Mongolia at last...

Yes, folks, the rumors are true. Two Blondes and Two Brits have successfully made it to Mongolia! But before we get to that piece of goodness, let's backtrack a tad...

Okay, so where did we leave off...last we checked in we were loving life in the Altay Mountains in Southern Russia. That night we ended up hooking up with another Mongol Rally team (Keith from Northern Ireland, Josie from New Zealand, and Sian from Russia). It's great fun when you see another team out in the 'wild'. Matt and Simon were out in front of the mechanics tightening some bolts on little Ka-put when they saw 'Peugot 206' driving down the road. I think out of all of us Matt gets the most excited when we run into our fellow Mongol Rally brothers and sisters - so per usual he ran out to the road waving his arms until they stopped. After Ka-put had been given a TLC, we all went out for a bite to eat and some beers (side note - it's much easier to order food when you have a native speaker in the group - instead of 'food roulette', you actually know what you're eating). 

We got an early start the next morning heading south towards the Russia/Mongolia border. It was a bit like when you're a kid the morning before a class field trip - we were so stoked that our field trip was taking us to Mongolia!. But we were trying to contain our excitement because we had heard through the grapevine that the Mongolia border could take up to 5 hours or 5 days! Because we are donating Ka-put at the end of this crazy 8,000 mile journey there is massive amounts of paperwork and complicated forms that need to be filled in before we can enter the country legally. We cruise through the Russian exit border without a hitch enter the 20 mile stretch of no mans land that exists between Russia and Mongolia. It feels like the Wild Wild West as we drive down the rocky dirt road. It's hard to explain but it almost has a magical quality to it. Collectively we decide that this is the most remote place we have ever been. Nothingness stretches for miles and miles and we are loving it.

Around noon we pull up to the border crossing. We all do a little dance of joy when we get the Mongolia stamps on our passport. We have arrived. Well, almost. Our next hurdle is getting the car across. Being the owner of Ka-put, Matt lines up to begin the paperwork shuffle. Shortly thereafter he's told that the entire border shuts down at 1pm for lunch so we have to wait an hour. We spot another team parked to the side so we wander over to chat. Mike and Laura (who only met 4 weeks before the adventure when Mike put up an ad for a teammate up on Ebay - love it) have been stranded at the border for 24 hours because their paperwork on the car hadn't come through. How can we describe Mike and Laura? In a nutshell, Mike is a renaissance man of sorts - gardener, furniture maker, lover of adventure. Laura is a psychotherapist in the UK and has an energy about her that just makes you want to have what she's having. Although they only met a short while ago they act as if they have been married for years. Both have partners at home and both said fuck it - I want to drive to Mongolia! They are our new best friends.

After a lunch of mystery meat dumplings (possibly Mutton) Matt heads back to sort out the paperwork and we gp back to wait by the cars. It wasn't too long before I started to feel really sick. I'll spare you the details but let's just say that it was a blessing we had to wait at the border for 5 hours because I camped out near the toilets (if you can even call them that - hole would probably be a more appropriate title) pretty much the entire time. Whatever was in me needed to get out and luckily I felt much better once it did. Around 5pm we saw Matt heading towards us with a border guard - Mike and Laura having been stuck at the border for the last 24 hours told us that this was a good sign. We were almost there. The guard asked us to open the car and we were expecting a long, thorough search. Instead he just sort of snickered when he saw how much crap we had stuffed in Ka-put. He lit a cigarette, chuckled to himself and pointed East. We were in! Unfortunately it was looking like Mike and Laura were going to have to spend another night at the border. We wished them luck and carried on with Keith, Josie, and Sian in the Peugot (AKA Lionel Richie).

The 100km it took us to get to the nearest town of Olgii can only be described as spectacular, breathtaking, majestic. Snow capped mountains peaked out above us, miles and miles of barren earth spread out in front of us. Much to our surprise, about 30km outside of the city we rolled onto brand new asphalt. We were shocked that there was a road being built. After speaking to a local later that night we found out that they are starting to build a highway cutting across Mongolia, all the way to Ulaan Baatar. Future rally teams are going to have it so easy! 

We pulled into Olgii to grab some supplies and cash. As the rest of the team described it, I was in my own parade. Driving through the streets I couldn't help but wave at the people we saw, the kids chasing us down the road. The people here have heard about the Mongol Rally, they have seen teams pass through their town every summer. Yet it seems as if the novelty hasn't worn off yet - they (and we) have huge smiles on our faces as we wave and high five. It felt so nice to be welcomed to Mongolia this way. As we parked the car, we immediately had 7-10 people around the cars, asking questions, wondering how much we would sell the car for. One guy named Cuco offered up his home to us if we needed a place to stay that night. Since we didn't really have a plan for accommodations we happily agreed. Josie jumped on the back of his motorbike and we followed close behind. Along the way we crossed paths with Mike and Laura - they had made it through the border crossing and we couldn't be happier to reunite. We were now a 3 car convoy. 

Cuco and his very pregnant wife live with his brother and his wife and a couple of kids in a very small 3 room house. What seems to be very poor living conditions to us to is probably an upper middle class Mongolian residence. Cuco and his family welcomed us with open arms, preparing a feast of fermented horse cheese and yak pasta, an array of candies and cookies as well as bread and rancid horse butter and a dish that closely resembled mashed potatoes but as Matt quickly found out was actually yak fat and milk creamed together. Yum! As my tummy was still a bit dodgy, Kass and I opted for some cup of noodles that we had stored in the car. 

After a couple beers, some Mongolian vodka, and a few singalong songs we headed off to bed. Nine of us camped out in one room - it felt a bit like we were back at summer camp! We got a relatively early start to the day and headed out of Olgii around 9am this morning. We are currently heading towards a place called Magic Camp where there is supposed to be hot showers, cold beer, and free Wifi. Amazing! Highlights from today include Simon driving through his first river crossing (Ka-put made it through splendidly), feasting on Thai green curry noodles that Laura prepared for lunch near a beautiful stream, and Matt riding on top of Mike and Laura's Land Rover. Did we mention they're driving a Land Rover? Mental note to self - when embarking on a rally in a very small car make sure you convoy with people driving a massive 4x4. 

As you can probably tell...Mongolia rocks. I think we're going to like it here.

Written by Meghan