Late last night the organisation told us we had to leave the hotel by 07:00 and head to the border, located just a few kms away. Mario decided to get up at 04:50 and in doing so decided that I would also wake up at that time. It took us about 5 hours to cross into Mongolia and that was quick compared to some people who were stuck there for over 2 hours more.
We had a long drive scheduled for today and a large chunk of it was on dirt roads. The original route was flooded so we had to drive an alternate way in convoys to make sure we wouldn’t get lost.
The drive was incredibly dusty, but because it was too hot for us to drive with the windows closed, we had to crack them open. As a result, absolutely everything in the car was covered in a layer of fine Mongolian dust. The only good thing about it was that it appeared to be quite an effective dry shampoo.
A lot of the participants came prepared and were driving with their mouths covered and googles on. You wouldn’t have been mistaken for thinking they were going to the pensioner edition or Burning Man.
Today was also the first night of camping and the first time we had set up the tent since the 2013 edition of P2P. The strong winds meant it didn’t quite “pop-up” like it was meant to. By the time we figured out which side was the front, it was 21:00 and finally time to grab something to eat.