We were 2nd in the queue for the border next morning an hour before it opened yet it still took 4 hours to get through. The time was passed by participating in the travelling circus that was the Mogol Rally with footballs, frisbees, minibikes and drunk locals featuring on the bill. Once through the Russian border there is a 20km drive to the Mongolian border and by the time we reached it they had shut for lunch. A few hours later we were through and finally into Mongolia proper. A few minutes later we were lost. We quickly came to realise that road maps in Mongolia are useless, mainly due to the fact that there are no roads!

Talk of a big landslide on the Northern route means we have headed South-East first to Ojii then on to Khvod. From here however we head back due North towards Ulangom to reconnect with the Northern route to UB. On this road we have fast sandy tracks on high grassland and make 50mph. At one point a herder on horseback decides to have a race with the cars and easily keeps up before returning to his flock of goats and sheep. I have learnt whilst driving on this trip that goats and sheep in the road will move out of the way of a car, as will camels, however horses and cows in particular move for no man. How this knowledge can be applied to London traffic I'm yet to work out.

We followed a local on a motorbike someway towards Ojii past rolling grassland plains and hills dotted with nomadic ger (yurt/tent) camps. We only drove for 2 hours before setting up camp at nightfall but in this time we managed to get 2 punctures and use both spare wheels. This would set the pattern for the next few days of stopping in every town to get tyres repaired and led to the purchase of a couple more spares.
It's around 1000 miles from the border to Ulan Bator and if we hit 40mph we're doing very well. Roads are nothing but rocky dirt tracks and often diverge into 3 or 4 different routes. There are no sign posts and most of our navigation is done by a combination of asking anyone we can find, using a compass to head vaguely East and trying where ever possible to follow the telegraph poles as they must lead somewhere.

From Ulangom we head East again past a huge salt lake surrounded by arid desert and just a few lonely gers. Somehow after this we get lost and enter the foothills where the really bad rocky roads make for agonisingly slow progress. By the time we're out of the hills and into sand dunes we've progressed around 80 miles in 6 hours. Eventually we follow a local and despite having to make a detour to avoid getting bogged down in a sandy lake bed we finally hit the right path.

The next morning we're up at 4.30am and make good progress to Tes. However 5 mins outside Tes disaster strikes as a rock rips a big hole in the transmission/ gearbox of the white car and that's journey over. Trying to make a temporary patch is a possibility but time pressures and the chances of it lasting are not realistic. Our Spanish speaking contingent head back into Tes and luckily come across some English speaking Mongolians from UB who work for an American NGO. They've just stopped for lunch but manage to help us find a lorry driver who is willing to put the car on the back of his truck and take it plus it's 3 passengers to Ulan Bator. What could have taken days to organise took 10 minutes.

The second bit of luck is that the truck driver knows the way to UB and myself and Ed will, to start with, follow the truck along seemingly the main road that isn't even marked on our map. First however we have the problem of getting a Nissan Micra onto the back of a truck. This is solved by the use of a couple of flimsy looking planks and the manpower of the town drunks who happen to be hanging around the main street. With a bit of strain the car is pushed and lifted onto the truck with surprisingly little damage to either car or people. The truck driver then goes off to get fuel. After 10mins we start to get a bit concerned that we've just loaded a car onto his truck and let him drive off. However a further 10mins later he returns with his wife who is also coming along for the trip.

Our journey continues at: http://www.hereorthere.com/members/...perience/944