We make a 930 am latish start from our hotel at Khovd but at least we got breakfast delivered to the room, although the sausage looked a bit suspect. We are all still suffering from upset stomachs and the runs which have been going on for about ten days now.

Our route takes us into the Gobi desert proper today with about 270 miles to cover to Altia in inner mongolia. The roads turn out to be superb tarmac and riding across the desert the roads tend to be dead straight and disappear into a heat haze in the distance, so riding can be a bit tedious, so we have frequent stops. The first after about 60 miles and call into a remote cafe, where the ladies there are most welcoming. We have some difficulty making them understand that we would like omelette and tea but by a bit of gesturing we get our message across. The tea (chia) is very milky weak tea and arrives in a large themos flask. It is surprisingly good however. Simple ommlettes are tasty as well, let's hope our stomachs can cope with this.

We press on through the desert and any mountains slowly disappear to flat sand cum stone desert. It is very remote and sparse but we do see herds of camels and goats. The goats being herded by a mixture of people on horseback and on small motorbikes. One motorbike had two children as well the the rider on it. So with all these animals they must be some grazing to be had but no doubt the herds of animals are constantly on the move.

In the midday sun which is now quite hot, we stop for a break at one of the many prayer shrines seen on the way. This shrine has all sorts of gifts on it from sweets to money. We respectfully make our own contributions to this. We stay a while at this place admiring the beauty of this wilderness desert. It gives us a chance for each of us to no doubt do some reflective thinking.

Onwards and upwards we make steady progress to Altia and quickly find a hotel for the night. Matt and Tom are already here. First stop for me and Garry is the toilet- not together of course.

The hotel restaurant food was good but I stuck to simple soup and a plate of chips, washed down by coke cola, in the hope it might stay put in my stomach. It didn't!

The England world cup match against Croatia was on but not until 2am in the morning but was gutted to learn in the morning that they lost 2-1.

Tomorrow more off road into the Gobi desert and we will be camping tomorrow evening.