this is the first time we have been to the big city of ulaanbaatar for a week.

a couple of days ago we suffered the big rains of the season. our camp spot next to the river in the local national park, which was usually packed with music blaring mongolian campers, emptied completely. it rained for 24hours with a break of about 2 hours when we went exploring for fire wood; even the mighty gazeebo could not keep us dry. to entertain ourselves we played cards, mainly black jack, for an extremely long time. good times.

after the 'great rain' (as i like to call it) the river next to us rose by two feet. amusingly we had crossed a dry river bed on the way to our camping spot and had not taken into account the fact that, after the 'great rain' it may no longer be a dry river bed. this morning we had to leave our camping spot so that tessie could get a visa. funnily enough this was not a easy as you might think. we spent a little time trying to find the shallowest place to cross the ever deepening river; when we had selected our spot (the place where the water was just under daddy's knees) we prepared ourselves for 'the big swim'. we decided to unload some of the trailer and the boot of the car in preparation for flooding. daddy then drove through- full steam ahead- into the water. the low point was probably getting stuck half way across. i heroically waded into the river (well over my knees) and attached the tow rope to the car that had managed to cross the river in front of us.

after safely dragging us out, the car would not start as we had got water in the oil and had soaked the air filter. after a little time and some biscuits we were on our way. wilma now sounds like bill's boat.