Lenny Henry would love it out here, people keep giving me condensed milk. (DCM etc.). I’ve no idea why, but I’m on my third tin now. It’s timed to perfection too, literally the day after I use one I’m given another.

At the wild camp there were a few people upstream from us. They kept themselves to themselves, but after dinner I thought I’d wander up and say hello. They were locals from the local Oblast having a weekend walking around the hills, camping and socialising.

As it turned out they were very friendly, before long we were sitting with them eating our second dinner and pooling our vodka. In the morning they left us since beer and our breakfast. Thanks guys, much appreciated!

(Breakfast actually)

We’d met little Dom going into Mongolia, so it makes perfect sense that we should meet big Dom coming out. He’s an Ozzie pilot flying twin otters when he’s not riding his bike, doing a month about and leaving the bike wherever he gets to.

He saw our camp as he was riding past and called in to say hello. Nice chap. He’s heading to Novosibirsk too, so we may catch up again there. In still amazed at how many people traveling on bikes there are. Awesome!

Are you kidding me? I’ve been to Mongolia mate!

We came into Kosh Agats, looking for a guestinitza – ideally one with a Mongolia rally car or two outside. With Mongolia sim cards and a few tegreg left over, we’d be happy to donate them. Little Dom gave us his left over Tegreg and we wanted to pay it forward, to keep the karma going.

Outside the tourist guestinitza there was a group of people having a drink. We got talking and we all got on very well. It started to look like it was going to be a belter of a night! When I got round to enquiring about a room it was fully booked 😦 We got directions to another place from a young lad who spoke his English, then said our goodbyes.

Before we left the lady gave us all a hand knitted hat! They’re really comfy, and now that my hair is very short it’s perfect. All the guys were wearing them, like some kind of cult. It was very generous of them, so we reciprocated with gifts of our own – cards and pin badges. Nice!

Mother Russia welcomed us into her bosom with great weather and scenery, as if in direct competition with Mongolia. The start of the Altai mountains are spectacular, and I’m sure there’s more to come. The big difference here is, you can actually take your eyes off the road for more than 2 seconds to enjoy it!

We rode through amazing gorges, canyons and alongside rivers as we descended from over 6000ft to around 3000. As my thoughts wondered, I realised that I’ve ridden my bike higher than I’ve ever flown a hang glider. I’d never have thought that, I guess I didn’t quite get to the peak of flying – it was still pretty awesome though.

Just across the border was a Russian listening post. The radars were spinning and energised, as Ken could hear the pulse through his vox. I’m not sure what they were looking for, the Mongolian air force is organic as far as I know! Maybe incursions from China through Mongolian airspace?

It was pretty weird though, as we were in a valley and the dishes weren’t raised of the ground. Maybe they were training radar operators?

Either way, they didn’t have any tanks for sale so we moved on.