Waoww!

Graeme: Leaving the city today was unspectacular and uneventful. We filled up with fuel and were on our way by 9AM. However what we've seen today, Mongolia is stunning. We're only a tiny bit into our crossing of this land locked beast, but it's amazing that the scenery is so varied, even though comprised by thee main elements - Rocks, hills and grass. I'm a bit lost for words to describe it. We postulated today that perhaps Mongolia is a mecca for travelers because of it's vast freedom. No signs, no people, no roads. The first 100KM was very nice tar. Then a turnoff, 5 more KM of decent tar, then dirt. We took a celebratory photo of us leaving the tar, but also On that road topic... there are roads. Heaps of them! Every 100 meters there would be a fork of some kind either dodging a puddle or rough ground. That and you'll be driving along merrily on some lovely flat ground then a invisible speedbump which represents a road running perpendicular to yours that you've just crosse
d. The height of the grass just hides it from view. Although we'd done a lot of reading to prepare us for this fact, there's nothing quite like having 6 tracks in front of you to choose from, and just having to relax to the idea that they'll all get you there.
I think I can sum up navigation here. Firstly, I don't have the skill to navigate this place without a GPS and secondly, general direction is usually good enough. If it looks like you've missed a left turn, over the next 10 splits in the road, if you keep taking the left fork, you'll end up where you wanted to be.
We do have two GPS's, one physical map and three digital maps, so I'm not too worried about getting lost. If the US government disables GPS, then it might be slower going ;)

I was surprised to see fields growing crops, occasionally with fences.

We're camped atop a small hill, but sheltered on three sides by grassy hills and rocks.
We're staggered at how many Ger's there are. Atop our hill top lookout we can count more than a dozen. They sit so effortlessly in the landscape, like they are meant to be here. The scene is so idyllic that I can't pretend to capture it. It's a utopia!

One last thought to finish my post. I sat up on the rocks after dinner overlooking the valley. It felt weird somehow but I'll try and explain. Everything looked picture perfect. Like in a National Geographic magazine, or on TV. It looked that perfect that it doesn't feel real! Why doesn't it feel real?!
We zip through these countries. 'Ohh, isn't that nice, lets take a picture' You look back a few days later and pat yourself on the back - excellent photo... but it feels like we're a bit disconnected from the environment. I've heard of photographers refer to this disconnection as part of the game. They can be in a war zone, capturing something horrible, but can return seemingly unfased. This I suspect is the curse of the camera. Has anyone else struck this?

Our car is the perfect example of that will to disconnect from our environment. It's geared to provide an environment completely separate to that of it's surroundings. It's warm, it's dry, it's soft and quiet. Sitting out on the rocks, they felt hard, the wind was cool, the sounds of livestock evident. We'll retired later to some TV. See what we're missing? The exposure!
Hmm... we have a lot to learn.

Cassie:
I was a bit relieved to be leaving Ulaanbaatar today if I'm honest. It's a rough city with lots of crazy traffic, but thankfully the people we spoke to individually were really lovely. There was a staff member at the hotel who spoke a bit of english and she took us under her wing and spoke english with us every chance she got. I get the impression the people who speak english in this country like to practice it every chance they get. It makes me feel bad that I can't speak their language! The Mongolian language to my ear has the lovely sing-song cadence of many Asian languages with a hint of Russian sounds mixed in. A bit difficult for me to get my tongue around the correct pronunciation.

Driving the dirt roads today hasn't been as taxing as driving dirt roads in Russia and at points they've been just as rough if not more so. Not sure why it's more enjoyable. Perhaps because there's no traffic to worry about? Perhaps the scenery is calming? The drive through this country is going to be slow going. We average probably between 30 - 40km/hr. But in a strange way that's ok. So long as we're completely through Russia before the temporary import for the car runs out on 22 September, I'm a happy camper.

Another wonderful thing to know about this part of Mongolia is that the air smells like lavender. I found the plant that I thought had the fragrance, crushed some in my hand and sure enough it smells like lavender. The only resemblance this plant has to lavender is the silver foliage, other than that it's entirely different. The fields are full of this gorgeous little plant. In areas that have this plant in abundance the air is thick with the scent. Isn't lavender meant to be a relaxing scent in aroma therapy? Perhaps that's why I'm feeling so relaxed here!