Day 26

The admin day got off to a peaceful start with the morning light revealing a truly spectacular scene created by the still waters of Song-Kol lake and the contrasting jaggedness of the distant mountains all bathed in a rich sunlight. Today is going to be our day of rest.

Since we started we have been pushing hard to achieve our goals in spite of the challenges faced, which in turn has taken it's toll on most in one way or another. Therefore today will be the teams first real opportunity to relax after the mammoth drive from Moscow, and boy we are not going to let it go to waste.

Most had a leisurely start with a slow migration towards the communal shelter for a hot drink and some more of Ben's legendary porridge.

By the time Christopher had gotten up the porridge had been eaten, and some more was required. In a true Christopher stylee he set about making some more without paying heed to measures or quantities, the end result resembled something not too dissimilar to concrete!

After breakfast Ian decided that he was going to wander over to the lake for a morning wash. Now when you imagine someone doing this you think they would grab a towel, bowl and bar of soap and head to the waters edge for a reserved splash, due to the cold temperature of the water,but not Ian. After two minutes in his tent he emerged wearing only a very small travel towel and a pair of freebe hotel slippers waving a tube of shower gel! After collecting a bucket and stopping to pose for a few photos he pranced down to the waters edge where he proceeded to dive straight in. The act that followed was similar to that of a baby elephant firing water into the air in a playful attempt of getting to grips with the art of washing. This had the rest of us in stitches. According to Ian the experience was liberating, and one he'd recommend. Needless to say no one took him up on his recommendation.

Ben and Karl decided they wanted to use their free day by taking in in the mountain scenery, from the top of the mountains, so headed off armed with their day sacks. When asked whether they had packed lunch, the reply came 'We've got chocolate'. With that we handed them a radio and bid them farewell.

The remainder of the team decided to spend a bit of time sorting out the camp, doing the washing up (including Christopher's concrete porridge pan) and sorting out some of the vehicles. Andy F treated car 5 to a natural body treatment by washing it down with 100% undiluted lakewater. The result was not the streak free finish you'd expect at home, but what do you expect to achieve with only a sponge at 3000m!

Whilst the camp was busy undertaking the many tasks of the morning we were payed a visit by a local horse man, his horse and his dog. He was very friendly and foolishly let himself get in to conversation with our resident ambassador, Joe. Joe managed to negotiate an unattended ride on the horse man's horse, and slowly headed out across the lakeside plane until he was just a spec in the distance. The horse man was not at all bothered by this and quickly found himself subjected to the team's 'sales' pitch. As usual this was conducted in a mixture of German language, sign language and writing in the dirt on the cars. Elanor, Ian, Dave and Andy P also had rides on the horse, with Andy P being perhaps the most 'challenging' rider.....! In return the horse man was offered a ride in the award winning Discovery 3. With Elanor at the helm and Andy P on board they headed off to drop Christopher off for his walk around across a horseshoe of hills. As Christopher left the vehicle walking backwards he was asked if he would be OK. He replied 'Yes I will be fine...' as he tripped over a rock sending him rolling!

Unfortunately the presence of the horse brought with it the first injury of the day, which incidentally was to the same casualty as yesterday, Dave the medic.

Fortunately our Prometheus medical training left us well equipped to deal with the trauma caused when Dave climbed on the the horse cutting his hand on the saddle. We assessed the injury, laughed a bit and then offered to write him a sick note. Dave thanked us and pointed out he could write his own sick note!

Later on with the absence on our resident chefs Ben and Christopher, Ian took up the spatular for lunch. A menagerie of of herbs, spices and vegetables saw us all eating the newly created dish Song-Kol noodles with Kyrgyz sausage. Hugh Fernly-Wittingstall doesn't stand a chance here against our cuisine!

After lunch Tom decided it was best to finally give up trying to grow to a beard and shave off the mess that had emerged since the start of the trip. Due to the earlier loss of luggage this was achieved by borrowing Elanors lady shave (with a fresh blade) and some donated shave gel. 20 minutes of scratching away in front of a defender side mirror saw some sort of normality returned.

At 17:30 Christopher returned from his six and a half hour trek. He had managed to scale three snow capped peaks the highest at 3840m, and returned with only a cut to a finger, that he dressed himself.

19:10 saw the return of Ben and Karl after over nine hours of walking, rock climbing and sliding across 3 foot deep snow! We tracked the guys for the last 30 minutes of their walk as they came across the plain. To welcome them back we tied a St. Georges cross to the shelter pole and waved it from our look out post on the roof of one of the defenders.

Dinner saw the return of Christopher as head chef, with assistance from Elanor, Andy F and Dave. They cooked up a vegetable noodle feast that was garnished with wild onion that Ben and Karl collected on their walk. The meal went down well with all, especially the three walkers.

After dinner we retired to the shelter with various beverages to see the evening in. Ben's hot chocolate with whisky, had barely had a 'dink' out of it when it had achieved its status of 'hitting the spot'.

Before I close todays blog, I'd just like to thank my mother for her (3rdhand) enquiry into my wellbeing. I am fine if not a little tired and dirty. Rest assured it will be my turn to show the holiday snaps when I return.....

Tom.