Ugii Nuur

Today we had just a short distance of 30km to ride to Ugii Nuur. The track was a mix of gravel, sand, rock, more gravel and more sand. We are getting pretty good at dealing with a variety of track surfaces, but the deep sand is still a bit tricky to ride through. The technique is easy to understand...constant accelerator and steer with the handlebars, not your weight. Its not that easy in practice though and we are still learning. We arrived at Ugii Nuur which looked beautiful from the track and started looking for a place for lunch. There are a few tourist ger camps along the lake edge and we stop at one and ask if they are serving food. They say yes and lead us into a huge ger that contains a very tidy and nice restuarant. We have lunch and have broken conversation with the girl serving and an old man who wanders in. The place is so nice that we ask if there is a ger available for the night and we end up staying there. The beds a very comfy and a nice alternative to elbow wrestling in the tent. We spend the afternoon getting tanned and sunburnt while reclined in russian style banana lounges (Russian style in that they are very mechanical), reading, walking along the lake edge and going for a swim. The lake water is perfect temperature and very fresh. We share the entire camp with two other europeans who arrive a bit later and have a relaxing night in preparation for some big distance tomorrow. Alan.