Day 158 573 days to go. Distance today 90km total 8628km. It’s 5.30pm Sunday 6/5/2012 45km east Hahorin (Karakorum).
Im sitting eating my chick pea and lentil curry with noodles watching a field of marmots scampering about so busy in the late afternoon. It as so great to have an early start today and finish up to enjoy an early dinner and lots of light to soak up the scenery. Kangs cooked and devoured his dinner already and has found a shady spotfor a kip. Between the tweet tweet birds, marmots, sheep and goats, it’s an entertaining show over dinner better than any video. Well maybe with the exception of Harry Potter J It’s 360 degrees expanse of plains with pockets of summer grass coming through. In the distance is the classic Mongolian hills and lowlands grassy and the higher tough and rocky. When I say hills they would be 2000+ m seeing we’re at 1300m. We spotted the ger about 2km down the valley off the road but there was no one round when we arrived. Just now I can see the farmer returning on his motor cycle bringing the herd back to camp. I’ll be back…
It’s 7pm. How funny is this? I’m watching Kang ride off with the germ anon his motor cycle to get water from who knows where. This fella has a broken leg. I thought he was showing me his new boots from Ulaanbaatar and I slapped them agreeing how good and tough they were. Unfortunately he was telling me he had gone to Ulaanbaatar to have his broken ankle fixed …opsy!!!! I’ve volunteered to stay and watch over camp with the puppies. Hopefully they’ll return in one piece with water. Staying at gers has been somewhat like…hello hello and a gesture if we can camp. Then we offer and share a cigarette and candy and a coffee. We get out the map and show our travel plans. We discuss their animals and mobile phone reception and anything else most of which I don’t understand but exchange smiles all happiness. The fella here is a bachelor and loves Kangs Iphone. I got some fun pickies with this fella. Despite seeming a bit crazy he’s very animated and cheeky. He’s back on the bike riding with his ‘mending’ leg soo tough soo nuts but there’s work to be done I suppose. Tine to recharge the ipod using the solar charger. Thank you my love for setting me up with very cool kit!!! X back soon.
It’s 10pm. The boys ended up at a communal well about 5km away and Kang arrived back quite pale from the crazy ride but with water so he was happy. He said the well was iced round the sides and the water was so cold when we put it through his filter. The ger man is following Kang around like a big brother which is very cute but I think kang will be happy when he goes to bed. They went off to round up the herd at sunset and it looked so great the two boys bonding. A group of his friends arrived earlier and one was very drunk and untidy but they left after a while. Not before being pretty inappropriate with me so I escaped into the safety zone of the tent until they headed. Alcohol seems a problem for some men and women here. It’s very sad to see such beautiful people behaving so pathetically. Who knows there hardships and difficulties I suppose and alcohol is a problem everywhere as we all know. Im sitting on my bed with the full moon showing off through he tent opening and its pretty dam beautiful. I’ve just flicked through the photos from the last days and they’re awesome. We stopped today by a lake where there were a pair of cranes wading and feeding round the edge. They are so elegant. A herd of horses visited for a drink and it was a real treat to watch the comings and goings. We had another stop at a high point before a 50km stretch of desert. There was this old fella tending his herd and came over to say hello. We shared a cigarette and nut bar and he loved getting his photo taken. We stay at a hotel tomorrow at Horhorin for a cleanup and hopefully internet access!!!! Off to bed for an early start. Talk soon x
shecyclesolo 