Dude what a country, Mk 2

So after that amazing first day in the cuds we woke up to the most beautiful weather. Jess had seen the hawk the night before and had putt scraps out for it so we watched it wheel and dive....it was awesome. We had breakfast by the banks of the Tuul then the days was our to do with what we wanted. Tess, Rob, Belinda and myself decided we were going to climb a hill. I'll show you the photos when I get home but this hill didn't look to far away so we set off. 3/4 of a hour later we finally reached it's base. The flora in this country is amazing...the stretch of steppe going up to the hill looked like an alpine meadow. The profousion of colours was intense, yellows, pinks, blues, purple not to mention the fact that everytime you took a step a profusion of butterflies scatter before you making it look like something out of a Disney movie. I have to say I was a bit of a flake, there was a gentle incline to the tree line and the really knackered me out just doing that so I climbed to the top of the tree line and let the guys go on the rest of the way. I'm finding that my PVFS is rearing its ugly head again and I don't want to push myself to far because it's not worth being laid up in bed for a week. Anyway the guys left me there and continued their assault on the 'Mountain'. I have some of the most amazing photos of the Tuul and the forest covered hills just from the tree line. When we got back we relaxed for the afternoon. I went and slept and then we had dinner. Jess is the most amazing cook. I don't know if I have a picture of it but the cooker looks like a a blow torch that is aim towards the pan. Apparently it uses a very fine stream of petrol that is ignitied to provided the flame. I'll def get a picture of it on the 18 dayer. (Just working it out I think I'm doing twenty one days, can anyone confirm?). Robert lit the most amazing campfire but everyone fell into bed around 9-10ish most nights.
The next morning it had been decided that we would leave a bit earlier so that people who were flying out could do things in UB instead. So we struck camp and went for breakfast and got under way at ten as arranged the night before. Unfortunately we didn't actualy manage to really leave the campsite until about 11/11.30. Bless him Mordchick, one of the drivers, manged to go through a puddle (baring in mind this is Mongolia a puddle maybe a slight case of understatement!) on completely the wrong side and got himself bogged down in the mud. Sods law Turo, the lead driver, had forgotten to bring the wire tow rope with him! (For the first time and it was the first time that it was needed) so began a dash between gers to find a suitable rope. In the end, thanks to some amazing Mongolian ingenuity, the van was finally freed and we went on our merry way, stopping for lunch in the most amazing location before making it back to UB for about 3.30. In the end Belinda and Rob managed to get to the throat singing, Theresa was very sweet and palled along with me to do some shopping, evening lending me the money to get my Del. (I cant ait to show it to you, it's the most beautiful purple!). After we met up for final drinks Theresa and Greg went to the airport, the next day it was the turn of Belinda and Rob, last night it was Robert and this morning Harry and Brian. So one amazing journey has ended for another one to start. I go on monday and I don't know how often I'll get to write my blog on the road but I'll keep a paper based copy and write up as much as I can when I get back to UB.
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