Captain's Log - Mongolia Stats

Ugtaalsaidam to Ulaanbaatar

During our night camping in the outskirts of Ugtaalsaidam we woke to increasing winds, the slight patter of rain on the tent roof and then the sound of distant thunder. We hoped it was not a sign of the weather to come for our last day of off road riding.

It's happening again!

It was a cold start to the day, but we were lucky enough to have a tail wind. Up the valley you could see dust whipping through a more distant valley, and behind us there were heavy looming clouds that looked like they carried rain. As we proceeded down the valley we made an easterly turn, and from there on we once again found ourselves in the midsts of dust being carried by the wind. This time we were lucky enough that it wasn't a full blown storm, just the dust being lifted from the surface of the sandy landscape. We had been pretty sure that today we would eventually hit sealed road, and we were anticipating this as the road had turned to a mixture of rutted out gravel and rocks, and sand, neither of which make for comfortable riding. The sealed road never came, and after the fresh experience of the sandstorm a couple of days earlier, and the bitter memories of the strong winds of the Gobi, we rode on through a couple of kilometers out of the next town and set up camp in the most sheltered spot we could find. It was 2pm.

Dust Storm vs. tent shelter. Dust Storm wins.

Around 2am we woke to the sound of a barking dog. With a full moon in the sky, a quick look out the tent door showed us it was about 100m away and approaching. Then there were two. Nervous that they would spend all night right beside our tent barking at us, or worse become aggressively territorial as we assumed they belonged to the yurt over the hill, Kate jumped out of the tent, banging two mugs together and slowly walking barefoot over the desert prickles in an attempt to scare them away. About 15m out and she called for back up as she wasn't certain she was scarey enough for two dogs. So out came Calvin, sensible enough to put on shoes, banging two rocks together. It was a great success and the dogs receded back over the hill. No dog attack. No rabies. Phew. The only casualties were the two mugs. Then it was back to sleep.

Hmm, probably no hot chocolate tonight then

Our second to last day of riding saw us hit the sealed road early on and we cruised with the wind at our backs for 75km. It was a nice change from the slower more bumpy riding of the past week, and a welcome relief on the derriere.

Happy to be on the seal. Smooth and quiet.

For our last night camping in Mongolia we decided to head off the main highway and behind some hills to enjoy the serenity of what Mongolia offers one last time. We got a prime spot with a grand view down a generally untouched valley, only one yurt on the other side of the valley and no dogs. In true Mongolian fashion we continued to get battered by the wind until sundown and even lucky enough for it to pick up again during the night and batter us all night as well. You just have to laugh and accept it.

The final 40km back in to Ulaanbaatar was straight forward even though in a biting cold side wind. Once in UB we diverted over to Attila (bike shop) that Antoine had suggested to us to see if we could some new bike pants for Kate and a new helmet for Calvin (as tape probably won't hold in a crash). It was an exciting detour diving through crazy UB traffic and random back streets and we were rewarded with two successful purchases.

Out with the old and in with the new.

Zuunkharaa to Ugtaalsaidam

It started off as a slightly overcast day heading towards Bayangol. It was a relief after 2 days in full sun. We had a quick stop in Bayangol which included Calvin's best horshor yet and a strange conversation with potentially drunk man. Our goal was to find the road leading to Sumber approximately 5km down the main highway. It was 5km of joy as the road to Bayangol had been particularly rutted and rocky. We consulted some locals and turned off on to a very sandy track - the road to Sumber. Another 5km down the track we joined on to what was actaully the sealed road to Sumber, and with the wind at our backs we flew towards our destination.

As we approached Sumber we both commented on how lucky we were that today was cool, and that for once we weren't fighting the wind. However, a couple of kilometers out of Sumber, heading towards the towns dump - we always seem to pass these as we leave towns - we realised that the mistiness we had seen in the distant hills was not rain or humidity, but in fact dust from the increasing winds. And so, with a mighty strong tailwind, and accompanying sand stinging our legs, we made good speed down the tracks.

However, we didn't know it then, the worst was yet to come. We made a 90 degree left hand turn and realised we were staring at a wall of dust 50m ahead running perpendicular to us. So Kate started biking towards it, while Calvin prepared himself with a face covering. From the moment you enter the storm you have about a 2m line of sight. We couldn't look around anyway as even with sunglasses on we still had grit accumulating in our eyes making us blink at least 3 times per second. About 20m in and Kate realised she had no idea if Calvin had entered as well, or if he had made the same track choice! So she stopped dead and started calling "Calvin! Calvin! CALVIN!". It was like Dorothy in the twister in The Wizard of Oz. Fortunately, he showed up and on we pedaled until we made it out the other side after a solid 10 minutes of being pummeled. This was followed by Calvin in hysterics at Kate's face totally and utterly blacked out by dust. On we rode, with the wind still blowing us around, until 10km down the road we hit paved road again.

Looks to be dusty ahead

The aftermath:

We traveled the 12km to Jargalant in record time with the wind hurtling us along. We had both agreed that if this town had a hotel then we would utilise it solely to save our tent from the explosion of dust in the air, on our clothes and on our bodies. Luckily, while making enquiries outside the local mini mart, a young man phoned his brother who owned a hotel. It was a room, there were two beds, a kettle, and he graciously left us a tub, a bucket, soap, a ragged towel and about 20L of water before locking the place up and heading out for the evening.

We were thrilled to have the privacy as we boiled water and stripped down to wash the dust from every imaginable crevice - our eyes, our ears, our noses, our belly buttons and our hair.

Later that night he returned and came to have a chat. Turns out he is a Mongolian wrestler, we think he represents the region we were riding through, or else he has at least won his fights here. He showed us photos of him dressed in his official costume, photos of his children and his horse. He showed us how big his biceps were, quite a few times. And then he invited us through to his house where he showed us large deer horns he had recently acquired from a stag - he was adamant no deer was harmed in this process. In addition to this he offered us a traditional Mongolian treat made from rancid cheese. One flavour was delicious, one okay, and the other so hard we were both afraid we would break our teeth. Kate secretly hid the latter in the leg of her tights so he wouldn't be offended. He then offered to cook for us, but seeing as it was late and we had eaten hours ago we hit the hay instead.

We awoke to a totally peaceful day lacking any signs of a sandstorm. After a quick game of cards that we didn't understand with our host, and him taking Kate's bike on a two lap ride up the hill and around town, we followed him in his truck as he led us across town to the track that would lead us to Ugtaalsaidam.

Our Wrestler come Hotelier come cyclist

This was a wonderful ride over undulating hills with spectacularly long valleys. We took the day slowly, enjoying being able to see the scenery that day, and after one large push up a hill we descended in to Ugtaalsaidam.

Ugtaalsaidam is the only place we have ever come across fierce dogs with frightful sneers, and luckily a man threw rocks at them for us to keep them at bay.

From Ugtaalsaidam we rode 3km out of town, flogged our empty water bottles off to local students doing a clean up of the highway, and set up camp on a hill lined with spectacular rocky formations.

Bluebird clam day in the back blocks of Mongolia to ourselves.

Ulaanbaatar to Zuunkharaa

We had a wonderful 3 day break in Ulaanbaatar, staying with French Warmshowers hosts Antoine and Aurelia. We cleaned ourselves, our clothes and our bikes after the desert, and checked out the brilliant Mongolian History Museum between snow flurries. But it was time to hit the road again, before we got too comfortable and never left the apartment.

We stuffed our bags full of water and food again and psyched ourselves up for the brilliant forecast day of 1°C.  True to its word it was freezing, there was snow on the building roofs and plenty in the hills we were heading for. Perfect. We had cold fingers, cold toes, cold noses, more sniffles and a cold bum. We climbed out of Ulaanbaatar through the endless suburbs. They call these the Ger Districts, but there were actually a lot of nice houses and much less gers.

We started out on lovely sealed road that soon acquired pot holes, and even more quickly turned to gravel road. We had climbed a fair way by now, and after about 30km of biking we turned off on to 4wd track (aka Mongolian roads). We climbed in the slippery mud, lined with snow, for about 400m until we were eventually surrounded by snow. No sign of the road, and Calvin's brakes stopped working due to being clumped with snow. It was the perfect time to set up camp and get into all of our clothes and sleeping bags in preparation for the -6°C that hit that night.

It was cold

Progressed was slowed a bit with a layer of snow

A few times during the night we heard vehicles pass us and head up the road. Crazy Mongolians drive anywhere!

We woke to the condensation of our breath frozen to the top of the tent and dampness around the egde of our sleeping bags. We lay there for a while contemplating if we should pack up and push on or decide on a new route and also to allow the tent to defrost and the temperature to rise above 0 before anything should be done. We packed up in the midsts of snow flurries and decided on the sensible option to continue on our original route over the hill into the snow and the unknown not quite sure if we would be forced to turn back. Luckily, we realised that GPS doesn't help Kate's map reading skills, and we had veered off track 50m in the snow so our path was much clearer than expected.

This turned out to be our first day of off road riding and we had a blast! It started with a sweet descent on a road slick with ice. It was like mountain biking, but really slowly to stop the bikes being damaged under the load and to stop ourselves slipping on the ice. It then opened out into a beautiful valley floor scattered with tracks. As there are very few roads in Mongolia the land is marked by loads of tracks where people have driven. When one gets too bogged, too rutted, too corrugated, they just drive to the side of it to create a new track. We were spoilt for choice. We rode through packs of horses, goats, sheep and cows with eagles (or some kind of awesome bird of prey) soaring above us and passed many a gers.

Luckily we had spikes in our tyres. Oh no wait we didn't. Just happy there was some track to ride

The beginning of the glorious valleys we got to ride

We finished the day with a beautiful view of the hills and a valley just outside the township of Batsumba.

From here we started the day following the train tracks. However, this led us through swamp land, so instead we followed a small track up what would be the first of three big ascents that day. The day was filled with Calvin slowly pedaling his way up tracks, and Kate laboriously pushing her bike. At the top of our second climb we were met by a man and woman in their truck. We dutifully communicated where we were heading, and all our climbing efforts were rewarded with chocolate! The woman then extracted a syringe, a bloody big syringe, from the truck and squirted some thick yellow fluid from its end with a big smile on her face. We thought 'uh oh'. Then she pointed at the cows. We think, and hope, they were vaccinating.

Off the beaten track

One of the many steep climbs of the day. Great rewards at the top.

Following our third descent we headed into the town of Tunkhal. This was one of those towns you ride into and think 'where is everyone?'. Calvin described it as 'what you think Afghanistan would look like'. We eventually found a shop and restocked on dinner before heading further up the road to find a spot to camp. Luckily for us before our home was set up, a goat farmer on this motorbike, carrying a kid goat, came down to point out dead animals we hadn't seen in a near by ditch. We promptly moved to higher land, upwind of death ditch and replaced it with grand views over the vast valley in front of us.

The last day of this section of the journey started out hot and ended even hotter. After more great track riding we made it to the town of Dzüünharaa to restock on supplies for the next section. 10km out of town and the sun was still beaming like it was midday at 5:30pm. It is hard to believe that we started out on this exploration in (not enough) layers of clothing to fight the cold, and only days later were hiding in a tent to avoid the blazing sun, sitting in our underwear trying to cool down. Mongolia.

Tunkhel

Which track to choose?

Uh oh. Cows.

Choyr to Nalaikh

That's it the Gobi has been crossed! Too easy! Nah that was actually pretty enduring and we probably did the easier of all possible routes you could take.

Choyr had provided a nice place to restock provisions (including bacon!) before completing the last of the three sections across the Gobi we were riding. It also, funnily enough, was the first place we got to converse with some people in English. Firstly, we met a bunch of Malaysians that were driving to Germany for a Volkswagen convention who were staying at the same Hotel, and then an American from the Peace Corp. who was teaching English to local students. Great to have some good old chin wags again and get a little bit of local knowledge.

Ready to leave from Choyr. The Malaysian VW gang in the background after a night fixing one of their broken down vehicles.

From Choyr we were off in a blaze of glory or at least mild winds that made the first morning of riding rather pleasant. After that it was back to the typical calm at night and head winds during the day. Classic Gobi. The road had also deteriorated a fair bit with large pot holes and slumps scattered across the road, the shoulder removed and slowly increasing amounts of traffic.

It wasn'the all bad though. Our anticipated 4 day crossing only ended up being 3 days so that was a real bonus, we got to enjoy more camping in the desert, keep developing our sun tanned panda eyes and met many over excited children who would run or bike alongside us through towns and gather around when we pulled over to check out the weird riding people.

Upon approaching Nalaikh, the endless expanse of the desert started to fold into hills and mountains. It was a pleasant change of scenery which at times shelterd us from winds but mostly gave us descents to enjoy - even if we had to pedal a little to comabt the wind resistance!

Just over 'dem hills are some more hills.

Reaching Nalaikh brought much relief and joy of being able to have a bed in a peaceful room, a warm shower and a feast on local cuizine.  MEAT!!!!!! and pretty good salads. Unfortunately, no hot water again. This time we were happy to hold out until Ulaanbaatar - surely there will be hot water there! Right?

Get in my belly! Delicious beef ribs.

We spent an extra day in Nalaikh and visited the Chinggis Khan Statue. It was big. Guinness World Record for the biggest Horseman Statue (not to be too specific). There was also the world's biggest traditional boot (Asian size 7006 or something) and a very big traditional Mongolian horse whip not sure of its record status though. It also had a great information museum about the rule of all the Khans over the centuries and the progression of the Mongolian Empire. It was a massive Empire!

Big Foot's lost boot