Day 38 – Arvaikheer to Erdene Zuu

We’d heard thatas we got closer to Ulaanbaatar the roads would be better. We were now only 350kms from the finish line, driving on tarmac and for all the teams there was an increasing confidence that the possibility of reaching the finish line in one piece was becoming a probability. Yet again the Mongolian roads had some surprises in store for us. With the tarmac came potholes and it wasn’t long before the Arkansas Country Cousins in their Alto had broken a spring. In classic Mongol Rally style a creative solution was found. Logan took off his flip-flop, Ruben found some cable ties and 30 mins later the shoe was doing the job of a spring. (After the Alto made it to Ulaanbaatar  Logan retrieved the flip flop and is wearing it again!)

Ruben sorts out the flip flop solution

Whilst the Arkansas Country Cousins were being helped the Dutch team www.ramblinmen.com lifted their hood to check an unusual noise and found that the bolts fixing their engine in place had been worked loose by the constant vibration. The engine was moving in the engine bay, interesting… At this point the Arkansas Country Cousins and TeamSkhandinavia were nursing cars that couldn’t take much more so they decided to push on to the finish line by the simplest route possible. The rest of the convoy decided to take one last risk and we took on a 70km detour (25km off-road) to visit the historic and important monastery, Erdene Zuu. This also gave us an opportunity to spend a night in a Ger,( a traditional style Mongolian nomadic Yurt). There can be no denying that it was a tourist experience, we were entertained by some Mongolian throat singing and posed with eagles but it was a highly entertaining detour. Some of the boys cracked open a few bottles of vodka and rumour has it that one of the Dutch team inadvertently spooned with Ruben when he crashed out in the wrong bed.

Monastery at dusk

The traditional hunting eagle