Day 3
Position: N 46 22 E 096 46
Distance traveled: 25.7
As a general rule of thumb, I would consider any day in which I get to kite and ride a camel, a rather good day. Unfortunately pulling buggies through the heat defiantly dampened the mood.
The morning was rather relaxed. With no wind by 11, we settled with pulling/pushing the buggies up hill. Its hard work, especially under the Mongolian sun, but with a buggy, as apposed to a rickshaw or other carriage that a human would pull, a buggy at least gives you the luxury of riding down the hills. And today involved lots of down hill. Our general strategy was to move out of the foot hills and onto flatter ground where we would have a better chance of kiting. We also knew that the main track or road was in the same direction and, if we could get there, we would have our navigation and terrain issues solved.
By the time we battled through the foot hills, we were exhausted and despite liberal applications of sun screen, we still managed some impressive sun burns. But like a charm, the moment we arrived at the end of the foot hills, the winds picked up enough to start out kiting towards the main track. With the kites in motion, we zipped over the remaining rolling terrain, passing gers and herds of livestock. Every now and then a herder on horseback or motorcycle (Mongolia's new horse) would follow us for a few kilometres before eventually turning back to their flock of animals. Near sun down we reached the track and rolled on to a near by ger truck stop, which is where I met Mr camel and his owner. Through the evening many people came over, even what I could guess to be a family, who through a long game of charades on a sketch pad, managed to invite us in for dinner. We (if the point got across) gratefully declined, as we had already made dinner, but stated that we would be by in the morning.
Eric
No comments:
Post a Comment