We woke up in the middle of the Gobi Deset with one tire completely flat and one in need of an additional patch. Sean generously broke out a watermelon that he bought somehwere in Russia and I must say, if nuclear fallout tastes like that watermelon did, then sign me up because it was gorgeous.
With our lack of spares we had to take it easy and extra cautiously for the fifty miles to the city of Altai. We checked tire pressures every hour and often found significant fluctuations even in that short amount of time, so we felt extremely lucky to make it to a tire shop. We were able to replace the two tires we’d shredded the previous day and get some better patches on the slow-leaker and some reinforcement on the bubbled-sidewall. With four spares we were ready to roll…
…and four flat tires later, we were in the same situation as the night before. It’s amazing that we can burn through them the way we do. It really is a combination of terrible roads, substandard tire quality, and probably trying to drive too fast (sorry Mom). This time, rather than camp, we decided to press our luck until we either blew another or reached the city of Byangkhongor.
The drive itself is on the verge of indescribable. I’d rather have a root canal than cross over another one-mile washboard, but to be able to see the countryside of Mongolia is an absolute privilege. I mean, we chased herds of flipping two-humped camels today. Two-humped camels! They’re everywhere and they’re fantastic. We also crossed a river today where the water nearly reached our hood. It was funny, actually. Bryan was driving the Prune and Geoff was driving Centrum Silver as we approached this massive-looking, moving body of water. There were other vehicles there waiting to cross so Bryan got out and played charades with them a bit. Although he had been leading to that point, he walked over to Geoff and innocently said, “That guy says this spot’s good…so…why don’t you go ahead, I guess?”
Geoff hammered it out beautifully. We also stop frequently to help broken-down motorists or give gifts to the nomadic kids. This part of the Rally is the real Rally to me and it’s been phenomenal. It’s much more challenging and stressful but also much more rewarding.
Our push ahead panned out well. We went more than 50 miles without a tire problem and arrived in Byangkhongor at about 5 a.m. after logging a total of 370 miles for the day. We believe we have about 330 miles to Ulanbataar and expect some of that to be paved, so there’s a chance we could make it tomorrow and have one day to spend in the city before we fly.
The drive today was fantastic.
Nate, how about a tag-team RCT?
I’m in. Your instrumentation or mine?