Mongolia, Day 6 - Arvaikheer to Khar Khorin

A very comfortable night (bar Android annoyance) and no tent to strike. On the road, we're back in Microsoft Windows XP (TM) desktop terrain, low rolling green hills and blue sky. Or is it Teletubbies land; uh-oh where's Tinky-Winky? 

Matt is feeling much better today and flying, Duff is sitting out the ride temporarily.  At our first stop after refuelling in Arvaikheer (not such a big town but it has tarmac roads), Charlie the UK tour leader finds a broken crutch; Mark makes good use of this for the rest of the day (the team say that old possessions are left on hill tops to give thanks for new ones - this means such sites often seem to be rubbish dumps). We travel deeper into the hills and the slopes become less green, and bare, as if someone hasn't watered them in a while; the tracks are still loose dirt and gravel. Some of the slopes do have trees on though, grouped in a thin forest rather like my hair these days.  These are our first trees since UB. 

A rare forest

few road signs

The lunch stop is next to the only fence we've seen so far.  Mongolia has very few fences; land is by default owned by the government, but citizens can apply to lease parts of it to raise crops or build a house.  But the majority of the land is treated as open pasture, free for animals to graze or to build your ger temporarily.  

A few more minor offs, Mick and Alan's camera have moments. Nothing serious.  Sudden cracks in the dirt road and dastardly ditches before reaching the lunch stop.  Today it's dim-sum: the chefs really deserve a medal for their outstanding creativity in the back of a truck that serves as a kitchen, larder, baggage store and garage!  

today's anonymous bruise

A short ride today, about 140km, with a final blast on tarmac, and we arrive at our ger camp. Two to a ger and I'm sharing with Duff. One nice thing about these trips is I get to talk to interesting people about a wide range of topics beyond work and everyday life. I've said it before, these guys are all successful in what they do and it's enjoyable to talk to them; everyone has a story, even me. Stories are good, they make us who we are and add spice to lives.  At dinner we have yak ice cream. That's another story, a rich one. 

Duff's lairy trousers make an appearance in the evening.  Steve matches him.  They make a nice pair.

What a pair of pairs!

Some of the guys take the opportunity to ride horses that the camp keeps. Half an hour being led around a field by a man in a pork pie hat didn't appeal to me, even if it is a typically Mongolian activity - horse riding that is. 

Tomorrow it is stupas. 108 old stupas. And then transiting Khar Khorin, the old Mongolian capital and a point on the old Silk Road (part of the Karakorum highway!)