LONG WAY HOME - 24th May 2005 Sainshand, Mongolia Mick and Sue: Took a couple of hours to find our way out of Sainshand... that's just how it is with these towns! Tracks going in every direction, you have to be on one half an hour before you can 'get the feel' if it's the right one. The GPS helps without doubt, and the new Navigator II was a revelation, but you still need to have a 'feel' for this land to navigate!
We headed for Erdene where we knew there was petrol, but today the sun wasn't shining, it was overcast and windy. We were 'overtaken' by three sand storms: could see them coming up behind us, and like an Exocet missile... couldn't do a damned thing about them! Spin the 'bikes round at the last moment, face them into the wind, onto the side stands, and dive behind them for cover. The wind and sand rattled the visors, we were in a huge sandblasting machine with visibility down to a few feet. Move in the slightest and sand would shoot up your sleeves, down your neck.... As one sand storm cleared a herdsman came to see us on his horse, I offered him my last sweet which he was reluctant to take, but 'asked' if he could have the round airtight tin... he was like a kid when I gave it to him, the smile as wide as his face. That night, not being able to find Erdene, we made camp in another sand storm using a 'Tarp' supplied by Arnold of Trapper Equipment, Netherlands. The wind was too strong even to attempt to put the tent up, but the Tarp, a kind of bivouac one-sided thing was great. Making a wind-break with the 'bikes, the Tarp kept the wind and sand from us... just taking a gamble that it wouldn't rain, for our sleeping bags from the knees down were outside! I woke early hours to see the moon shining brightly, the sandstorm over. I opened one eye to see a beetle of some sort, clearly visible in the moonlight,'looking' at me! I bid him 'goodnight' and winked at him, and I'm sure he winked back... Up at 6.30am and 85 miles to Zamyn-Uud... the border town... our objective! Good roads but laced with stretches of deeeeeep sand which brought our average speed well down. Sometimes the sand would be up to the rear wheel spindle... clutch fully home, rev the bugger and paddle out of it with feet going like bees' wings! Zamyn-Uud... we'd ridden south through the Gobi Desert.... for real, for fact... fffantastic!