Friday 19th July 2013

Realising the dream – UllaanBaatar

Do you finish school today, Claire and Ned? If so, happy holidays.

All night long, the fox circled our camp.

Up early, so the luxury of a cup of tea before breakfast, and a cup of coffee after. Sat for five minutes savouring it. Washing all dry.

Set off. Stop after two minutes. Battery in Hildefender not charging. New fuses, from under my seat. I look at birds around a nearby lake. Think there are two cranes. First eagle of the day flaps away.

We drive for another 10 minutes, then come across a truck stuck in the mud. We stop. Six hours later we are still there. The first 3 were helping them. The next 3 are getting Hildefender mended. Half shafts and gaskets etc…… During this time we send information about the cars to China. Hilde books a hotel for tonight and cancels the ger. The people we helped earlier are eager to help us. Very frustrating though.

Everyone works together for hours. Some of the young men are so eager to help, watch and learn. One was very earnest, methodical and thoughtful. Wipes every tool clean before handing it back. During the six hours we are there, five vehicles pass.

At the time, we are all concerned about the vehicles. The lorry was well overloaded. A crane, generator, three gers, all the fencing, clothing, white goods, cooking utensils. Everything that constitutes home. We managed to help them get righted, and used the new winch to get the lorry part way out. Then we strop ourselves to the Hildefender, which is then attached to the back of the lorry. During this operation, both the lorry and Hildefender have broken axels.

Looking back, the main issue of the day was the people. People from opposite sides of the world. People who had no common spoken language. But before we realised the Hildefender was damaged, the men told us to go, we had tried our best even though they were still stranded. We did not want to leave them by the wayside, but we could do no more. When we drove a few meters, and it was obvious we could go no further, the men stopped digging themselves out. They then spent three hours helping us. We offered them food, but they refused. Everyone shared tools, skills and knowledge. It was a privilege seeing this happen.

When the Hildefender was finally sorted, the Mongolians were thrilled for us, they shook our hands, clapped and cheered. Hilde and I took group photos. Fantastic experience. Thank you.

The rest of the day, Atle was driving a two wheel drive vehicle like a demon, and we had large chunks of the Hildefender in the Beast. We had nearly 300 km to drive, were six hours behind schedule, the roads were atrocious, the rain came and we felt as if we were rally driving. But, we were really looking forward to meeting up with Astrid and Olav, in ULLAANBAATAR!!!!!!!

As we approached the city, it was surreal. We were still in the mountainous countryside. The usual gers and animals were familiar sights. Suddenly we turned a corner, and we looked down on a smog. It was late evening, and we were transported back to the 19th century. It looked liked a scene from Dickens, the pea – souper over London. All the rubbish from the Mongolian capital is brought to the outskirts, and burned. What were we coming into? We had planned this for so long, but neither of us had any vision about what the city would look like.

We drove further in. The asphalt roads were single lanes, and potholed. Traffic was heavy. A new road was under construction, and people were still working on it at 9.30 pm on a Friday night. The smog lifted. We saw the airport, large chimneys, huge buildings, lights. It looked like the opening scene from a Mad Max film.

We were totally awe struck. It was such a culture shock, after living in the wilderness or small towns for so long. We began to see hoardings and adverts for western products. There were police sirens, and car horns, and traffic lights, and pedestrian crossings, and swanky hotels and shopping malls……….

Hilde and I had been taking earlier about walking in UB. Locals do not understand the concept of queuing. So we British will find this difficult. As we approached a left turn, cars squeezed in between our cars. “Use your elbows!” Laughs Hilde. A car at the side of us stops, the affluent young driver leant out of the window and shouts “Your cars are the best”

We arrive at the Chinggis Khaan Hotel. The bell hop rushes to collect our bags. “Please don’t dirty your clean white shirt in our car,” I laugh. We find our room, shower, change and meet in the foyer bar. The restaurant had just closed. We were starving. Look at the room service menu.

Astrid and Olav walk in. They look as changed as I am sure we do. All brown, from sun tans and ingrained dirt. Hair longer, and in Olav’s case, a shaggy beard. We all hug, laugh and spend the next few hours in Atle and Hilde’s suite catching up. Very different journeys, very different experiences, very different people who helped (sometimes hindered) us on the way. But we had all arrived, achieved our goal, realised our dreams. Shame we will be spending such a short time together, but precious all the same. We plan to meet for lunch together tomorrow.

The country and people who touched us all the most? Iran.