Mongolia. Where to start. I guess the first obstacle to overcome was surviving flights on Aeroflot, Ezines Airways and Aero Mongolia. Tick, tick and tick, even if Aeroflot did lose my luggage (big thanks to EVERYONE on my trip who helped me out!) and the only meal they serve is fish spam. I love how the passengers on Aeroflot still clap when the plane lands. Says something, me thinks. So lost baggage and then I’m left at the airport by my group before we had even started. Not the best of starts. No use getting upset though. What’s the point. The way forward is to charm some bloke to give you a lift to your hotel. Plus my group was easy to forgive. I couldn’t have asked to travel with a better group of people. Usually there’s one or two to have a moan about, but no such cases in this group. They were all super fab.

Mongolia certainly didn’t disappoint. Many surprises were had and they were all uber positive, starting with night one when we hit the heady lights of Ulaambaatar to watch England v Germany in the World Cup. These guys know how to party! The place went off, and we couldn’t ask for a more brilliant start to our trip, even if there were one or two sore heads the next day. Why wait for the last night to go crazy and let your hair down?? Some of us (ok…just 3) made it to the museum the next morning. Hardcore. That afternoon it was time to fly up to Moron, a sleepy little town in northern Mongolia. From here we travelled up to The Reindeer People of East Taiga on our little Mongolian ponies. Nothing but utter respect for those little guys. Tough as old boots. I loved my little mare to pieces. They have to be tough as the country is unforgiving. With temperatures as low as -70C this Winter, about 10% of the animals died. We experienced temperatures as low as freezing and as high as mid 30C. I’ve never been so cold as the day we got caught in a storm and I only had shirt sleeves on only to then be attacked by man/horse-eating flies the size of small birds on other occasions when the sun was at its hottest. Our group was definitely tough enough to survive in this unforgiving terrain. If someone had told me that 7 people could get through 22 bottles of vodka and 10 bottles of wine in less than two weeks, I would never had believed it. Just goes to show what you can achieve when you put your mind to it.

Seeing I’m still travelling and a little bit lazy, I shall now direct you to Richard Dunwoody’s blog on the Wild Frontier’s website (www.wildfrontiers.co.uk). Richard was “Dad” on the trip, looking after us all and I secretly think he liked having a group of hot chicks by his side for two weeks. Nice one, Richard. Top bloke who’s had (actually…he’s STILL having!) an extraordinary life. You’re a diamond! Also….my photos are on facebook.

XXX