Mongolian House, Aug 20

First thing in the morning we put the car in line at the border as, between teams that arrived in the night and through the morning, there were over 20 rally cars, some other cars and a half dozen tour busses all trying to get through this little crossing. we got out of Russia smoothly, taking only a few hours. There is about 20km of driving between the Russian and Mongolian border crossing. Fittingly enough, at the point where they say you have entered Mongolia, the asphalt disappears. On the Mongolian side of the crossing we find, in addition to the teams that entered with us this morning, a half dozen teams that had to wait overnight. We thought for sure that we would be spending a night there as well, but at around 7:00 after a day of kicking balls around a parking lot we get through with one of the Peugeot teams. It looks like the rest of the convoy will also get through tonight so we head out to set up camp before dark. The road dead ends us at a gate for a massive double walled fence just outside of Tsagaannur. About this time a local guy invites us over to his house where his family feeds us a mutton dish and local beer and vodka, entertains us with vodka fueled music and dance, then gives us a warm place to sleep for about $15. The only downside is that we have lost the rest of the convoy.