Day 3 : Erenhot to Altanshiree
We left china with a slight headache from drinking Great Wall wine. It took us 4 hours to get through the border, and started our first racing section just inside the Mongolian border. That was 27 km and went well, then we drove about 180ks to the next one, then another 26km racing stage. Mongolia has been bleak, flat as the free state, no trees little grass, but lots of sand, dust and huge wind. Second racing stage we had a 50 kmph wind behind, and got vapor locks, so had to stop dozens of times.
Leaving China and entering Mongolia was something else - China is just building cities in the middle of nowhere at times 20 to 20 cranes working in the same area on duplicated apartment blocks or office blocks. In Mongolia it is much us entering Mozambique. There is nothing - just sand. People are increasingly friendly and curious. Bactrian camel is indigenous here, beautiful horses too, but shepards use motorbikes! Unlike China we have a beautiful blue sky at least you can see!! Night stars and low moon quite spectacular in the Nomads camp for our first night. The 10 liters of wine Richard smuggled in came in very useful. Ice cold at night - dry hot days and gets dark at about 8pm. Greener as we head further west.