The last days in Russia had brought a much anticipated change in scenery, and running the hills towards Lake Baikal was a real treat. The area around lake Baikal is beautiful, the lake is surrounded by hills and forests, and only the southern shores are more populated. Standing at shore, the lake stretches more than 700 km towards the north, hard to believe that it contains 1/5 of all the fresh water on earth, and more water than all the Great Lakes combined. We went to a “dip” in the lake at sunset – and clearly, the deepest lake on earth (more than 1600 m) is also a very cold one… A last stopover in Ulan Ude brought us then finally to the boarder to Mongolia, one of the countries I was anticipating the most. On July 21 at about 11 am we arrived in Mongolia where we met our new crew with some very much smaller vans. Loading up posted the first real challenge – and the four of us ended up cramped in between luggage, water bottles and food with no room to stretch our legs at all. It was only for a few days though, and so we just took it as it came. The first drive into Mongolia was quite a memorable one, and the landscape gradually changed to grassy hills and open pastures, very much resembling foothills in Wyoming or Colorado. The life stock was rather different: Herds of goats, cows and camels were feeding in the dry looking pastures, the small farming villages were mostly made up of yurts and small houses. My first run in Mongolia was a pretty miserably one, it was hot and dusty, and I felt tired for the whole way. Maybe this was just the first sign of more things to come. Next day we arrived in the capital Ulaan Baatar, quite a vibrant, modern looking city. To bad we didn’t have time to explore the city any further, however, we managed to visit the Gandantegchenling monastery on our way out of town. It is the oldest Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. The imposing central temple building (Migjed Janraising) has become a symbol of independence for the Mongolians, it is a temple for the veneration of Janraisig (Chenresing in Tibetan), the Bodhisattava of Compassion. In its center, the beautiful and stunning statue stands 26.5 m high, is made of copper from the Erdenet Mine and is gilded in gold.

Driving south from Ulaan Bataar the vegetation became more and more sparse, and in the evening of July 22 we arrived at our first camp at the outskirts of the Gobi desert. This is probably one of the places I wanted to visit the most of all on this trip. The evening in the desert was beautiful, and our Mongolian friends had prepared a great meal with everything that was available, including fresh salads, cooked meats, coffee, tea, and, of course, true Mongolian vodka. That night the four of us went for a walk into the desert, enjoying the calmness of the night under a beautifully bright night sky. Looking back on that night is was the last time for a while when we were truly in high spirits, healthy, and ready for action. It was almost a magical time and a true team moment. Little did we know on what was about to happen over the next couple of days.