Bruce’s Report #19
Well I’m back in UB (at the same internet cafe again..since I know they allow me to connect my laptop). I’m sending pictures (slowly) at the moment, so I hope you get a chance to see them soon (still lagging behind my reports though).
[Ed: For some details of the tour day see the final report #20]
Well yesterday was a big day ! There was a team leaders meeting the night before to make certain everyone was clear about no turning on receivers after getting off the bus, and other various questions. The maps are True North, and we were able to establish magnetic North is 8 Degrees West here in Mongolia. Doesn’t make huge difference, but since 80m bearings can be more accurate well worth sorting out. Most other teams had just assumed the maps were Magnetic North !
 | We were kinda expecting that the 80m competition might be near the Hotel Baht, but instead we had another longish drive to Bumbat National park. The terrain of this one turned out to be quite different. The trees were pine still, but the understorey often sprung out in boulder fields (which weren’t on the map). Open areas were often jumbled rocks, so very slow moving (call it a clamber !). It was a bit of luck whether one of these fields ended up in the way since there was no obvious way to navigate around them as they weren’t on the map. I was lucky for TX#1 which was very close to the start, but had a really slow time to #2 with many of these fields appearing in my path. Eventually got there ! The next one was tricky since by direction the next one I should go for was #4, but #3 was much stronger. I elected to go for #3 prior to #4. It turned out to be the wrong choice, but I know many others did the same. |
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| Waiting at the 80m Start | Alex does his massages on Mr Kim (A Korean) | Huge GrassHopper |
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| Photo Pose in Start Chute | Alex Starting on the run | Showing off equipment |
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| DavKa’s Ankle | Mongolian ger at Finish |
 | It seems there was something wrong with #4 or maybe it wasn’t radiating properly. Still, it wasn’t too much of a backtrack and I did my last #5 well. Total time 70:07. I mention the seconds here because they turned out to be important. On the display they had set up at the finish this time I dropped gradually from 2nd to 5th, and it looked good that I might stay there. Alas when we got the results later the evening I had dropped to 6th (and from 3rd to 4th in region 3) due to a Japanese competitor sneaking in ahead of me on 70:06. Yep that’s ONE second faster !! {Ed: Grrrr] Adam managed 84 minutes (he ended up a bit lost, and also the homing beacon was a bit intermittant). Adam came 10th outright, and Bryan got 4 TX’s and came about 20th or so. The winning time was 56 minutes by Mongolia. The small Kazakhstan junior who went to China (Vladamir, 10 or 11 or so I guess) came 1st in the Junior category with 54 minutes.Quite remarkable ! My Russian roommate came 2nd with 59 minutes, despite the fact he made the same order stuff-up as I did (for the same reasons). |
 | The Banquet and award ceremony went very well (held at the Baht Hotel). Much vodka sculling went on, and also we were awarded Bronze for the WIA Team for both 2m and 80m competitions. We were pretty pleased with that of course ! (The team results are only in Region 3, and take the best two out of three team members results added together. Smallest number is best. I setup a bit of a slideshow of the Mongolian pictures Adam and I took, as well as some of China (Nanjing last year), and some of the rest of the trip thrown in. Left it running at the Banquet and it always seemed to have crowds around it. Also later last night (more vodka) copied a whole stack of images over to their computer to avoid having to email them later (got samba going). |  |
Today we hope to catch up with DavKa and NyamKa, a pair of Mongolians who have invited us to visit them today. We are back at the Nassan Guest house. We were also expecting the Kazakhstan team (all 15) to turn up there as well, but of them we have seen no sign (maybe catching a taxi to Kazakhstan :)).
There is stack of other things to mention, but I’ll put them in the last report I think.
Cheers from UlaanBaatar,
Bruce