The day starts with thundery rain again but soon clears.

A great breakfast in our semi posh "Nine" hotel in Ulaanbaatar.

Garry and John have agreed to oversee the packing of the bikes back at the Oasis hostel, whilst Steve and I hire a taxi for the day to go and visit the Genghis Khann statue, memorial and visitor centre.

Mongol leader Genghis Khan (1162-1227) rose from humble beginnings to establish the largest land empire in history. After uniting the nomadic tribes of the Mongolian plateau, he conquered huge chunks of central Asia and China. His descendents expanded the empire even further, advancing to such far-off places as Poland, Vietnam, Syria and Korea. At their peak, the Mongols controlled between 11 and 12 million contiguous square miles, an area about the size of Africa. Many people were slaughtered in the course of Genghis Khan's invasions, but he also granted religious freedom to his subjects, abolished torture, encouraged trade and created the first international postal system. Genghis Khan died in 1227 during a military campaign against the Chinese kingdom of Xi Xia. His final resting place remains unknown.

About a 90 minutes drive to the monument and we stop on the way to get close up to some golden eagles in captivity. I don't agree with keeping these magnificent birds away from their natural environment but we have seen so many of these birds over the last few weeks, it was nice to see one close up.

The Genghis Khan monument and visitor centre is very impressive, largely due to the size of the stainless steel Genghis on his horse. It is 40 metres high and was completed in 2006. You can get to the top of the horse's head by stairs. A very impressive structure indeed and well worth the effort to visit.

On the way back from the visit, we have severe thunderstorms and flash flooding. The taxi is paddling through about of foot of fast flowing water at one point. Traffic is congested everywhere! We call into the Oasis hostel - the bike packing appears to be progressing with bikes strapped to a wooden base (although these do not appear to be that strong - hope they survive when lifted on the back of a lorry). The bikes will go on the back of a lorry overload all the way back to England. Not sure when we will see them again however!

Back to our "Nine" hotel and it's thundery rain again, so we relax in the hotel over a snack and coffee. John and Garry are already here, drying off from being soaked whilst helping with the packing of the bikes.

The four of go out to our usual haunt, the Irish bar, have our last meal and a few drinks together. Steve and I finish off with a couple of Jack Daniels and coke and of course are last to leave.

Home tomorrow via Mongolian airlines to Frankfurt and then Ryanair to Stansted. It will be great to see family and friends again after over six weeks away.