Kirsten Melis goes
Mongol Derby 2013
Pre-training in the classroom
1 August 2013
Today is pre-training day and meet all the Mongol Derby 2013 riders and crew! When we finished brekkie we headed out to get money for our horse deposit (everyone needed a horse deposit in case you lose your horse during the ride and can’t not be found, horses are very important to the Mongolian nomads as they provide food and are transport), however we can’t find the exchange locket but we did find the souvenir shop and the mobile phone corner in the State Department Store. I bought myself a Mongolian sim card and had a great browse around the souvenir shop, it was huge but eventually we had to leave or we would’ve been too late for class. We arrived at our classroom, met up with everyone, in the meantime I try to analyse everyone and try to work out what their plans are for the ride. Class had started, Katie Willings, our chief steward, started talking and showing our routes, everyone had to hand in their GPS’s so the route could be downloaded onto it. The butterflies were definitely there when Katie kept talking about all the tracks, horses and families we would meet! Then it was time to do our weigh-in, I weighed in with my complete riding kit, so I wouldn’t have to count it into my 5kg luggage. After the weigh-in it was lunchtime, so we quickly ducked into the supermarket and got some food and head back again to the Ramada.
Photo by: Richard Dunwoody Photography
Next on the agenda was the veterinary part, there were 5 foreign vets and we would get 2 Mongolian vets. The main vet, the Scottish veteran Harry, the South African vets Pete and Helen, a Belgian vet Barbara and Tom the vet from the UK. A happy bunch with a good sense of humour, something that has been very important during the tough stages in the ride! The human medical part followed, lead by dr. Chris Abbott and his team, nurse Deb Swann and paramedic James. The lesson was good and handy, until I started feeling a bit hot and before I knew, I woke up on the ground.... I had fainted during the lesson! The combination of not enough rest, food and water since arriving in Mongolia had taken its toll. Everyone had been evacuated out of the room except the medics and few crew, they all looked after me really well. Because I couldn’t keep any food or water down they took me to the hospital to make sure I was going to be 100% fit enough to start the ride, and offcourse I passed the test with flying colours, no one can keep Kirsten Melis out if this race! I got dropped off at my hotel and jumped straight away in bed. Before I knew my roomy Katie had come home, with a bag full of goodies! What an angel! We caught up with some last classroom information before going to bed.