Day 37 – Altai

High Point: Showers. Camping each day is obviously amazing but it had been over a week since we’d been able to properly clean. Altai provided an opportunity to stay in a hotel with running water. And it didn’t disappoint. We’ve been bathing in ice cold river water for a long time but the hotel had warm running water! We now look almost human again.

Low Point: Martha took a battering on the Mongolian roads. When we reached our destination we could see her bleeding oil and other fluids all over. We were also without music and electrical appliances by the end of the day as both the inverter and converter had been shaken off the hinges with the vibration. Thankfully we found the fluid leakage to be minor and we should be able to deal with other repairs tomorrow.

No Point: We found a supermarket but it only sold vodka and ice cream. We didn’t purchase either.

Big Thanks: Cheers to Steve Curely from the London Fire Brigade for advice on tyre pressure. Hoping the beating will reduce from here on in.

Dish of the Day: Homemade goat burger with rice and carrots (veg at last!)

Chat of the day:

Authors comments: It was a big driving day and generally tough terrain. We’re definitely getting the feeling of being very remote in the middle of this huge continent. We must have passed by 10 nomad camps in the 7 hours driving, but only saw a similar number of vehicles the entire day.

We are now almost entirely reliant on a compass and a map of the terrain. Several towns/camps have the same name so the signposts that occasionally appear every few hundred kms are almost useless. Instead we’re relying on guesstimating the size of a number of mountain ranges to judge which to bypass.

It’s a real challenge and we’re starting to thrive on it. From this point on we’ll be heading north which will be even further into the wilderness. The scenery is stunning and we’re loving every minute.

The crew morale is picking up to another high and nicknames are suiting more and more each day. Steve and Ross are zippy and bungle or thelma and louise depending on the situation. Ben gets more like Bob Marley each passing day and James has been sick boy almost from day one. Though Ross’s botched attempt at a beard trim has removed his explorer edge as he gave himself an 80’s step which required outside assistance to resolve. The trip to the northern lakes possibly without any music should provide even more cab banter. Lovely.

Dave

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