I booked at the last minute for the August mountain biking trip to Mongolia with Exodus - the 10 per cent loyalty discount they give me is working! The Air China direct flight from Heathrow to Beijing was shorter than I expected at about 10 and a half hours and was relatively painless as I had a seat by the emergency exit. During the flight, I met the three other UK members of our group; my room mate Dave and Neville and Jane. We had a few hours to explore Beijing before going to bed; the capital was hot, humid and it rained several times but we did see Tiananmen Square etc. but overall I found it rather dismal. We met the rest of our group in Beijing; Dan, Kevin, Andrew and Bea from Los Angeles who were very kind, considerate and polite folk; it was good to hear about LA and the States as I have not been there for many years

Early the next morning, we flew over the Gobi desert to Ulaanbattar, the capital of Mongolia. Mongolia is a big country, about six times the area of the UK but with only 2.4 million inhabitants, 800,000 of which live in the capital. The number of nomads is decreasing as more move into the towns . We had use of a hotel room to freshen up before boarding the overnight sleeper train to Erdenet; our Russian built train was soon whizzing through the steppe on a single railway track that went all the way to Moscow; our carriage was looked after by two rather officious women, who looked Russian to me (although I've never been to Russia!).

We were told that the toilets would be locked while we were at stations. What we were not told was that we would have to wait at one station in the very early morning for nearly 90 minutes while they shunted the locos around at a major railway junction. I woke up when we stopped at that station and needed a pee; the toilets were indeed locked and the women guard's only English was to ask me if I spoke Russian! I indicated that I didn't and that I needed the toilet fairly urgently; never mind, I thought, we will be off within 10 minutes. I stood in the corridor watching the night rain, most unusual in this very dry country. After about 20 minutes, I was getting more desperate and again asked the woman guard; she dived into a compartment containing our local, Mongolian guide, Gana, who emerged bleary eyed. I apologised but he graciously said he needed a pee as well.

We climbed down from the train onto the track and stood in the pouring rain relieving ourselves; I was keeping a close eye on the train in case it started off! I returned to my compartment and was just getting into bed when Neville got up to go to the loo; I told him of my experience. He came back rather quickly and not at all wet. He explained he had found a gap in the fish plates between two carriages! The women guards would have been very disapproving if they had caught him in the act.

We reached Erdenet early in the morning; it is one of the most depressing places I have seen in many years. It is an old mining town with strong Russian connections but the overwhelming feeling is of despair and decay. It just felt that nobody cared at all. Anyhow, having brought a supply of beer, and assembled my bike, we were soon out of it. I was the only person in our group of eight who did not use a hired bike.

I was amazed at how green Mongolia was with lots of flowers; apparently, this is a common impression of visitors who of course come during the short, three-month summer which is also Mongolia's wet season. Everything has to grow in 100 days as the temperature in winter will be down to minus 35 degrees. Mongolia is known as the "land of blue skies" and our leader Adrian proudly stated they had sunshine for 260 days a year; this did not impress our friends from Los Angeles as they have 300!

The cycling soon fell into a routine, mainly following four-wheel drive trails across the relatively flat steppe; of course, we had to climb passes when we travelled from one valley to another. Occasionally it was quite rocky but in general the cycling was not difficult. We had several river crossings; the main problems then were the very strong currents and the slippery rocks - I found myself pedalling like mad as my back wheel spun on the mould covered rocks but I got across.

One day, we stopped for lunch by a lake; we were amazed to see a herd of horses, without a herder, gallop past between us and the lake. There must have been at least fifty horses; we were told they are herded but not broken. Whenever we climbed a pass, there were always good views into the next vzlley but the vista was particularly good from Eagle Rock.

It was very interesting to visit a family in their white Ger tent and learn more about their lifestyle; we were offered vodka and curd which was fun at the time but lead to a few dodgy stomachs the next day but luckily not for me. On several days, we had dawn to dusk sunshine which made it quite hot and the sunshine got oppressive as there was no shade. Going into a Ger then felt refreshingly cool; I would like to return in winter to see how they manage in extreme cold in their Ger tents, which are mainly insulated with a thick woollen felt that they make.

We stayed in two Ger camps; one was particularly nice as it had an open air, Japanese style hot water spring. It was great to lounge in the "clothing optional" men's pool, separated from the women's pool by just a small line of rocks; we enjoyed the open air, views of the forest and naked women whilewe downed a few beers.

Our party was self-sufficient with two Russian built, four wheel drive minibuses; this meant we could pitch camp where ever we liked. At one camp and man and boy on horseback dropped in; the boy could only have been six or seven but was amazingly competent on his horse. I saw that the man had a rifle and a dead marmot hanging from his horse. I had been warned not to approach a marmot, dead or alive, as their fleas still carry bubonic plague, from which a few people each year die.

However, our guests were offered barbecued marmot and vodka and I joined in as I hoped the fleas had been killed. Marmot is quite pleasant tasting and similar to chicken. These rodents can grow quite big and dig large burrows; sometimes we would cycle straight out over the virgin steppe and we had to watch out closely for marmot holes to avoid going over the handlebars.

The trip was called "The Road to Karakorum" and we finally cycledto its outskirts and our Ger camp. The most interesting attraction was, for me, the spectacularly large Erdene Zuu monastery; cycling back, the wind suddenly sprung up, raised lots of dust and was followed by a violent thunderstorm so I got thoroughly soaked.

We had a day to explore Ulaanbaatar on our return and I grew to like the capital which had some very modern restaurants and stores. We all went took a folk evening complete with contortionists and throat singing - both were amazing. I was using my new digital camera, a Canon S50, for the first time on this trip and took a twenty second movie of the throat singing. The camera has a tiny microphone but it did quite a respectable job of picking up the sound.

Back in Beijing, I went with Neville and Jane on the obligatory trip to the Great Wall; it rained a lot and the traffic was awful. I was much more impressed by the Ming tombs that we visited on the way back. Beijing has modern wide Express ways, flyovers and six ring roads but really has an horrendous traffic problem as the number of cars has risen so rapidly. I asked our guide how they were going to manage during the Olympics in 2008. He said that they were going to expand the existing 60 kilometres of tube to 300 kilometres in time!! I told him that, if we won the 2012 Olympics, it was already too late to complete the East West rail link across London; a one party state can certainly get things done!

Overall, this was another excellent trip with Exodus; all the logistics were superb and I was particularly struck by the very friendly people in Mongolia. All our camps were in nice locations and we had good modern tents; Camp hygiene was superb and we enjoyed very nice food cooked by a professional chef on her holiday!