto and we had a hot chocolate before falling into bed. The stars are still just as dense, and we spotted a big shooting star and what was obviously a satellite zooming across the sky while we ate. Tomorrow we will do the last 4 or 5 miles to the lake, hopefully take a look at the volcano and have a good look under the car to see if there is anything we can do to help it in its pain! So tonight we have just pulled a short way off the track and parked up overlooking the lake a few miles down the valley. We are mostly making sure we don't get cold in bed, with lots of extra layers, at GPS ref 48º 08' 38.64" N, 99º 29' 32.86" E, altitude 2,116 metres. We are back down to double figures on our longitude for the first time in Mongolia...
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