The day started with sunshine and lovely tarmac for about 60 miles miles. We stopped for mid morning milky tea. Then we hit the off road, it was horrendous, if it wasn't deep sand it was severe corrigations, dust, dirt, boulders, you name it we got it. The soft sand was the worst for me and we have 150 miles of this stuff to do. I got stuck in deep sand a couple of times and dropped the bike three times. The Gobi desert revenge! Eventually as the sun was setting ...

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 s...

Chris is in good spirits considering his leg is broken. Arrangements are now in hand to transport both Chris's and John's bike by truck to Ullabatar. Chris and John are scheduled to fly to Ullabatar later. So it leaves just me, Steve, Garry and Nick to finish off the 1000 miles or so to Ullabatar, over the next few days. Today we have about 60-70 miles of off road to get to Khvod in Mongolia. Good tarmac roads to begin with, then a mixture of hard gravel stone ...

We have lovely drive for the last 200 miles to leave Russia and cross into Mongolia. We are now back up to about 2000 metres above sea level, so the air is cool. Lots of cows and other aninimals decided to park themselves on the lovely roads with sweeping mountain bends and scenery to match. We stop for breakfast, an ommlette and tea. Then all of our stomachs start churning over and most of us for the rest of the day have to stop on the side of the road to evacu...

Our hotel in Barnual was certainly a grand affair and we are reluctant to leave. But after breakfast leave we must. An easy day of about 250 miles on good roads heading south towards Mongolia. The scenery starts to get more hilly and the river and associated lakes running beside the road are extremely busy with day trippers. It's like a day out to the seaside, I guess. We end up at a place called Shebalino and a hotel Elena for the evening. Steve Garry, Nick an...