Thursday 18th July 2013

Leaving Dalandzadgad

Enjoy your last day at Bridges, and last ever day at Nursery Esme. Don’t cry too much Mummy. Xx

Woken by lorry trying to start. Thanks. Shower again, just because we can. On way to breakfast, notice the large crane at back of hotel, has tipped and crashed through the railings. Doesn’t look as if anyone was hurt. As the morning progresses, a large group of onlookers appears, the police arrive and cordon off the area, two more cranes are brought in, the the stricken crane up righted. The long arm was well and truly bent however.

Overnight there has been a down pour. We eat the most delicious breakfast – sea weed soup, cooked sausage, omelette with fried veg and rice, yoghurt, bread and honey. We enjoyed it much better than dinner last night. Planned to spend morning working on cars, but too wet. Did some washing, goodness knows when it will dry. Tim and I down loaded some pictures, but still more to do.

Check out at mid day. Buy full sized Twix and Cadbury’s Whispa from minibar. Atle and Hilde could not understand why we bought our first house in Bourneville, when we told them there are still no licensed premises on the estate. Rain has washed great lumps of mud off both cars. Still no yoghurt in supermarket. Get fuel, but problem with cards. Atle and Hilde go off to try and find cash, leaving Tim and I as ransom. We are soon set free.

Tim and Atle discussed whether to pump more air in tyres. Decide to see how long asphalt road will last, suspect not far. Well, even in a sophisticated city, a cow ambles across the road. Drive through city centre, then past gers on the outskirts and back out into the desert in less than a minute. From here to UllaanBaatar the road is state maintained. We will see what that means. A sign says we can do 80kph, the Landy is not shaking and we can hear each other talking.

Guess what? Back to the same old same old. There is a twice weekly bus that travels this route. Wonder how long it takes? These next two days are going to be hard, as it is now muddy and slippery. Even with Diff Lock in we are sliding all over. Oh well. At least the sky ahead is clearing.

Looking on the Internet we discovered a few interesting things. We will not be in UllaanBaatar when the Mongol Rally arrives. That is a shame. But over the coming weekend, when we will be in UllaanBaatar, several storms are forecast. That is also a shame. There is a Landy garage in UllaanBaatar, which we may visit and ask them to look at the transmission. It may be expensive, and that is the biggest shame of all.

Hard to tell how deep the holes are when they are full of water. Camels with green ribbons tied round necks. You all look very fetching girls.

This is dull, and flat and boring. You can’t hear yourself think. We are getting rattled to pieces, then we slide and slip. We wear our fleecies. Tim puts the heating on. There is nothing to see, so nothing to photograph. It is hard to type. Little bit of ballet dancing there, but still pointing in the fight direction when we come to a halt. Mud splattering windscreen. Got cold feet.

They are building a new road. Piles of soil running parallel. No one came to work today. Machinery standing idle. We sneak on. Much better. Is it the Chinese who are building a mile of motorway a day? Quite fancy travelling on their high speed train, the fastest in the world. If we go to Beijing, we will have to use public transport. Want to walk on the Great Wall of China. I know it’s touristy, but we are tourists, as well as travellers.

Rain letting up a little, sky getting lighter. Spirits lifting. Feet now warm. Windscreen wipers off. Stop for technical break. Toilet paper damp, rain came through window. Dark chocolate Whispa bar for lunch. Hildefender is kicking up dust now. Sunglasses go on. Big skies. Actually, the biggest skies ever. Then fleecies come off.

I was really glad of a few creature comforts last night, but I am so looking forward to wild camping again tonight. We were discussing our time in UlllaanBaatar. We may find a hotel for a night. We are booked into a ger two hours out. Will we camp at all? We would love a day or two of down time. Tim and I have so many new books to read. We want to at least start one.

Red sand, not white like yesterday’s dunes. When we veer off track then race across the scrub, we release the smell of herbs. So evocative. Every meal we cook with thyme will transport me back to Mongolia. Need to track 5km to get back on Mandalgov – Dalandzadgad Highway.

We can suddenly smell beer. Maybe another popped can. What a waste. What a disaster. Wonder if the no booze Wednesday is a national ban? Animals, people and gers appearing now. A few hills in the distance which may provide shelter this evening.

Had to stop. A lot of crackling and squelching from radio. They can’t hear us. Have to get out, so Tim can get behind my chair. Several connections have come loose, need tightening. I get outside. It is much warmer than this morning, the temperature has gone up bt 14 degrees. Now we are heading North, only to come back South to get to China. Who planned this route?

Some disturbing headlines as Tim was down loading back copies of the Guardian. National testing for five year olds band proposals to make it more difficult for immigrants to enter Britain. Why? Hilde was saying last night, it feels so liberating not having crossed a border for over a week. Not having to produce the correct paperwork, not having to fill in forms in a foreign language, not having to prove we are good people. This is when we have got valid visas, and are just passing through on holiday.

We decide we need to stop. It is exhilarating, seeing an outcrop or cliffs of rocks in the distance. How far are they? Hoe long will it take us to get there? I guess we will be there before 7.30pm. We pass some ponds, with tall wading birds and others on the water. Maybe look at those in the morning. We choose a place, and park up. Hilde says it smells.

Atle does the required work on the wheel. One of the gaskets has completely disintegrated. It is repaired. We find out information about driving into Hong Kong. Basically we can’t. Will have to crate cars in Shanghai, and get into Hong Kong under our own steam. Another exciting challenge. Hilde tried to contact Astrid and Olav, who text to say they were only an hour away from UllaanBaatar, where were we? A day away. Would love to meet up tomorrow.

We hear a noise, which I recognise immediately. A fox. Hilde and I walk around an outcrop. The noise moves. We hunker down. Then we see it. A fox, calling out. We must be in its territory. We all hide and keep still. Gradually, the calling stops. We will only be here for one night, fox. Can we share your territory? This has been the highlight of the day.

Wonder if Mum’s house was sold today?