14-Sep-2004 -- The journey from 48N 115W was straightforward. Although not a main road, at least there were two tyre tracks to follow all the way. Near the point was a large salt lake but the point itself was on dry grassland. We stopped here for our picnic lunch.

From this point we just had to drive east for 148 km and we would pick up 2 more CPs.

Unfortunately the best laid plans can be undone – especially when there is a large area of salt marsh in the way! We struggled across tussocky grassland for 2 hours going north then managed to turn east. By this time it was apparent that we would not have enough fuel to get us all the way to Sumber (our destination for the night). There is only one official fuel station between Choibalsan and Sumber and we had passed well to the south of it. We came to a Chinese oil exploration site and found no one who spoke Mongolian. One man spoke some English and was willing to give us 20 litres of petrol. He would accept no payment (they do not visit Mongolian towns and shops) but took a couple of clean notes as souvenirs. About 5km further on we visited an American owned (SOCO) oil production site. They could not let us have any more fuel but fed and watered us and we went on our way. Time had slipped away and we had no time for further hunting. We arrived at Sumber at 10pm. Our grand plan had slipped to 2 sites.