High winds and dismal terrain

Day 12 of the expedition

Distance traveled: 36.2

Day 13 of the expedition

Distance traveled: 48.1

Position: N 45 28 E 100 16

We woke up still in the sand storm with a covering of dust over all our gear. The dust oozes through the zippers and eventually settles on our sleeping bags and tent floor. Even the slightest movement causes the dust to leap back into the air obscuring our vision and choking our lungs. By mid morning however the storm had settled enough to make forward progress. For most of the morning the winds stayed constant and strong, allowing us to fly our 4 meter Flow's at a generally good clip. We were traveling off-road and navigating by GPS and map, slowly making our way to an area marked on the map as sandy. Once we got there we had the option of keeping off road or continuing through the sand.

By 4 in the afternoon it became apparent that we had missed the road. It also became apparent exactly what "sandy" really denoted on the map. There was indeed sand, but it posed only a minor discomfort. The difficulty lay with the small shrubs growing in the sand. As the shrubs grew, they collected sand at their base, placing each small shrub atop a mound. At first this made for a rough ride, bouncing along the ground with the sound similar to running over potato chips on a bike. But eventually the mounds became bigger, and every bump would send the rider skyward. We were flying our 10 meter Mantas at this point, hoping that the larger kites would keep our momentum going even over the bumps, which they did but at a cost.

Near sun down it became apparent, after being lifted out of the buggy 8 times and having a row of bruises on my leg, that kiting in this terrain with the dimming light was becoming futile. We pulled the buggies, sometimes on all fours, to a location flat enough to pitch a tent.

 

The next morning we woke to a Mongolian making a significant amount of noise outside our tent, untouchably trying to wake us. It was 6 in the morning. He was a delightful man and with his energetic use of hand signs and interpretive dance, our conversation lasted longer than most. The early morning was a bonus in many ways, the winds were strong and this would have made for great sailing. However due to the terrain we were restricted to pulling our buggies in hopes of finding a road.

By mid day with our monocular we spotted a van traveling fast over the horizon. Our hopes soared, a van moving that fast over this terrain must be traveling on a road! An hour later we managed to converge with the small dust track.

The rest of the day went well except for a small run in with a salt march. We managed to kite till the sun set and make some miles to prove it. Hopefully we will be able to keep up the distance for the next few days.

In closing I should mention that we will most likely update every two days, as with Curtis' responsibility now divided between the two of us and a larger focus on making distance, we have been short of both time and electricity. If either of these situation change in the next few days, we will continue posting updates daily.

Eric