Got on the road much earlier today. The first part of the ride was hard as we just headed straight North on a tiny track from our campsite to meet the main track. It was fine at first but then turned into slush..... 
We had only been riding for a short time when Jenna had a problem with her front tyre and we had to stop for a while for her to mend it. Along came a Mongolian herdsman on his horse to come and see what was happening and to say hello. While Jenna fixed stuff the Mongolian man gave me a ride on his horse and he had a go my bike..... Even though I really can not ride horses, I was better at riding than he was at riding my bike. :-) His son popped along to see what was going on and found his Dad trying to ride a bike very funny.... 
The ride for the next couple of hours was really lovely over rolling countryside. We stopped off at a little stream to top up on water and have a wash and saw the tour bus from yesterday pass us with everyone waving at us. We got back on the road and found that they had stopped for lunch not too far up the road so we decided to join them. It was great. They feed us all the left overs - a huge amount of food. Apparently they have done nothing but eat on their tour so far. They are feed really well with morning and afternoon tea breaks too! However, they were not really enjoying the bus ride and it was obvious that Eric (the German) would have loved to be riding his bike with us instead! 
The weather was lovely and sunny from midday and we were making really good time. Unfortunately, we are not quite sure how we managed it but we got on the wrong track and took a detour to the town of Tarialan which was 14km North of where we wanted to be. Oops. It only took about 30 mins to get back on to the main track again and the route was very pretty so we did not mind so much. 
The scenery today was idyllic passing through miles and miles of meadows with loads of wild flowers rather than just grass land. The roads were also really good quality for dirt road tracks and so we could make good time. We were rocketing along and really enjoying it when I heard a snap and had to stop to fix my front pannier rack. I was very glad that Jenna is carrying some spare hose clamps as that was what had snapped on my front pannier rack. It is good as both of us are carrying different spare parts and so between us we have a good amount of replacement parts! It took a good while of fiddling to get a new hose clamp on my front pannier and get going again only to get on the road again and find that the screw was not tight enough and flew off.... The second time it was easier as we knew what we needed to do. 2 hours later we got on the road again. 
We did not want to make the same mistake as a few days again and camp close to a town with dogs and people driving anywhere in the middle of the night (and possibly hitting our tents by accident) and so we stopped before Ih-Uul camped up on the hill with awesome views of the valley and hills. 
We ended up doing 97km today (about 14km of which was an unnecessary detour) but could have got much further today with out the 3 hours of bike fixing. It was a lovely sunny day though and neither of us really minded. It is just part of the course when trying to get across Mongolia by bike. Distance and time estimates should always factor in a few hours of bike fixing/maintainance! 
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