16,17 August

N47 06.521
E092 50.533
Dzereg, Mongolia.

I was up after 10 hrs sleep and still aching all over. I re packed the bike and ditched all the surplus weight that I could. I left Hovd at around 11am and made my way out of the town slowly. The bike had completely changed in its handling characteristics, yesterday it had been sure footed, ploughing its way through everything, but today, loaded up again it felt too  clumsy and I was feeling nervous about it. The road leaving the town was diabolical and the bike felt way too heavy at the back and way too light at the front. There was nothing I could do but ride on, grit my teeth and hope for the best. After 15 or so km's I went to use my front brake and I had no front brake!! One of the mechanics who had fitted my front tyre had forgotten to replace one of the bolts in the brake caliper and it had rotated up off the disc! I stopped to repair the problem and a car pulled up and 2 local men jumped out to help. There wasn't much they could do but the extra hands were helpful and I thanked them with my last miniature bottle of whiskey. With the caliper refitted I nervously pushed on and with every passing hour my confidence grew again, but the handling was still at best not very good. I pulled over at a track side café for a cold drink but ended up sitting with a family of 10 drinking warm milk and eating goat and noodle soup. It was good to be interacting with locals again as the rally teams that I had convoyed with seemed nervous of locals and were only interested in racking up the km's. I was given a melon and got riding again, the corrugated road was a ever changing blend of thick gravel, rocks or sand. I have found that riding at 60kph is the right speed to skip over the corrigations, plough through the sand and gravel, but there was still a few moments when I thought I was coming off, but I always managed to get control at the last second!  Today I have seen camels, yaks, eagles and lots of Gers (or Yurts) dotted along the landscape, it has been good to be travelling alone again. This evening I have had lots of locals come over to my evening camping spot. They usually want a cigarette or something and are not afraid of asking, I  give them a coffee or a cigarette and they leave happy. Tonight I had just got in my sleeping bag to go to sleep and there was a revving of motorbikes outside my tent (I'm camping almost in the middle of nowhere), I poke my head out of the tent and receive the greeting 'thank you, I am a wrestler, tabak, tabak! Apparently, he and his friend had got drunk on vodka and had fallen asleep in the mountains. I give them a cigarette and coffee and the cheeky monkey wants my Petzl head lamp because its dark and his motorbike headlight doesn't work! Sorry my wrestling Mongolian friend, but its not my fault that you got smashed on vodka and fell asleep. After he gets refused another cigarette, he and his friend get bored with me and start up their bikes and wobble of into the dark! It must be a very tough life here so I'm not surprised that they use alcohol to escape their daily hardships. I wonder what tomorrow will bring..............