On to Xegar

We have an early breakfast, and are on the road by 07.30 hrs. The drive lasts some eight hours, and once again the surrounding countryside is spectacular! We cross a pass at 5200m: for many, this is the highest they have been. Nonetheless, this doesn?t prevent Hugh, Mac and Nikki trying to do 100 step-ups on a nearby wall? and succeeding!

Much of the latter part of the drive is on dirt track, and Xegar is a small town at a cross-roads. The nearby hills are of sedimentary rock, and many of the team immediately head up an adjacent hill to go fossil-hunting. Hugh finds several modest fossils- a trilobite or two, and the odd ammonite- which he will send back to his son for his 4th birthday on 18th September.

Some of the team are feeling the altitude now, and retire after the brain studies have been completed.

Story by Kay Mitchell