Mongolia - Chinggis and China
Hey kids, Here is our last post. We thought we'd save the best to last, and for all those hoping to hear epic arguments, near fatal experiences and other anecdotes of us nearly being killed or nearly killing each other tune in. So we had our first dodgy border crossing. It appeared the border control officer didn't understand the items in the car belonged to the owners, and proceeded to help himself to everything and anything he fancied. . .I would have complained, but he had a gun, and my passport, and I'm a coward. Oh well, you win some you loose some. We got put in a pen for a couple of hours whilst they took the worlds longest lunch break and we through no fault of our own, made our first 'friends' of the trip. . .G was furious! After finally getting through, we hit the open road/dirt track/field heading toward a mountain range. G failed to find my amusing joke of driving off down the road at 10mph when she got out the car funny, and instead of chasing the car as I hoped, proceeded to sit down in the middle of the roads, legs and arms crossed. . .half an hour later, battle of wills came to a head and I went and picked the little princess up. Mountain passes later, rough track, yaks, and we hit the first big city - Olgii, ready for my big birthday night out. We made a mistake. There was cheap vodka on the shelf, 5 pounds for a litre seemed good value, the 3 pounds chinggis we opted for not a well saved two pounds - evening summarized - drunk vodka, got drunk, ordered a second bottle, v.drunk, had a lock, sung Mongolian karaoke, G needing some action pulled a 70 year Mongolian women with no teeth, Tim needless to say got none. Next morning/afternoon/early evening we were back on the road, then hit Khovd, it was average. We found the mongol rally drop off point, having seen a wrecked Nissan Micra kicking round we asked if we could potentially have an extra tyre since we didn't have one (school boy error!). . .we we're told 'who are we, and what right do we have to take parts from another car'. . .60 dollars later and the moral obstacle seemed to have vanished and replaced with a mechanic and a spare tyre on top of our car. . .beautiful. The next day was a day to remember.. . We didn't have a map. This we thought was a minor oversight, it was actually a major obstacle - we ended up veering 200kms off course down to china. We drove across the desert and up through the mountains, innocently aware of our error. By about 8 in the evening having seen nothing all day it dawned on us our minor/major error. We were alone. The car tank was running out. The wind had picked up to 40 plus knots. We had limited water. We had no idea how to find our way back. G didn't have a mirror or a hot shower. . .it was literally the lowest point. I barely slept. G slept like a baby. I got up at 6 the next morning to give the car a once over. We drove an hour up the road and we met our "saviours". . .a purple, fur covered berlingo. We were saved. What was the chances? We were literally in the middle of nowhere. . .they stopped and showed us their perfect map. . . Purple belingo: You guys don't even have a map? US: Nope Purple belingo: laugh heartily. We were shown their epic A3 detailed map, complete with compass, markings on distance covered, average speed achieved, millage of the car and the 'exact point of where they were.' More laughter ensued, then 'just follow us'. Off we set again, relieved, heart palpitations reduced. 3 hours later we hit the next town. We stopped to check the name and our bearings. A friendly local pointed out our position on the map. Just casual 200kms from where we thought we were. The cocky laughter subsided. Sh@t. At least you've got your average speed recorded I jested. We set a new route to get back to where we needed to be. . .we were back on course and safe. . .NAAT! Casually rocking down a valley, about to cross this dry river bed then we saw it, a wall of water moving down the hill. . .we were witnessing these 'fictitious' flash floods. I would love to say I was brave, I would love to say I waited for the other team to ensure there safety. I didn't. I reversed so quickly up the valley the nissan nearly took off. Previously carefully navigated boulders were just run straight over, off track, on track we didn't care. Photos to follow. 'That was mental I said when we felt safe, we could have died. Did you see that water?' I said white faced and breathless. 'Yeh, we might have even lost our passports' remarked G. I stared blankly her, never has someone failed to realise the gravitas of the situation so quite badly. The rest of the day can only be described by photos, over mountains passes, stuck in sand, the other team lost 8 wheels, their exhaust, one shock absorber and were given the skull of one of the rarest, highly protected goats in the world by a local mechanic (which they were later to be questioned about). . .10 hours later and we had just crossed a field (no road) and we saw a track ahead, our hearts lept. . .in this most surreal moment of my life. We hit beautiful new tarmac. In the middle of nowhere. The Mongolians have no logic to there road building. We literally cried with happiness. Back on the main track an hour later and we were back to square one but at least heading in the right direction. The rest of the journey seemed somewhat tame, river crossings where easier then expected and the roads though bad were nothing compared to the mountain pass. We traveled in convoy with 3 other cars for the rest of the journey so were safe from any further detours. We played golf in the desert, baseball, drank and ate and camped and though we discovered we had split our exhaust clean in half from the previous excursion it was an easy ride to the capital. We arrived in Ulaanbaatar on the 23rd exactly a month since we set off. The car sold for nearly twice what we bought it for bringing our total raised for charity to over 3,000. Over a 100 teams have thus far failed, 30 have made it, and though we were so under prepared and deserved to fail, we hadn't even had a flat tyre. A truly awesome trip, cannot recommend anyone else doing it enough. the end x ps G and I are still friends, just!
