102. Being towed 122 km over a high pass in freezing conditions with slipping tyres and virtually no traction

Friday 26 October 2007

We woke between 6.00 am and 7.00 am, and got up at 7.15 am.  We were freezing as the heater had stopped during the night.  Looking out of the Earthroamer we realised that it had snowed overnight.

We were stranded out in western Mongolia in a snow storm

Here we were, on the edge of the magnificent Gobi Desert with huge mountain ranges on either side, completely covered with snow.  It reminded Pip and I of the Arctic – or even the Antarctic.  Instead of the flat ice of the ocean, we had the flat desert covered with snow, and the mountain ranges lifting up like nunataks.  However the snow disappeared within 3 hours.

Eldos had spent the night lying on the floor of the campervan.  That was OK, except that it was so cold and we didn’t have an extra sleeping bag or rug.  However he lives in Mongolia and is obviously used to the cold.  He has climbed the highest mountain in Mongolia and he told us that camping there was even colder.

To get some warmth we ran the engine of the Earthroamer. At least during this breakdown the engine runs – although we can’t get any power out of it because the turbo-charger seems to be wrecked.

We had baked beans on toast for breakfast.

Dick and Eldos eating breakfast wearing their warm clothes

We rang Dagas on the Iridium phone but we found that he was still in town looking for a truck – he hadn’t actually departed.  What a disappointment.  It appears that all of the trucks are being used for coal mining. 

We then received some good news.  We spoke by Iridium phone to Graham Taylor in Ulaan Baatar, who advised that Dagas has managed to get a truck and should be here within a few hours.

Dick went for a walk for about 1.5 km to an abandoned yurt (or “ger” as they call them here).  It was all closed up so he said, “Is anyone inside?”  Amazingly, the door opened and a beautifully dressed young lady appeared.  She didn’t know a word of English, so Dick pointed back to the little tiny Earthroamer in the distance.  She gave him a smile and just stood there, looking at him in amazement – she appeared quite frightened.  Dick then walked back to the Earthroamer. 

Rather than do nothing, we put “Dreamer” on the DVD player.  It is amazing that we can sit in our Earthroamer, broken down in the remote Mongolian desert, and still watch a DVD.  Later, two Mongolian herders arrived on their motor bike and one said that he was the husband of the lady in the “ger”, and she was quite frightened when she saw this strange foreigner speaking an unfamiliar language.  Pip invited them inside and gave them cheese and biscuits, and they sat watching the DVD.  They must have been completely amazed.

Two local Mongolians stopped to visit us while we were waiting for the truck to come
They came inside the Earthroamer out of the wind and snow and shared a Sao and cheese with us

Dick got on the phone and spoke to Cres, who found that there was a Ford dealer in Ulaan Baatar, which had both Americans and Australians working there.  Hopefully we might be able to get the vehicle fixed – but we realised that we could get nothing fixed where we were and we would have to be towed.  Our plan is to get the vehicle back to Hovd and then decide what we will do from there. 

We have now been here for over 24 hours, and yes, we are getting pretty disappointed.

At 1.45 pm Dick decided to try the Earthroamer to see how far he could move back towards Hovd.  He turned on the engine and amazingly enough, the boost from the turbocharger worked!  We then drove for about 18 km at 60 kph, but the turbocharger then failed again.

At 2.10 pm we sighted the truck.  Wow, were we happy!

The coal truck arrived
Dick driving the Earthroamer very slowly
Road now has a dusting of snow

We connected the Earthroamer to the truck and worked out a code with Eldos – one flash of the Eathroamer lights meant “OK”, two flashes of the lights meant “slow down”, three flashes meant “go faster”, and the Earthroamer lights turned full on meant “stop.”

We were at 3,800 feet and we knew that the pass we had to cross was at 5,300 feet.  That is a climb of 1, 500 feet – and by now we were back in the snow with a vengeance.  Would we be able to get over the pass with this truck?

We attached the yellow tow rope and started moving.

Dick attached two straps to the tow bar on the truck

Initially it looked as if the truck could only do about 15 kph towing the 7 tonne Earthroamer, but gradually it moved up to 23 kph.  It was very nerve-wracking.  Fortunately we had the Earthroamer engine running so we had power brakes and steering.  It is also fortunate that the Earthroamer has a manual transfer case for 4WD, so we were able to put the transfer case into “neutral” and the front wheel hubs into the “off” position.  This meant that the automatic transmission was disconnected.

The truck arrived to tow us back to Khovd.
We were towed for nearly 5 hours along 122kms of snow covered tracks back to Khovd

At one stage we were actually towed past a huge coal truck and trailer – they were doing 17 kph and we managed to do 20 kph, so we slowly passed them at 3kph.

Being towed past a coal truck at 20kph
We had passed this truck stop the day before with no snow
The scenery had changed dramatically after the snow storm
We kept our eyes on the tow strap

The snow of the night before was obviously tremendous at the higher altitudes – it was up to a foot deep.  Imagine if we had broken down in that area!  The truck was skidding and the front wheels were sliding.  As the sun went down and we moved into night time, it was extremely difficult to control the Earthroamer and keep the line taut.  Dick found it an incredible strain.

Creeping along behind the coal truck
As we were being towed the scenery reminded us of Antarctica

We gradually climbed over the pass and as the sun went down there was a spectacular moon to the north.  The temperature dropped to 6º Fahrenheit as we crossed the pass at 5,336 feet.

The sun went down and the temperature dropped
The full moon appeared as we crossed the pass -26°F (-32°C)

At 7.05 pm, just on 5 hours since we had left, we were back in the car park at the Buyant Hotel.  In fact, we had disconnected the tow rope at the top of the last descent into Hovd, and Dick had driven the vehicle through the town at about 20 kph.  That is about the maximum speed we can do without the turbocharger working.

We paid the truck driver $230, plus a bit extra for his petrol.  When we considered that we averaged nearly 20 kph for the 100 km, we did well to reach our destination in 5 hours.

Click here for the next entry – we have flown to Ulaan Bataar..

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