Day 39 : Tsagaanchuluut to Tsagaam Khairkhan

High Point: After going off the so called main track on Tuesday night, waking up this morning literally in the middle of no where, surrounded by mountains on all four sides was a special treat for all of us. The rest of the crew were a little concerned we were lost. However I had every confidence I had done a wonderful job of navigation the day before (if I do say so myself) and we were just round the corner from civilisation! Thankfully lady luck was on my side and we very quickly stumbled across the village I had been looking for at 9pm last night. I knew those cub scout compass lessons would come in handy one day, thanks mum and dad.

Low Point: Without doubt losing Martha’s extendable spot lights. These have been a huge bonus for setting up camp, desert football, and all general night time activities. A combination of rock laden treacherous dirt tracks, Dave’s driving and a minor rave in the cab to Bon Jovi resulted in this tragic loss. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the chocolate biscuits being wedged under the hydraulic switch!
In all seriousness we were extremely lucky that another car wasn’t following us at the time or we didn’t drive under any low lying electrify cables. All was not lost however as we retraced our steps and collected the various parts. I’m sure we will be able to get them fixed in UB next week.

No Point: Attempting to avoid rocks and pot holes on the dirt tracks aka roads! Any swerve just results on Martha’s wheels colliding with another set. We are all beginning to learn this, just some quicker than others, no names mentioned.

Big shout of the day: This goes to Skype as without them we would be practically lost for communication or all very very broke. Also the two phones they kindly donated have been invaluable as we have now banned the lap top from the cab and all web posts are made through these. A massive thank you.

Dish of the day: Breakfast, a combined effort from James and Ben of porridge with tinned pineapple chunks. I feel at this juncture I should apologise to Ben here; I take my job as treasurer of FTFE very seriously and when Ben managed to smuggle five cans of tinned pineapple into the shopping without me noticing I berated him mercilessly for wasting the kitty’s funds on inedible rubbish. Very tasty they were too.

Mongolian phrase of the day: Dunduur jaakhan = Not too much vodka please.

Authors comments: Over six weeks on the road and counting now. No major catastrophes and the circumnavigation attempt is still very much on schedule. Now I know that many of you reading this will think this is a minor miracle in itself, and sometimes I would tend to agree with you, however in reality I believe it has come down to meticulous planning. The whole FTFE team and you all know who you are have done an amazing job. Our primary ambition was to raise money and awareness for the three wonderful charities, this in itself has been (so far, keep going all) a huge success. Add on to this the planning and preparation it has taken to get us this far round the world, and I would say you’re looking at a monumental achievement and one that we shouldn’t take for granted. Therefore to all of you out there no matter how big or small a part you have played, a massive massive thank you from the stage two crew.

PS Mongolia is awesome.

Ross.

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