This morning we had a visit from a local family, father, mother and daughter in traditional clothing and one of the young workmen from yesterdays ferry ride. The little girl was curious but a bit unsure of us and clung to mother. The mother was very curious about the photographs we took of the group and particularly photos of her daughter. Before the visit was over a couple of additional young men in traditional gear arrived on their small Japanese motor cycles and had a quick look over the truck.

During the morning we followed the trusty GPS track through dry valleys and past the occasional ger camp; though in this dryer climate there were a lot less camps. We could see that there had been a recent rain storm in the area and this had damaged the track where it crossed water courses. At a few spots we had to create our own crossing point rather than risk deep mud.

Late morning the track headed up into a Larch forest and a very narrow valley. As we proceeded the valley narrowed to the point where we were hard put to find a path that did not put the truck on a severe side-hill and we got a chance to test the Unimogs offroad ability a little. However, after climbing a steep section of old washed out track we arrived at an Ovoo to be greeted by a young man herding animals; he told us in sign language and a bit of English that "the road is closed" and pointed us back down the valley 6 kms "and then turn left".

So after retracing our steps we found the alternate track and within 10 kms it had turned into a very rough graded road and we could see from our GPS that is was heading towards the main road and the town of Tosontsengel.

As we were soon to discover one needs to use the phrase "main road" with some caution because although the "road" we joined was "main" in the sense of being a major artery between population centers, in character it was not much different from the tracks we had been following for the past days; it was just wheel ruts in the grass; though there were many more alternative wheel ruts and the ruts were deeper and rougher reflecting the greater volume of traffic. Even this "main" road was not without its navigation challenges as over the years travelers had taken alternative approaches to the course of the road and at points those wheel tracks split to take different routes around a mountain or picked different sides of a river. Very testing for us poor tourists.

About 25 km short of Moron (according to our GPS) we came upon Atsimag Nuur and decided to camp for the night on the flat gravel shore of this modest sized lake. We had only been stopped for a few minutes when we noticed a sulphur like smell and on investigation we discovered that Atsimag was one of the salty lakes we had read about, and the smell was from the salt encrusted edged of the lake.

Reading the LonelyPlanet Guide this evening in camp we got another interesting perspective on the topic of "main roads". The guide points out to travelers that one can catch a mini bus from Moron to Ulaanbaatar for the cost of 45,000 T (about $30) and that the 670 km ride takes 17 hours. It further points out that from Ulaangom (in the far west of the country) to Ulaanbaatar the 1336 km ride takes between 46 and 54 hours.