Follow the track

Day 19 of the expedition:

Distance Traveled: 24.3 km

Day 20 of the expedition:

Distance Traveled: 35.2

Position: N 45,21 E 104,03

Picture caption: up on the river bank just before entering the town of Sayhan Ovoo

We are uncertain as to exactly where we are. Come to think of it that saying has come out of fashion after the invention of the GPS. We know where we are; truthfully though, we have no clue where we should be, which is on the track to DelgerHangay, the next town on our route.

The last two days have felt very similar to this, trying to find our way through the hills on the patchwork system of roads. It has been somewhat challenging and time consuming. Yesterday the winds were favourable yet quite strong, kicking fine dust into the air and making the visibility poor. For the better part of the morning we were unable to find a track that traveled in the direction we wanted to head. The tracks act a bit like a drainage system, at first the track is merely a trace on the ground, barely an indentation but still void of vegetation. Then slowly it picks up other tracks of similar size, usually leading off to family gers; similar I suppose to driveways in north America. As the tracts join together they become deep so much so that at times the back axle of the trailer drags on the ground. And eventually they arrive at a destination, usually a town.

By late afternoon we arrived at the town of Sayhan-Ovoo, found the local well and filled our water bags for the next part of the journey. We were not in need of supplies, so after talking to the few locals that were intrigued by our odd set up, we headed out into a dust storm and quickly lost sight of the village. Within a few minutes, we came across a sign indicating there was a tourist ger camp 11 km down the road. This was the first road sign that we have seen the whole trip, and more importantly it confirmed a good meal. We had no intention of staying the night, after all the winds were still blowing strong and the moon would be out and almost full, we potentially had a long evening ahead of us.

The meal was delicious, mostly because it included a salad, something that we had not eaten in 20 days and a sort of large fried goat dumpling, all served with tea. The great taste of the meal was quickly overshadowed by the task of navigating. The first road that we took led strait into the mountains and quickly turned the wrong direction. No good. We hulled back along the road for about an hour and then took another track, which ended up doing somewhat of the same thing. By this time it was dark and we were riding a roller coaster of a track, ripping down hills, swerving out of control on soft sand, and climbing back up the next hill. When we eventually encountered power lines we decided to call it quits. It was quite dark, the moon was behind cloud cover and we could barely see the track. Maybe tomorrow with the sunlight we will be able to better find our way.

Eric