The final part of the journey!

As I write this I am in Ulaanbaatar airport. Our flight has been delayed by 8 hours so the 4.00 am start this morning has been more than a waste of time and we are all feeling a little worse for wear and in desperate need of a good sleep!

Mongolia has been amazing. The countryside is outstanding and alot more varied than we expected with a mix of dessert, greenery, lots of rivers, lakes and rugged countryside not dissimilar to Connemara. Since Olgii, the town closest to the Siberian border we have been in convoy with two other teams who we have made great friends with and who without their help would not have made it all the way without having to leave Boggy in a compound en route.

The problems all started when we left Altay and Boggy's engine began to vibrate and the gears began to become dislodged. A quick scan under the bonnet brought us to the realisation that the engine had dropped about 2 inches and had shifted to the left, the sump guard and a strut holding it in place!! One of the engine mounts had broken! Due to the amount of weight we were carrying we realised that it was unsafe to continue, not only because of the stress the engine would be under but because we were worried that the engine could literally fall out which could cause a major accident if we were doing any sort of speed. With the tracks in the condition they are in it feels as though you are being shaken on a spin cycle of a washing machine, with vibrating that literally make your bones rattle and have badly hurt Ben's back. So the girls kindly let two of us sit in the back of their Nissan Micra and we emptied our water containers and got rid of as much weight as possible in order to safely continue. I might add also that the movement of the engine snapped the fan belt and due to our good fortune, Pete and Dan, the other team we were convoying with had a spare and fitted it for us.

We continued on carefully with various delays due to flat tyres galore between the group until we arrived in the town of Bayanhongor and after lunch upon starting the car steam bellowed from the engine. To be honest we thought we had had it and were seriously considering jumping on the first bus that came along. However after a mechanic had a look he said a pipe from the coolant had snapped due to all the movement in the engine. He fixed it and after much persuasion we managed to get him to weld the engine back in to place eventually made it to Ulaanbaatar on 4th September!!