Storm, snow and carried by the energy of the land

Day: 64

Sunrise:
07:08

Sunset:
19:08

Total kilometers:
720

Soil condition:
Meadow

Temperature – Day (maximum):
0°C

Temperature – day (minimum):
minus 2°C

Temperature – Night:
minus 4°C

Latitude:
49°30’504”

Longitude:
100°46’286”

Maximum height:
1422 m above sea level

At 7:00 a.m., a heavy downpour lashes against the tent canvas. I pull the sleeping bag over my head to block out the unpleasant noise. I wake up again at 8:00 am. The pattering sound of rain has changed. The weight of the falling drops is missing. “Is it snowing?” asks Tanja quietly. “Yes,” I reply and open the zipper of the tent to take a look outside. “We’re sitting in the middle of a blanket of gray clouds and everything around us is white,” I say, immediately pulling my head back in and closing my zipper. “What do we do now?” asks Tanja, shivering. “We’ll sleep for another hour. Bilgee and Ulzii aren’t stirring yet either,” I say, retreating into my down comforter. It is still snowing at 9:00 am. Bilgee and Ulzii don’t make a sound. Obviously the two of them don’t have the slightest desire to dismantle the camp and ride off in this awful weather. I sit down at 9:30 and am still undecided as to whether we should sit out the weather or move on. I hear the zipper of our men’s tent. “I have to go out and talk to Bilgee,” I tell myself. Shivering from the cold, I put on two pairs of long johns, two pairs of woollen socks, a pair of thick expedition socks, my breeches, a pair of thermal windstopper trousers, three woollen undershirts, a short fleece vest, a windstopper jacket and a thermal jacket, a woollen hat and gloves. “I’ll show the weather,” I say and step outside like a Michelin man. Bilgee happens to appear in front of his tent at the same time. “What are we going to do? Stay or move on?” I ask him. “What do you mean?” “I don’t know. Maybe stay?” I say indecisively. “Good decision,” I understand him. “Well, let’s move the fire pit to the other side of the horse-drawn cart. It’s sheltered from the wind there,” I say, because the wind direction has changed 180 degrees from yesterday to today. I didn’t even have to make the suggestion because the outdoor specialist Bilgee is already in the process of putting my words into practice. We quickly carry the stones from the fireplace into the windbreak of the car and rebuild it. While Bilgee lights the fire, I hang up the tarpaulin behind which Mogi can hide from the storms. The water in the pot boils quickly. Tanja now also comes out of the tent and gets a cereal box and everything we need for breakfast in the tent from her kitchen box. A few minutes later, we are sitting in our fabric house in a good mood, drinking hot tea, eating our muesli and a few ribs of chocolate. We listen to the rustling snowflakes, but now they don’t stay put. Only the mountains around us are powdered white. Sitting in our sleeping bags, we enjoy not having to do anything. Simply having time for our thoughts, or freedom of thought, is wonderful. In Germany, such moments are very rare or non-existent for us. And here in the wilderness, we are busy surviving and making progress every day. Nevertheless, I feel the freedom of thought here. By which I mean that my thoughts here don’t constantly roll over, overtake themselves, repeat themselves, tumble through each other only to rearrange themselves a little later. It is a dream to think nothing. It means feeling the true calm in the brain’s control center. Only in the deserts that Tanja and I have crossed over the last 20 years have I experienced this inner peace. However, it usually took months for the stream of thoughts to dissipate. Here in Mongolia, this has happened very quickly. Tanja and I talk about it often. She feels the same way. We think it could be due to the energy of this country. Mongolia is a special country for us. A country with an extraordinary, sublime vibration. For some incomprehensible reason, our body and mind have adjusted to the frequency of the land vibration. From one moment to the next, we are carried by it. From here to there. Everything that happens makes sense. We don’t want to judge whether it is good or bad and just let it happen. When it snows, it snows. When it’s cold, it’s cold and when we feel hungry, we feel hungry. It is nice to be in this vibration and we hope that we will be carried by it for a long time to come.

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