Patience

July 31- One of my traveling companions, Bern, is a very spiritual guy. Shortly before leaving home he received a package from Boojum with a baseball cap - the package was swarming with ants. His first reaction was "what the ....." - his second reaction, after scattering the ants in his yard, was to look up any reference to ants in a Native American animal spirit book. They signify patience. This was to be an important lesson for the next couple of days.

Because the airline had "lost our reservations" it had been necessary to arrange a charter, but the only available time slot was at night and Olgiy, our destination, did not have landing lights at the dirt airfield. So the flight was now to go to Hovd, about a six hour drive away. So, with that as the preamble, the bus to the airport broke down, the plane was late, we arrived close to midnight at a marginal hotel in Hovd (described by one of our guides as "a hole in the ground").

The next morning we set off at 7:00 am in a caravan of five Russian vans with local drivers and did not arrive at our camp until after 11:00 pm - 16 hours. The seven people in our van get along well but get rather punchy after about the fifth stop to repair a broken vehicle. Our van is special - Carol and Marsha have bought a large bag of ribbons (don't ask) and the vehicle is festooned with color.

We like our driver too - he seems to have repaired the front wheel bearing problem with no after effects. One vehicle was finally declared without breaks and passengers were distributed into other vans, but driver and luggage continue on. 

We all stop at the bottom of a steep grade to watch the driver descend with no breaks, but he manages well.

After dark, our driver and one other van are lost finding the camp and we are almost the last to arrive. Amazing starry sky.

The next morning we see where we are. This must be the place.