It’s a short drive to Khovd, just 170Km, one of the shortest legs of our trip, and our start time is at 9:36. We take advantage of the time available in the morning to sort out our spontaneous breaking problem. Together with mechanic Peter Banham, we discover that the cables which have been installed around each side of the rear axle to prevent it from extending excessively, after hitting bumps, goes around the brake rods. This means that every time the rear axle extends it pulls the rods and activates the breaks. We quickly remove and reroute the cables in the proper way. After adding another brace to the light mounting we pack up our stuff and go. We are a few minutes late for our morning start but well within the time limits.
We quickly reach our first timed test, monitored by Philip Young himself and despite the tortuous uphill route we make it well within our maximum limit. The route then goes on through flat open terrain and the usual multiple-choice tracks. We spot car 47, a 1933 Lagonda M45 driven by Swiss Martin Egli and Galleon Graetz and pass it realising that the reason they are driving so slowly is that their engine is on maximum 4-5 cylinders out of its six.
Another car we pass is the Aston Martin DB5 of Brits Adrian Gosden and Andrew Honeychurch. It’s limping along bouncing on its suspensions, probably because of broken shocks.
The track coast in and out along a mountain stream which gradually grows into a small river which then ends in a beautiful light blue lake. We drive along it for a few Kms more until we reach a little village with a small temple on top of the hill above it. We have plenty of time and decide to visit it. There we also spot the Tatra of Czechs Vladimir Toufar and Michal Popov. They have had a remarkable survival story. Their car is a peculiar design developed before WW2 where the air-cooled engine is placed behind the rear axle. If this sounds familiar it’s because Porsche copied it for the beetle and his own branded cars. The Tatra’s engine, however is a V8 but unfortunately one of the pistons seized in China. After being trucked to Ulaan Bataar, the crew has had to remove it so now it’s just a V7. According to them it still works ok except at higher revs where the lack of balance causes some vibration. The only other issue is that in rebuilding the engine they must have misaligned something and it’s leaking oil at the rate of over 3 litres a day! That said, as long as they have an oil supply they can carry on.
As we approach the temple, children run towards us asking for candy. We give them all of our supply and see the very disappointed faces of those who have arrived too late. We get out quickly and get back on the road. As we go up the next hill we spot the 23 (Simon and Rupert) and 25 (Nigel and Hugo) crews on the side of the road having a relaxed picnic. We join them and Mattia heats up one of his Waitrose packs (he will get a reputation for that on car 23’s blog).
It’s all down hill from there on, along the telephone line passing by a herd of camels and after reaching a small village before Khovd we enjoy the privilege of an asphalt road for the last 36Km to Khovd, the largest town in Western Mongolia.
Khovd was the last town to be liberated from the Chinese between 1912 and 1921. It was briefly ruled by an insane and cruel leader who was known for personally beating to death or gouging eyes out of those who displeased him. He was eventually arrested by the Russians and his head was later displayed in the private collection of Peter the Great.
We reach the town in mid afternoon and after refuelling we immediately search for the local mechanic, Khaan Auto Service, only to find that there are at least 10 cars ahead of us, many in far worse shape than ours. A brief survey of the situation shows broken suspensions, broken chassis, broken half shafts, broken shocks, a real carnage! 
This does not include the cars whose crews have decided to repair them at the camp.
I decide that we better stay in town rather than spend the night at the camp, 10 Km away from the repair shop, and begin looking for a hotel. This will help keep our place in the repair queue. With the help of a translator I hire a private cabbie to take me around to look for hotels and to the local auto market for supplies. In the end I will keep him for the whole afternoon and evening, a forward looking choice as he will help us save a lot of time and energy. Other crews follow our example and the hotel quickly fills up to capacity. There is no hot water as the boiler is broken and will not be repaired for a few days. Instead we have the opportunity of a cold electrifying shower, meaning that the electricity network leaks into the cold water pipes. The result is that you jump up and down from the cold shower and the electrical current. Wow!
Dinner, however, is great, a real feast of Mongolian fare which we share with some of the German and Swiss crews.