We began our day with hot breakfast at our camp beneath the snow-capped peaks, which Chase did not want to leave. We checked the altimeter on our map-less Garmin to see that we were at around 8,000 feet, so no wonder it was a bit chilly up there. By a bit chilly, we mean the tent was covered in ice when we woke up in the morning. We lost a bit of elevation (maybe 2,000 feet in the first hour) as we started driving in the direction of Hovd.
Convoy line-up
Since the winding paths we assumed were roads all looked the same but took off in different directions through the mountains, we struggled with directions for a while and were pointed in the right way by some friendly locals in a Land Cruiser. Their directions specified a right turn, a mini river crossing, and then a bigger river crossing before reaching town.
Daniel and one Norwegian plate!
The mini river crossing turned out to be the more difficult of the two. Three cars went through. The Skoda and the Suzuki both lost their front license plates while the Panda got a flat tire. Chase changed the tire (luckily we kept getting the punctured tires repaired in town and were ready with two spares) while Daniel and Oskar went swimming. One Norwegian plate found, one Swedish plate found, one good tire back on the Panda, and we were back on the road. All this drama before 10 A.M.!
With a few of our new friends
Moments later, we joined up with the Commonwealth team and the Norwegian Pandas as we all stopped to admire a herd of camels. (Is herd the proper term for a group of camels? Anyhoo, there were about 30 camels standing in the middle of the road, and we had to wait for them to pass.) Our convoy stayed together as we crossed the “bigger river,” which everyone navigated with success! This river turned out to be quite a bit wider but significantly shallower than the first, so not only was it a successful crossing but also a fun time to play.
One of the best parts of Hovd, a giant boot!
We loved having the big convoy together again for the first time since the previous morning near the border. Like that morning, the big group didn’t stay a big group for long. When we pulled into Hovd, we stopped to chat with several teams on the side of the road, even a few teams that were abandoning their cars at that point. (We were still so thankful for the Panda’s miraculous ability to repair herself, aside from the flat tires!) In town, we made our usual circuit of the market, the gas station, and the mechanics. Since Daniel and the Norwegian Pandas were at two different mechanics, we bounced between the two before bouncing out of town with the Swedes and plans to meet up on the road later.
Have we mentioned Mongolian horses yet?
The roads were slow-moving once again with brief moments of pavement, including one very clear in our memories. After the events of the day before, we had our muffler propped on the hat rack/trunk cover, a place that we would learn was precariously above a six-pack of Russian beer. Upon hitting a tiny bump (shockingly small actually considering the usual craters we tried to avoid), the muffler tipped and punctured a bottle. With your average beer, a small puncture would be no problem. With a 2.5 Liter bottle, we had a beer fountain on our hands. Let’s just say, the Panda had a new fragrance. We did our best, however, to air it out camping that night in a nice spot between mountains and gers.