In the Gobi
At a one horse town (though it does have an Internet cafe) called Dalanzadgad staying in a ger (yurt).
I got Thelma back from the shed in Eastern Mongolia and inspected her with the mechanic, though she looked a bit odd, the damage wasn't too bad and within 24 hours they had her back to almost normal - though still with a funny shaped front tyre, but I can live with that.
Ian is at home awaiting his operation for artificial ligamnets to be pinned in his shoulder (ouch
).
the road from UB to here was OK, I was a bit cautious at first (first journey since the fall) but then with the realisation that if I continued at that sort of pace it would take me five days to get to the Gobi I picked up speed a bit. Which was just as well as the sand started then - as Timolgra had warned me, there is quite a lot of sandy patches in the Gobi!
As I'm on my own, I am trying not to take too many risks, but also aware that I need the speed to get that gliding feel across the sand and I have managed it so far.
Possibly due to this increased speed on rough tracks, the pannier racks on both sides have snapped big time
- probably due to damage from the accident two weeks ago and which was not obvious, so I ended up with a Heath Robinson-type arrangement at one point with
both panniers piled on the seat behind me!
the photos will surface eventually.
luckily I had left the topbox in UB so I had a fair bit of room to arrange stuff and made good use of that African standby - strips of inner tubes to tie things down.
I am now debating which direction to go, over a cold beer - except the town has had no power for five days and so there is beer but it isn't chilled.