Early start this morning and off out into the country side heading for our Ger camp. I managed to get the guide to stop at a shopping centre, currency exchange and an ATM all in one hit first off, even though the ATM was on the top floor of the State Department Store and it took Andy and I forever to get money. I did attempt to buy some beer, but when I took it up to the register the lady at the check out took it off me and wouldn't sell it to me, no idea why.

We headed out of Ulaanbaatar along the city's bumpy roads, just on the outskirts I spotted men with Steppe Eagles and people having their pictures taken holding them. Colin had told me that was pretty much what he wanted out of Mongolia, so I asked the guide to make a stop. It was only 2000 Tugrigs (About $1.20), so even I had another go, you can't have too many eagle photos. We visited to Shaman rock, a monks cave an then turtle rock, before we stopped for lunch in front of the Meditation centre, that we visited on the second day at the camp on the last trip.

Lunch this time was significantly better, it consisted of salad and sandwiches and was packed up easily. I was also impressed that the guide didn't make the passengers wait until she had finished packing up, she just pointed them in the right direction and off they went to the meditation centre. I wasn't going to go with them, but Paul talked me into at least trudging up to the gate.

Once at the gate, I decided it was in my best interested to lay in the sun under a tree and admire the clear blue sky. That lasted about twenty minutes, as a cloud came over and it got very cold all of a sudden. I walked up to where the vans were now parked and had a bit of a kip in the back seat while I waited for everyone to be done at the meditation centre.

The passengers returned, Andy of course attempted to wake me up by scaring the hell out of me, unfortunately for him, I wasn't actually asleep. We drove back to turtle rock for some pictures and came across some Dutch tourists who had taken a local bus out to the national park, with nothing but the words Turtle Rock, scribbled on a piece of paper in Mongolian. Andy attracted their attention and our guide pointed them in the right direction. I fear if they hadn't run into us they would have frozen to death in the fast approaching night, this is not the kind of place one just charges off into and hopes for the best, it's certainly a long way from finding a cheap hostel on the fly in a European city.

Colin, Andy, Paul and I went into a nearby mini mart and bought some beer for the night before asking the guide to take the group to the camp. They actually took a couple of wrong turns, which surprised me as we do use the same camp every time. We arrived at about 4pm and were told dinner would be at 7pm, three hours to kill, not everyone was impressed.

Colin immediately discovered the table tennis room and I was compelled to give him a game, which may or may not have gotten rather violent. Andy had a go with Colin after and I gave him a hard time about being Chinese and bad at Ping Pong. I sat in a chair for a while admiring the beautiful scenery, which was my domain and once again was grateful for the wonderful life I've managed to land. I really am grateful for every day. When it got too cold to sit and admire the view, I went back to my Ger, which I had all to myself and lit a roaring fire and had a bit of a nap before dinner.

I went up to dinner a bit early and sat with Paul, Andy and Colin. We had roast beef and salad for dinner which was really good. After dinner, my Ger had been nominated the party Ger, so the guys dropped in for a game of killer bunnies and vodka, well they drank vodka, I'm fast becoming sick of vodka, I had a couple of beers, which meant I had to make the long trudge to the bathroom in the cold. The game seemed to be the longest one we had ever had and dragged on a bit, but was a good laugh as usual. When we had finished our game, the guys went back to their Ger, though not before Paul had assisted in relighting my fire, by pouring vodka on it. I really think he is a closet pyromaniac, well not so much closet, he probably chopped the closet up and used it for fire wood. I went to sleep in my lovely, snug warm Ger happy to be with the people I was with, out in the wilderness and the wild….exactly where I was.