Spent some time yesterday trying to get a blog about our ride and a few pictures to publish and after many attempts, it would not do so.

This will be brief, more of a test blog.

We left Ulaanbaatar at 6am and arrived at the ride start point about noon. Lunch was cooked, horses and two horsemen arrived – from about 30 kms away. At 3pm we began a four hour ride. The fact that on our trip itinerary, the ride wasn’t supposed to start until the next day seemed of no concern to anyone except our – still jet lagged – selves.

Our concept of riding across the grand open grasslands was put to rest within moments as we sloshed through boggy ground, the horses up past their knees in water. Once on a firmer path we headed into forest. Soon we came to a very wide quagmire. The pack horses – four of them and their two horse men plunged in. They struggled through muddy water and over a tangle of logs – up to their haunches.

Pat, Helen and I could not convince our horses to follow. A certain amount of pandemonium broke out.

You will need to wait for the next instalment to find out what happened next.