Mongolia!

So, The Great Canadian Beavers have officially made it to Mongolia! After two semi-hellish days at the Russian exit border and the Mongolian entrance border, we officially drove max across the border line and felt the roads immediately go to crap.

But we’re here!

It took us a full day at each border crossing, and we actually almost all did not get through the Russian exit border. It was completely inefficient, and a complete waste of time, with bus drives butting in front of us and being allowed through when they had no right to, and us having to sit around and watch border officials essentially do NOTHING. Apparently the teams that got stuck behind us that night actually staged a bit of a process, blocking off both lanes of traffic until they got the Russian border officials to agree to let the remaining eight rally cars throuhg the next mornign (it took us from 9am until amost 6pm to get that amount through the day before). They also got on the phone with someone from the US embassy, who contacted the Russian one and told them to stop letting bus drivers and locals through before us. It was just ridiculous.

We rolled up to the Mongolian border JUST as it was closing, and we were allowed in and to have our passports stamped, so that we as people were allowed across the border to get food and supplies, but our cars had to stay to be processed (mainly because we are leaving them in the country). We therefore camped ourselves in no-mans land, and crossed over to find some dinner. We’ve become quite a big convoy (eight teams or so) and there were others left at the border from earlier that day, so we all split up. Dany and I ended up in this little hotel/house where they made us tea and these DELICIOUS meat dumplings with some beer. It was probably the best meal I’d had in weeks (instant noodles get old. fast.) Nick split off with some other people and had soem delicious fried potatoes and onions (which, subsequently I had the next day for lunch). Completely stuffed (and slightly drunk after plenty of shot of vodka) we wandered back to our makeshift camp to have some beers, play some soccer and generally just hang out.

Dancy somehow be-friended one of the border officials (I sense vodka had something to do with it) and therefore had our car jump the queue to be the first processed the next morning. It didn’t much matter because we were waiting for the convoy anyways, but it was funny to hear the border official walking around going “Canadia number one, UK number 2!” with a pretty drunk Dancy (she’s become the unofficial resident alcoholic,who’d have thought?). Then ext moring some of us went for a hike up one of the smaller mountain/hills with a local dog we’d nicknamed Bear (who we also appointed as our unofficial spirit guide), and we basically hung around in the sun and played with some of the local kids while the cars were processed. It’s a royal pain in the butt, but the internet is a necessity and it apparently frequently fails, so registering the cars to stay in Mongolia is MUCH more time consuming than we’d intiially thought. We were all done and processed (and fed) at around 4pm, so we decided to cover as much distance as we could that night before it got dark, and we ended up camping just off the highway. Our progress was severely hindered by blown tires (by Catch us if you Khan and the Mongol Schumachers) and a general worry that we would run out of gas (or Petrol as we’ve now taken to calling it).

The next morning we made a quick pit stop for a shower in a nearby mountain stream (which was quickly negated by all the dust that gets kicked up on a regular basis) and we headed our for the next city. Unfortunately, Cake or Death’s car was refusing to accellerate, and they had to organize a tow back to the city we had passed through after the border, and this is where our convoy got compeltely split up. Half of us went on ahead, but ourselves, Catch usif you can, and some members of the Mongol Schumachers, Mad Hatters and Brighton to Bataar (all in Catch us if you Khan’s van) ended up a little bit behind when we found we couldn’t actually start Max anymore! We ended up resorting to a push start and, on our way, took a wrong turn and headed for the NEXT Vvillage (instead of the one we came from) thinking they’d pushed on instead of heading back. It wasn’t all bad for us though; Upon arriving in Khovda, Mongolia, we went to a Mongol Rally sanctioned Ger camp, complete with food, beds, showers, a toilet and internet! It was miraculous! We were fed a delicious dinner, got to watch some traditional Mongolian musci playing/throat singing and sleep in a REAL bed! Dance and I found ourselves a little weirded out, being among a bunch of people we didn’t know, and without most of the convoy we’ve spent all this time with, but we chalked it up to seperation anxiety and did our best toenjoy ourselves ;)

 Cake or Death was told it would take a couple weeks for the part to fix their car, so they ended up ditching it (properly) in Olgie (not sure on spelling) and their group continued on, camping in the mountains for the night. They caught us up early this morning and we’ve gotten some delicious breakfast and decided to explore the town and utilize this opportunity for internet. Max is in the shop right now, hopefully getting a new starter so we don’t have to push start him everytime, and we’ve had to re-pack him (as his roof rack came flying off at a particularily bumpy part of Mongolian road). Other than that and having to replace one punctured tire, we’ve been pretty good (knock on wood!).

At the moment, some of our convoy, the Beavers included, are looking into buying a motorcycle that we can rotate riding to Ulaan Bataar,  hopefully we can get a good deal! Andrea and Dancy got a taste of riding a locals bike the other day and absolutely LOVE it! Mongolia itself is also an unbelievably beautiful country, even if the roads are an absolutely nightmare!

Until next time!

Love,

The Beavers