Time out in Mongolia
I thought the story would end here, but for those of you still reading (hello Mum), here’s a brief rundown of what’s been happening the last few days:
We have been spending time relaxing in UB with fellow ralliers. There’s a large Irish pub which has become a favourite (they get everywhere!) The rally cars are still rolling in to UB - I counted about seven new ones outside Dave’s Place today. Some of them we recognised having met en-route, and all had good stories to tell.
We were very fortunate to be invited on a trip to the countryside on Sunday by Will, a 2005 rallier who has yet to go home, and his sister Claire. They took us to a valley where we rode horses and chilled out at a ger - a fantastic experience and something I always wanted to do in Mongolia.
Then today we said goodbye to our dear Lancia for the last time. We took it to the Nairamdal Children’s Centre about 30 km out of UB, where it will be stored before being auctioned off in aid of the Centre. We left it next to a Subaru Justy which had amazingly been next to us on the start line (one of its suspension struts had since collapsed!) The Lancia actually looked pretty smart compared with a lot of the cars we saw already in garages up there, despite clocking up 8696 miles since leaving my house. I suppose thanks must go to Keith and Celia for looking after it so well before we bought it!
We have found a way to get home, albeit rather convoluted. We will catch the train to Beijing on Thursday night, before flying back to Europe from there next week with Aeroflot. Who said the adventure was over..?
Dave.
Well done lads (& Lancia) thanks for the mention, glad the car got you there sorry the radio died if it was the radio I left in the car it was pretty ancient!