16 July to 3 August: Ulan Bataar to Altai

There is continuous stream of visitors to our Tab

Hot water springs near Arvayheer - we had hoped for more of a pool to bathe in but it was lovely anyway just putting in sore feet and hands - a strange experience to feel hot water coming out where you would normally expect it to be very cold

Snooker is very popular at outside tables

Magpies at a camp at 2660 m

Lots of granite in the centre of Mongolia

Daurian Partridge

Toad found in the mountains

Long-tailed ground squirrel, probably one of the most common rodents we see

We met this dutch guy who was out in Mongolia for two months with his bike (he brought it out by air) he wanted his photo taken and then he took ours - next picutre.

There are lots of shrines wherever we go with trees and rocks festooned with blue scarves.  It is not the national football team colours and we are unsure where these places are Buddist or Shaman sites.

Nomads on the move, water tankers for the animals and a ger on the trailer

Spot the Tab competition - near Arvayheer

At the above campsite we stopped very near to a colony of Brandt's Vole, they were very inquisitive in the morning and a pleasure to share the steppe with. ) Also next two pix

More Demoiselle Cranes this time with young. They all seem to have two chicks.  In September they all have to fly to Africa.

This raptors nest on a hillside was entirely made with rubbish they had collected, wires, rags, plastic of all kinds etc.  These are the only materials available as there are no trees and wood for miles. 

We imagined that it took these guys all day getting the bulldozer on the inapproriately sized lorry and then after  hitching up the other lorry , with its load of a lorry and a lod on that.  Then it overheats and gets a puncture!!!  You could see it coming really.  

Mike spends several hours under the tab making first aid repairs to the broken chassis

Here's the problem- same the other side

The first aid repair - metal straps sandwich the breaks.

The welding solution - see full report once we can get our act together.  Suffice to say it is still on the road.

Our cowboy welder in Bayanhongor

We could not understand what these people were collecting in the steppe to start with.  Surely not enough mushrooms to warrant such a large basket.  It transpires they are collecting cow dung for the winter.  They have a special rake which flips the deposit over their shoulder.

What a place to discover your Tab chassis is broken!

Bomboggor on the way to Altai

All roads lead to Bayanhongor

Spot the Tab - central Mongolia

This pic is to illustrate a type of steppe - we call it 'onion steppe' the 'grass' is in fact a mass of little aliums.  This is the one Mike used as chives on his cheese spread. 

Lots of lorries on the road were overloaded with what looked like wool or sheep skins. 

Over the rickety bridge - some holes were big enough to fall through, see next picutre and the video.

Richard's Pipit

Hill Pigeons proved very illusive in our first two weeks in Mongolia,  they are a bit paler and smaller than Rock Pigeons and have white in the tail.  This pic shows 6 and 2 Rock Pigeons.

Our first Lammergeier - very much paler than more western birds

Undercut road after floods. 

Bugger the road has gone completely now!

Wash stop on a local river

The Pallas's Pika is one of our favourite rodents (actually more closely related to the rabbits) they sit and squeak at us at almost every camp site.  We see more little animals here than anywhere else we have been.  There is hardly anywhere where there is not a squirrel, vole or pika watching us or running off to their holes as we pass. 

Two more camp visitors 

Spot the tab - we usually get off the main track (see background) to camp,  the small hill hides us from other travelers, although this might only be half a dozen in the 12 hours we are there.

Toad headed agama

A misjudged departure from the main track

One of the nice things of this leg of our trip is that at every camp site we become a temporary vantage point for the local Isabelline Wheatears.  They are probably the most common bird on the dry steppes.  This one perches on the Kelly kettle - good job the stopper is in place!

Announcements

Please note that the file sharing page for Mike's Bird records and waypoints etc is proving difficult to maintain and cannot now be amended or updated.  If anyone would like details of birds seen since leaving home to 31 July let Mike know and he will add you to the distribution list.  There is also a Google Earth readable file on all the waypoints which can be sent if anyone is interested.

The butterflies, food and tab repairs will appear on updated pages later once we can get our act together and find another Internet Cafe.