Spent hours crossing the border from China into Mongolia queueing in seperate drivers and navigators queues with bits of paper that sometimes we were told to hand in then we were told to keep, always being told to HUSH! eventually navigators went through and drivers back to the cars for inspection and more queueing. Luckily we were relatively quick and before we knew it were on a really tough time trial on rough dirt road that went on and on and on for 200 odd km! We made all the times which we were pretty thrilled and surprised by. When we could look sideways and not at the road ahead (Rachel) or at routebooks, GPS etc (Suzy) we saw mile upon mile of flat open desert with only groups of camels or horses, some cattle, sheep or goats to punctuate it.
Finally we reached the campsite near Sainshand which was a bit tricky to find so we arrived over the hill when most of the rest came by track, or truck... Camping was interesting especially as it was right by a busy railway with huge diesel engines pulling 30 or 40 trucks.
This morning was a beautiful sight through sore dusty eyes of the sunrise over the Gobi followed by more successful time trials on more dirt road, another 200 km. Poor car doesn't know what hit it, or it hit in some of the bumps, but is holding up wonderfully with only a little problem with a ball jopint which we can fix.
In Ulaan Baatar now, more train noise but a welcome bed for 2 nights. Phew!
Seems we are coming 15th in Vintageant category. Wow! certainly didn't expect that, but it is early days....
Spent hours crossing the border from China into Mongolia queueing in seperate drivers and navigators queues with bits of paper that sometimes we were told to hand in then we were told to keep, always being told to HUSH! eventually navigators went through and drivers back to the cars for inspection and more queueing. Luckily we were relatively quick and before we knew it were on a really tough time trial on rough dirt road that went on and on and on for 200 odd km! We made all the times which we were pretty thrilled and surprised by. When we could look sideways and not at the road ahead (Rachel) or at routebooks, GPS etc (Suzy) we saw mile upon mile of flat open desert with only groups of camels or horses, some cattle, sheep or goats to punctuate it.
Finally we reached the campsite near Sainshand which was a bit tricky to find so we arrived over the hill when most of the rest came by track, or truck... Camping was interesting especially as it was right by a busy railway with huge diesel engines pulling 30 or 40 trucks.
This morning was a beautiful sight through sore dusty eyes of the sunrise over the Gobi followed by more successful time trials on more dirt road, another 200 km. Poor car doesn't know what hit it, or it hit in some of the bumps, but is holding up wonderfully with only a little problem with a ball jopint which we can fix.
In Ulaan Baatar now, more train noise but a welcome bed for 2 nights. Phew!
Seems we are coming 15th in Vintageant category. Wow! certainly didn't expect that, but it is early days....
well done girls,it sounds amazing, what an adventure. The car looks great, hope she keeps up the good work. Lol Juliet xx
ReplyDeletefannytastic gals. i never doubted the dynamic duo for a mo.
ReplyDeletechaos here - but nothing i can't handle. off to ireland for a romantic week - canny wait