We’d gone to bed the night before knowing that the only thing that could really cause us serious problems before Ulaanbaatar would be a change in the weather. The off road sections that we’d covered to get to Erdene Zuu looked like they’d be treacherous in heavy rain and the only way to get back on the road to Ulaanbaatar involved retracing the steps of our detour.
There was relief all round when we awoke to sunshine and it only took about 90 mins to get back to the UB road. It was a beautiful morning and we probably saw more eagles that day than at any other point in the trip. The remaining American team, www.innocentsabroad.org broke a spring in the off-road section but they were able to keep moving and we knew that once we rejoined the road to UlanBataar we should all be ok.
Typically just as we were all relaxing the fuel pump in Julian and Fish’s Punto decided to stop working. Once again Miguel and Ruben were called into action, back seats were removed, hoses were cleaned, cable ties were used, and perhaps an hour later the convoy was back on the road.
Mongolia is a vast country with a population of only 2.9m. Ofthese 1.2m live in the capital Ulaanbaatar . It’s difficult to describe it as an attractive city and traffic congestion is utterly stifling.
It took us over an hour to drive the last 5 kms. Darkness was descending, it was raining and although we now knew that we were certain to make it to the finish we prepared ourselves for a low key arrival. In the city traffic we’d stayed with Julian and Fish and their limping Fiat Punto as the other members of our convoy moved on ahead of us. It was never going to be possible to keep 6 cars together in that traffic.
We needn’t have worried about a low key finish, as we turned off Peace Avenue into Tokyo Street the line came into view. The other 4 teams in the MF Convoy had arrived a couple of minutes before us and as we drove to the line a wonderful crowd of people were there waiting for us, beers and champagne in hand. Many of them were teams we’d met along the way, and with horns blaring, lights flashing the last 2 teams of MF Convoy made it over the line.
It was a fabulous way to finish a fabulous event.