Day 36

Distance Covered: 163miles

Total Distance Covered: 7644miles

Made the Russian border fairly early and joined the long and totally unmoving queue with a few other Mongol Rally teams (One being the team we had met outside Almaty during wheel issues). After around 4 hours we made it through (in-spite of Jeremy slamming one of the guards hands in the glove compartment) to be instantly met with inferior roads (Gravel) on the stretch of no-mans-land between borders. On arrival at Mongolian border we discovered that apparently the Adventurists hadn’t covered the import cost for the amount of cars waiting to cross and what with the border being closed on the Sunday we were potentially faced with a weekend in an impound area at the border.  However, fortunately for us we were one of the first few to cross meaning we were paid for so around half 7 we set off into Mongolia while the rest of the teams waiting had to pay the staff overtime while they sorted everything out. After a short stint of dicey Mongol roads in the dark we pulled up by a lake with the ambulance team from Almaty with the thoughts of a bit of a social that evening. Unfortunately due to the sub zero temperatures outside neither team fancied venturing outside so in the end we settled down for the coldest night so far, despite wearing all thermals, clothing of the day and two sleeping bags I was bitterly cold.