Rygsækrejsen 2015-2016: Bogged down one final time

Woke up early this morning just outside the village of Orgil. We still had a lot of kilometres to cover today in order to make it to tonight's planned destination at lake Khovsgol. So we left camp on a dry morning at 6:30 - without breakfast. It was the first sunny morning for a while. We were still on the "main road" even though it was much more like a bumpy dirt track.

The truck made it across the first few hills, our driver being very careful to assess the terrain. This morning was dry but thanks to the massive rain the other days the ground was still wet at we lost traction once every now and then.

Going up yet another muddy hill resulted in us getting stuck again! We wonder how many times we and the others have said by now "why don't we have a 4 wheel drive or some kind of truck that's more suited for this muddy terrain". Well we don't know. Definitely minus points to our tour company Dragoman for this. But thumbs up for our guide and driver - and all of us - for finding the energy again to dig, collect rocks and built roads in front and behind the truck.

While most of us were busy collecting rocks for another makeshift road, Mikkel and the cook team was doing breakfast. A Hummer came up the hill side and offered assistance with getting us unstuck. First time ever in recorded history that a Hummer has actually been used for something it was built for. We got the truck moving again, breakfast served and carefully the truck made it to the next hill, more assessment of the conditions, more slow driving. In other words - we didn't really get anywhere.

But the weather was good, the sun was shining and we enjoyed walking up the hill more or less as fast as the truck at some places. So we managed to get some walking done instead of just waiting.
When we made it to the village of Erdenet we all thought it was the town of Murun - today's "target". We knew that there was a 2 hour drive on real roads from Murun to the lake, so Murun was the goal. But it was Erdenet - still more than 130 kilometers to go. We could do the math and realise we weren't gonna be at the lake tonight with the truck no matter how hard we tried.

Instead the weather suddenly changed when we hit the next hill. The sun disappeared and the rain started, a huge shower. 40 meters before the top of the hill the truck suddenly lost traction and slid 6 meters down the hill. Game over. In front of us was a 40 meters stretch of wet hillside, the rain pouring down and no traction. Most of us walked to the top of the hill mainly to get away from the truck that didn't feel safe at all.

Our crew decided to head for town to get a tow vehicle and some alternative transport for the rest of us. The truck would be left behind.
An hour later the first Russian built 4x4 van arrived and picked ten of us up. We left with most of our belongings not knowing when we would see our own truck again. And then the fun began crossing the Mongolian plains and patches of mud in what felt like being in real-life Mario Cart. Very bumpy and suddenly very fast.

The two vans competed for getting to Murun first so we drove as fast as possible and made it to our destination at 19:30. We spent 1½ hours in Murun shopping some snacks and getting to a local restaurant to get some food. At around 21:00 we left for our yurt camp at the lake. 2 hours of driving on good roads. NOT

When the good road ended after about 90 kilometres we still spent until 01:22 in the morning on bumpy gravel roads going from one side of the road to the other in order to avoid the biggest pot holes.

Finally at our destination we obviously went straight to bed. Tired - but we made it there. Let's see when we meet the truck again.