Thanks, Pat, Gardo. I can't explain the feeling of contentment I felt while riding through this remote terrain on my own, just to stop and and have a coffee in the middle of nowhere and listen to the deafening silence was so satisfying, especially after coming off the back of 12 months on the trot in China. There are towns or camps dotted all over the country all connected by gravel roads and/or sand tracks. Generally you are no more than 200/250 km's from a settlement of some sort. Further north, it gets a bit sparse but I only travelled in the south on this trip.