Incredible.

What a week. Far and away the best week of the trip for countless reasons. And Mongolia isn't even over yet.

It already feels like ages ago but when we woke up on our first full day in Mongolia it was, as ever, bright and sunny but with an icy wind. We got off early and stocked up on the usual stuff in the town next to where we had camped. One of the blokes who had tried to buy Thunderbird 4 was waiting for us and tried again with the same offer, but again I had to turn him down. Leaving the town the roads were still Tarmac and we were starting to wonder how much we had been mis-sold Mongolia. We soon found out though that this was not the case. The road ended and gave way to seemingly endless tracks all winding along in the same direction. Countless of these are bone shaking washboard and having been advised to make our own roads we started to see why. The landscape is so open and empty that you can just about drive wherever you please as long as you follow the rough direction of the other tracks. Towards the middle of the day it started to get even more interesting as we started to encounter steadily deeper fjords. Powering through the last of these we were just starting to hope that they didn't get too much deeper, else we'd be in real trouble, but thankfully they petered out as semi constructed road started to appear. A huge expanse of flattened gravel was as far as they had got but this lent itself perfectly to a drag race. With Thunderbird 4 in as the massive underdog, and the 1.3l Micra as the odds on favourite, the drivers lined up. On Rich's go we were off and in no great surprise Thunderbird 4 was sadly left for dead. Thunderbird 2 held its own though and finished a respectable 3rd; outstripping the also 1.3l WagonR.

'Marigold lining up for the deepest fjord'

As the dust settled- quite literally- Thunderbird 4 eventually finished, and we adjourned for lunch on the track. As the afternoon wore on the road did not improve, with the rattling only halted for a stop to admire a giant eagle. For a few dollars between us we could each have a hold of the gigantic bird, which had been caught by a few locals. As impressive as it was we didn't have long to hang around with more miles to cover. We ploughed on with inconsistent roads continually changing our plans for how far we would get. Eventually we did make it to Khovd just before car wars got completely out of hand. Rub a Dub Dub and Two and a Half Men had been locked in battle with the contents of an entire tin of tomato sauce splattered down the side of the Agila. Stopping in a Karaoke bar/restaurant we had a great meal of fried beef and vegetable stir fry with rice and then headed out of town to camp.

'Camping outside of Khovd'

'Hockey's new bird'

The following day we were up early as usual and on the road again for another day of what we expected to be following dirt tracks. The Mongol Rally must be getting easier year on year though, as many of the countries we've been through have been in the process of improving their roads. It's no different in Mongolia and for the morning we followed newly laid road with our expectations for the distance we would cover that day increasing by the minute. The afternoon though was a different story. The road became just the other side of complete and we were forced onto tracks either side of it. These got steadily more sandy, and by the end of the day we were being forced to do everything we could just to avoid getting stuck. Entertaining as this was progress was slow and eventually we gave it up and started pitching up just off the road. Well, most of us did. Caleb meanwhile had driven Marigold into a dry river bed just short of the chosen campsite. We pushed him back out of it but, unperturbed, he drove straight back in; simply faster rather than try a different route. Same result. So this time we just pushed him up and out the far side and to the tents.

'Trying to claim yet another flat plain in Mongolia for Great Britain'

It was another cold night and the next morning we were very happy to discover that the wind had died out in the night. Our breakfasts have been getting ever more leisurely and luckily I can't remember what time we actually set off, although I'm fairly sure it was way later than originally planned. We had built ourselves a small fire the night before so the challenge for the day was to collect a stack more wood for a much bigger fire. Matt from the Honeymoon team had discovered that the road markers made for brilliant firewood; and with no trees anywhere pretty much the only firewood too. So we spent the day driving across rolling hills, jumping out of the car continuously to grab the small posts used to mark the rough direction of the tracks. As a result when we eventually stopped we had a huge pile of wood, and couldn't wait to get the fire started as it was cold as per usual. Rich and Caleb though were more concerned with a horse they had spotted in the distance. Both of them had been dreaming of riding a horse the whole time we had been in Mongolia, and so obviously, with their complete lack of knowledge on horses, they could easily chase one round the Mongolian steppe and then ride it. Pretty quickly though the horses owner showed up and, presumably as an apology for harassing his horse, they invited him to come over to where we were camping later.

'Camping literally does not get better than this'

We had just started our fire when he came over with his brother to join us. We grabbed them some seats and some vodka and then started trying to have a chat with them. With no one speaking both languages to any extent this was very difficult but the Mongolian phrase book came into his own; with Alf even managing to ask the question he had been dying to know the answer to all trip "How many days can a goat feed a family of four for?". With this pointless information ascertained (it's about two weeks) we moved onto asking what the bottle of presumably alcohol they had brought with them was. It turned out to be Arak, which is mares milk that has fermented to make it slightly alcoholic. The fact that it was fermented didn't surprise any of us that had already tried some, with it being an acquired taste to say the least. Knowing what it was didn't do much for the desire to drink more of it, with most people sticking to the vodka. This was definitely true of the two Mongolians who were necking the vodka like there was no tomorrow. Unsurprisingly then, one of them started challenging people to wrestle him. Wrestling is a huge part of Mongolian culture and one of their main sports, and we had seen a demonstration of it at the start line so knew some of what to expect. The Mongolian uncannily picked out Caleb as the sort of man who would bring 5kg of protein powder all the way to Mongolia, and proceeded to outmanoeuvre our best hope of an English victory. Alf then stepped up to try and use his massive height advantage over the local to take it to a best of three but he too ended up on his back with no idea how he got there. We accepted our defeat and decided more alcohol was a better option. The problem we eventually came to though was that the bottle of Arak was not getting much more empty as time was ticking by. We were thoroughly enjoying the fire, and gave the Mongolians their first ever taste of toasted marshmallows, but by 2am we were starting to think of how far we had to drive the next day. Mongolian culture dictates though that it is very rude to leave alcohol, especially if it has been brought by a guest, and it was clear the Mongolians weren't going anywhere till it had been finished off. This included the Arak which although got better as you got used to it was still a challenge to get through 1.5 litres of it. We got through it eventually though and headed off to bed, leaving the now very drunk Mongolians to stumble back across the hills to their Ger.

'Vodka makes everything in a different language make so much more sense'

There were a fair few sore heads the next morning and some slightly upset stomachs too; presumably from the Arak. But we got on the road again and ploughed onwards headed for a set of sand dunes called Mongol Ells. The Gobi desert was out of our reach, because of time constraints, but we were determined to visit some dunes and hopefully ride some camels. The drive was blissfully short and it wasn't hard to spot a likely looking bunch of camels when we arrived. Scrambling to find enough camels for all 10 of us the owners started getting us mounted for a short walk into the dunes. To keep the camels from wandering miles away from each other, we were each given a short lead to hold onto the camel next to us. Although a good idea in theory this proved to be the only issue with the ride. Instead of wandering far away from each other the camels now rode extremely close to each other, continually crushing our legs between themselves. We were glad therefore that it was just a short excursion into the dunes before returning, and, as fun as the experience was, we all agreed we would ride horses next. Although we had only done what felt like half a days driving we weren't in a rush to cover any more distance, so we got the tents out and set up camp by the dunes. With plenty of light left the cricket bat came out and the second test match began. Following our brief game on the Iran border, before Hux lost the ball, it got a lot more serious this time around. We paired off and a few hours of mixed quality cricket began. This worked up an appetite and we settled down for some food after, whilst a few people went off to collect some wood for a fire. It ended up being more of a bonfire than campfire but it certainly did its job of keeping us warm.

'My camel, Terry. He wasn't very photogenic.'

'When you let Caleb and Will loose'

Today we arrived in Ulaanbaatar, the capital, after a relatively simple drive; save for the madness of the city traffic. We have just got to a hostel and are looking forward to celebrating safe passage across Mongolia with some beers tonight. Next stop, the finish line.