concerns

Day 25 of the expedition

Distance traveled: 36.7 km

Day 26 of the expedition

Distance traveled: 71.1 km

Position: N45 38 E106 38

We have one week left on the trail. After spending 26 days out here and with three hundred kilometres left to Saynshand, that one week seems to short. We have gotten to the point in the expedition where we are beginning to become comfortable with our surroundings and the challenges that the Gobi presents. At the beginning of the trip we had many un-answered concerns; with regards to the terrain, the amount of weight that we could carry with our buggies, the amount of water we would consume in these conditions, the strength of our equipment and interactions with local people.

The terrain proved more difficult than we had imagined, but it was difficult to base our imagination on any tangible evidence. Even our highly detailed topographical maps barely show the extent of the hills that we climb. But so far nothing has been able to stop us, although the terrain has often made travel rather slow.

Weight and storage space were big concerns, mostly because we had yet to actually see the carrying capacity of our buggies. Each buggy needed to hold four Ozone kite, a spare tire, our personal kit, water, food, and various other equipment. Luckily most of our equipment does fit into the buggy, but the space is tight and usually we keep our helmet and harness strapped on the exterior of our carrying bag.

Water was by far our greatest concern. How much would we consume in a day and how much could we carry with out overloading our buggies. At the beginning of the trip we each carried 30L, enough water for ten days of moderate consumption. At this moment in time we have found that carrying less water and traveling faster has been more successful. Because our days are more active we tend to consume up to 4 L per person, yet we only ever carry 4 days of water at a time. Over all water has been easy to find, there are ger's nearly every 30 km (if you keep an eye out for them) and wells or springs every 120 km.

Our equipment has been doing fine, for the most part we were unconcerned about the Ozone kites, we have used them in the past and they have never broken. Even under the harsh conditions in the Gobi they have faired quite well. We were slightly concerned about the zippers on our Hilliberg tent, generally zippers do poorly in sandy conditions, yet our tent still stands, every zipper still works even after the sand storms. Our largest equipment concern was for the back axles of the Libre buggies. We are by far overloading their usual weight capacity as generally buggies are used on flat beaches, not through thorn bushes and rocky terrain. So far so good, we have not noticed any bending.

Finally we were uncertain as to the attitude that the locals would take to our endeavour. When we first started out we were startled by how many empty vodka bottles littered the sides of the road, and how many people could emerge form what seemed like a small car. We were also worried about the general safety of our equipment in towns. In both cases we have had little trouble; in the communities we have left our equipment to the kids and it still all comes back to us. In the country the people have always been kind and generous, and largely supportive of our endeavour.

Eric