The day started out cloudy and had rained the night before. We had some steep climbs and quickly were getting into muddy roads that made riding harder. Tim, whose bike was loaded with his gear, started to have trouble with the mess road conditions. We could float across some of it. With the heavy weight he was carrying he just dug in.
Then came the next leg of the day. As conditions worsened David and I, who are from the Northwest and have spent many a day riding in the pouring rain, felt no need to prove anything so we bailed. We changed out of our wet clothes and jumped into the warm dry van. We rode 27 km. Good enough for the day. The kids kept riding. 21 km later looking like mud puppies and soaking wet they threw in the towel and we all loaded up and drove on down the road in search of the the cook's van.
Many miles later we were heading down a road stopping at every ger and asking if they had seen our van. After a wrong term we finally headed back along another track. Finally we got close enough to get into radio contact and located them parked off the main track. They had put up the dining tent so we were able to eat inside out of the weather.
After that we rode in the vans to the Orkhon River Valley. See Casper the Friendly Goat.
Tim, the cyclist from the Netherlands rode with us for two days. Here he is right before he bogged down in the mud and was left behind. We hope he found a warm and dry place to wait out the rain.
Reva, still relatively clean.
Tea break before the next leg of the journey.
Heading off into the squall and mud.
Who is that in the mist of rain?
Jasper
Kieran
Reva, not so clean anymore.
Rooster tail of mud.
Our guide looking more like a dalmation than a Mongolian.
A multitude of tracks to choose from. Yes, we did get lost again on this day. We couldn't find the lunch van. Not a good thing when you are cold and wet and need some warm soup.
The road to Orkhon.
