We had not been having the greatest luck with the Panda since crossing the Mongolian border, but our Panda is a trooper. She can do anything, and we had seen her fix herself a couple times already. So, when she wouldn’t start in the morning, we didn’t panic but instead reached into the backseat for the trusty Haynes manual, which suggested that we check and clean our air filter (something we had known we needed to do for about…um…two weeks at this point?). Markus even helped us out with a little compressed air—much better than just banging it on a rock—and soon we were on the road again.
Smooth sailing with a trusty co-pilot
After a slow start, the rest of the day went swimmingly; ironically, it was the only day in Mongolia we didn’t have some sort of water crossing. The water crossing, however, was replaced with a mud crossing, which caught both Daniel and the Skoda in its grips. A little pushing and a lot of improved route-finding got us through the tricky area and to a beautiful camping spot for the night.
We stopped early, as it could be our last night camping in Mongolia, and we explored the beautiful landscape around us, which made for some great photo opportunities. Stopping early also gave us time for an epic game of catch and some sunset/moonrise beers. Truly, it was convoy magic.