29th July - Phone falls out of bag

We had an awesome campsite with views over looking the valley, town in the distance and mountains behind. It was a shame that it had been so cold last night and I had not slept very well as I kept on waking up feeling uncomfortable. It was a lovely sunny warm morning though and that always puts me in a great mood.

We were packing away and eating breakfast and drinking our morning coffee when this guy pops along on his horse to come and say hello.


Not long after his buddy turns up too. We gave them some of our breakfast and boiled more water so they could share our coffee. They did not speak any English but that does not really matter....


Within 10 minute the mother and father of the first horseman had turned up as well - this time on a motorbike. We all enjoyed a coffee together. The people round here are far more friendly than some of the other areas we were traveling through.

We eventually got on the road later than plan but having enjoyed spending time with our visitors. We biked down into the town and got water from the water house but found that the river was too far off our route to go bike and go for a swim/wash and so we headed out of town and got on our way.



There are these things everywhere!



After about 30km we did found a well and had a good cold shower. It was freezing but very refreshing :-)


The road today was terrible! When it is really bad you have to go slowly not only because it is uncomfortable but because of the strain it puts on the bikes. I am really worried about my pannier racks at the moment and I just hope that they last the distance across Mongolia. It would be such a shame to have to stop because of bike issues. Today was hard work!

The corrugation of the roads was terrible.


We arrived at the town Tos????? around 5pm absolutely knackered having only done 60km. We had been battling tough headwinds, an incline and corrugation on the roads. When we were biking round trying to find a place to stay Jenna met an American guy called Brian who is doing Peace Core in the village. It turned out that she was given his contact details from a couchsurfer in UB and was planning on contacting him but did not get round to it. She bumped into him anyway! Small world in Mongolia.

He joined us for our food and told us about his experiences living out here. He has been here for 1 year and is now engaged to a Mongolian girl!


While we were eating I looked for my phone but could not find it in my bag. I realised that it must have fallen out somewhere along the way today when I put my bike down. OH NO! I love that phone. I use it for GPS and maps, translation, email, internet and everything. It makes traveling solo so much easier as even though I am on the other side of the world it still makes me feel connected with my friends and family. I was gutted. I thought straight away about going back to look for it but there was not enough day light today todo so. I was also not sure how the hell I would find the spots were I stopped during the day. There are so many tracks that it is almost impossible to retrace your tracks.

I then realised that I have the GPS track of the day and I could use this information to get back to the points where I stopped. Even then it might not be there and it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. The problem was though that the road was terrible today and I really did not fancy going back on the same route and also I am running out of days on my visa in order to get to the western most point in Mongolia where I can get across on the border (there are only 6 border points were UK nationals can cross). I still have about 1300km to go and only 18 days to do it! I also did not want to waste Jenna's time with her waiting for me.

To go back and try and find it using GPS way points or just continue??!


Jenna sat and got merry on 7% beer while I faffed on the internet (fortunately there was a place next to the cafe were we had eaten) trying to get the GPS co-ordinates from my computer, changing all of my account passwords for email etc (in case anyone was to find the phone and use it), contacting insurance companies etc.


It was 8.30 by the time we left the town and headed about 3 km to a hill side to set up camp.

I sat and nattered with the strangely talkative Jenna and mulled over whether to go back for my phone or not.