12.09.10

There was no point staying in Baruunturuun after I had woken up. No shower, no café, no internet … so I said farewell to my roommate – a 18 year old student from UB, paid my bill and headed for the towns petrol station. This town had 92 octane, which was great news. A couple of times yesterday I had to put 80 into the tanks … but when I did I only put 5 litres in at a time, and it would have mixed with the 92 that was already in there. While Baruunturuun had 92, the pumping was by hand. I held the nozzle and the fuel man pumped. It was 9:15 when I hit the road and saw Baruunturuun fading away in my mirrors.

I didn’t get too far before I hit my first proper water crossing in Mongolia. The weather ahead had looked dark and ominous since waking up, in contrast with the clear blue skies I had experienced in Mongolia to date and I figured it had rained recently here in the west of the country. The crossing was not too deep – only about a foot and a half, but the current was ferocious. It meant I couldn’t see the bottom. I had little choice but to get my feet wet. Damn! Now I would have wet feet all day.

It was relatively flat terrain all the way to Ulaangom, but as I neared Ulaangom, approaching midday, the mountains loomed up in the distance. I fuelled up in Ulaangom and checked my maps. Plenty of peaks above 3000m (10,000 feet) here. I needed to think of what I wanted to do. My initial plan had been to head for the border, perhaps 4 hours ride away. That would have meant riding from UB to the border in less than 3 days, via the Northern route. But having made such good time in Mongolia so far, I had earned a day up my sleeve. I decided to do the border tomorrow. I would spend the rest of today in the mountains. I grabbed some food and drink before leaving Ulaangom and left town about 12:30.

I continued along the ‘Northern Route’ for another 90 minutes (the track took in some lovely mountain passes and wild tracks), and just before 2pm, beside Lake Uurug (Uurug Nuur) I turned left and headed way up into the mountains along a shortcut to Olgiy I will call the “Khotgor Track” for want of a better name. Wow … what a track! Extreme rocky hilly riding for the first hour.It took me about an hour just to cover the first 35km to Khotgor, a dusty coal mining village. Then the track eased up and continued past another beautiful lake called Achit Nuur. At the bottom of Achit Nuur the track joined a more used road coming from the east and from here the drive to Olgiy was through a fantastic gorge. It was one of the finest afternoons riding I can remember anywhere. Unbeatable scenery, challenging riding. Ulaangom to Olgiy, via Khotgor – it rocks !

I arrived at Olgiy at 5:30pm. There was still a couple of hours of daylight left. I refuelled and headed into town to take stock. I pulled up at the local “Irish Bar” or at least that’s what they called it, but they were having a private party and would open to the public only at 6:30. I chatted to a group of Kazakhs visiting from Almaty and they too were waiting for some dinner. About 6pm I suddenly got tired of waiting. I had pulled into Olgiy quite exhausted and drained after riding the Khotgor Track, and figured I would chill, have a nice shower, then have a long dinner over a large number of beers at the Irish Bar. But my energy and enthusiasm for the bike were back after my half an hours break, and I decided to head further west into the Altai mountains – to a village called Tsengel.

In an ideal world, I would have headed deeper into the mountains and got as close to the Chinese border as possible … Joe Pichler had given me some nice waypoints of cool things to photograph. One of these days I need to come to Mongolia with loads of time up my sleeve. It seems everytime I am here I am pressed for time … last year it was because I was 3 weeks later in the year and the warmth was almost totally gone for the year. This year I NEED to get to Novosibirsk by the 15th September. My son has a birthday party back in Holland and I am flying back for a couple of days to be there … and I booked my flight from Novosibirsk!

I got to Tsengel about 7:30 pm after stopping endlessly for fotos. The track here took me over a pass at 2650 metres (9000 feet) … the wind was howling … it was freezing cold. Mountains around here are about 4000 m (13000 feet) high. My plan had been to camp at or near Tsengel, but it was too cold for that. I could see myself needing to take a slash in the middle of the night and muttering to myself “I’m just going outside, and me be some time”, never to be seen or heard of again. So I immediately asked around for a hotel. I didn’t expect one. If there wasn’t one, I would have ridden back to Olgiy via a different route, but to my surprise, the locals pointed to a building in the centre of the town and said “Hotel”.

The hotel turned out to be way more expensive than anything else in Mongolia so far – but the alternatives were freeze in a tent, or ride 90 minutes in the dark back to Olgiy. If everything had been still on the bike, I would have rode, but I had unloaded all of it to squeeze thru the hotel door and into the lobby. So I said I will take the 50,000 togrog ($40) room. There were no shower facilities and the toilet was outside.

The manager brought me a kettle, and a bowl and cup from the kitchen, as the kitchen was closed, and I made myself up some coffee and instant noodles for dinner. I raided my bags and found chocolates, biscuits etc that I had stashed away in case of dire need. I decided to use them up. I wont really need them now that I am almost out of Mongolia.

– – –

13.09.10

I stayed in bed for a while … I figured I was leaving Mongolia today and had two days to get to Novosibirsk 1100 km away, and still would have a day to spare.  It gave me a chance to catch up with some foto editing and blog writing.   I noticed while editing the last few days fotos, that the fender extender from the front low fender was gone.  I noticed it in the fotos.  I went back a few days through the fotos, and it seems it had not been there for a while.  Funny how I noticed that via foto editing rather than by seeing it missing from the bike.

About 9:30am I  packed up, found the lady manager of the hotel, who scrawled 15,000 on a piece of paper.  Hmmm I could have sworn she tried to say 50,000 last night.  So the hotel was only about $11.  That’s more like it, and fair value for Mongolian hotels.  Tsengel is high up, about 1900 metres (6500 feet) and it was well cold when I stepped outside to find some chaps to help me get the bike out of the hotel lobby.  While carrying my bags down to the bike, the lady manager invited me for breakfast.  Apparently it was included.  This is becoming better value all the time.

It was 10:30 when I left Tsengel, and about 105 km to the border with Russia.  I decided not to go back via Olgiy, but to take a short cut direct to the border.  It would be my last 105 km on dirt tracks for a while and set out to enjoy it.  I was riding well.  Yesterday, after the steep rocky track past Khotgor, I had been too tight on the bike.  I wasn’t moving well and the bike felt heavy.   Today I was back in the groove.  I floated on the bike and the bike floated over the landscape.

I reached the border in just an hour and 10 minutes. Just 30 minutes later I was through the Mongolian post and rode the considerable distance to the Russian post (over 20 km).