Having topped up the fire before falling asleep it lasted well and my early morning stoking not only rejuvenated the glowing embers but also filled the ger with smoke, highlighting the bright rays of sunshine cutting across the room from the gap above the door.

A crèche of goat kids bounced around the camp in the bright morning sunlight and, as the smoke cleared from the ger, the others stirred and as soon as we had eaten we were careering along a narrow, snowy mountain track heading deep into Yolyn Am national park.

We passed several groups of large, shaggy and grumpy looking yaks foraging for food under the covering of snow which became move even as we gained height, heading up the mountain pass. We soon pulled up and set off on foot, following the valley bottom as it changed from wide, sun drenched snowfield to a shady narrow gorge. Every so often a disturbed 'Pika', resembling an overgrown hamster wearing a wooly jumper, would race across the snow and disappear into its snow burrow, much to our amusement.

The soft, almost Virgin snow soon changed to ice and we carefully crisscrossed from side to side of the valley as steep buttresses of rock climbed steeply to each side of us. On our final crossing a hollow cracking was audible and despite changing crossing point, Emilie's trailing foot went through the crust, also dragging Victor's leg into the shallow slushy hole.

We persevered for a few hundred metres but the ice was not strong enough to support our weight as the corridor narrowed to only a few metres across. We turned back and found a new route back up to valley, with everyone staying above the surface on the way back. We stopped to look up to
One of the towering peaks and to our amazement it was being circled by 4 huge pairs of lamageyers. These vulture type birds had a wing span of over 2m and even from the valley floor looked massive. We watched them effortlessly soaring on the thermal before retracing our steps to the truck where Emilie could wring out her sock.

Descending down the mountain pass was a slushy affair but Eggy was soon gunning us out over the snowy tundra and eventually into a semi formed road heading West. It was clear that we had a lot of driving to do today as Olive was flying along and we soon left the snow and mountains behind. Eggy did not slow down when the 'road' turned to track and we were back to being flung around the load bay as accelerated over huge lumps and overtook lorries on the Virgin ground alongside the track. Within an hour we were looking out over the endless space of the true Gobi Desert and its vast wilderness was simply awesome. From what I could read from Bob's tortured expressions Evil Knievel continued to gun Olive through the desert, stopping briefly to admire a goat carcass festooned in giant vultures which took off as we approached and circled menacingly until we were safely back inside. Later on a trio of incredibly high speed gazelles sped across our track, disappearing in a cloud of smoke as we continued on towards the horizon which was a shimmering mirage of a lake, more believable that I could have imagined.

After passing several erroneous groups of trees, the surface became softer and soon we were driving alongside perfectly sculpted sand dunes. We eventually headed into their midst, sliding and spinning over the mounds of loose sand. We passed a group of Mongols shortly followed by a car, stuck in the soft sand. Olive powered on through the soft sand and made it to the firm ridge, where we stopped and headed back on foot to help.

Eggy was in his element as the 6 of us, and the 4 Mongols, who turned out to be prospecting for gold, pushed, pulled, grunted, sweated and heaved the rear wheel drive sedan with bald tyres in three 25 metre stints towards firmer ground. Eggy backed Olive up to the end of the tow rope and with us back inside, and his wheels locked in 4 wheel drive, unceremoniously dragged them like a banana boat for the next 2km. They paid us in fuel, siphoned straight into our tank and we were soon on our way dodging the small trees which had appeared and spraying sand everywhere.

There appeared to be some directional confusion as we arrived at 2 uninhabited ger camps before finally pulling into Olgie's relatives camp. Their ger was the biggest yet and immaculately decorated in light colours with extensive detailing on all the woodwork. We drank milk tea, which was mercifully unsalted and retired to our ger to rest. We were back on the floor again and without a stove but Bob was very much appeased with the presence of an army of goat kids which followed her around. We had time to smush the month old camel calves before their mothers serenely returned from the desert and then ate mutton pasta soup with the family.

The sun set quickly over the vast nothingness of the true Gobi desert and Bob returned her pet goat kid to the flock before we snuggled down on the floor of our unheated ger, very much ready for bed.