It took us a few hours this morning to wind our way across the steppes back to the "main road" and then into the town of Ulaangom. To our surprise the last 13 km into the town was good paved road and it was a pleasure (even though a short lived one) to drive on a real road for a while. Mind you on this road we came across a gang of workers painting cener lines by hand with brushes and a stencil.

In Ulaangom we topped up on fuel and spent some time around the market and main street seeing what we could get in the way of groceries. The supply and range of goods was limited but we got enough to stock us up for the nexgt leg of the journey.

After shopping we spent some time on the internet catching up with emails. It seems our Iranian visa has been approved and arrangements for Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are moving along.

With business finished we found our way out of town and onto the "road" south that in a few days will deliver us to the city of Khovd. Almost immediately we noticed that this road is more heavily used than the one we had traveled over during the past week. More cars and a lot more trucks; the trucks in particular were interesting as the aim seems to be to pack as much cargo as possible onto these.


Late in the afternoon we pulled off the road a good distance and settled in for the days camp. We had a couple of visitors late in the afternoon curious about who we were and what we were doing.