28th July...deeper into Mongolia's middle route
from
www.awayfromhere.org
Before I get into the 28th, there were a few photos from yesterday which I forgot to post…
dust plumes from the bikes.
Sami approaching
Me approaching
still approaching
enjoying every moment
actually, we've come the wrong way
In the words of a famous Kazakh, 'I like!'
Waiting for Sami before Pawel departed to help him
OK, to business…
Everyone got up and had a leisurely breakfast. The sun was shining, so we could try and dry our boots out some. Everyone made something different for breakfast and we shared our food and chatted about national identity and the holocaust with Kristian and Gesa. Conversations began about whether or not we should split up began, as the Finns said they needed to rush on and couldn’t really wait around much. I agreed to continue with Pauli, Sami and Tuomas, as I too wanted to ride more quickly and also get to Ulan-bataar. I didn’t really want to get to UB for UB’s sake as from what I understood, it has all the attraction of a bout of Jardia, but I wanted to get there early so that I could leave most of my luggage at the Oasis guest house and take a 2 day blast down to the Gobi desert, before Pavel, Aga, and my favourite Germans got there. So we left. I took us back to the route that had a solitary signpost to Narambulag, but it turned out to have 2 river crossings, one which we did, the other being too big. Tuomas complained and it was clear we were starting to make plans to top each other during the night. It was just a question of who set their alarm earliest. I told him to go the Alps next year, as there’d be less of a risk of wetting his feet. So, frustration was setting in for us all and I began to want to ride on my own again. We turned around, and about 45 mins later we caught up with the 2 couples who were the tortoise and who somehow seemed to stay ahead of the hare. I was out ahead of the guys and so had a break with the Poles and Germans until the Finnish boys arrived. We made it to Narambulag and as was normal, Pietro got me there first, so I went into one of the little stores on the main street and sat and had a beer in the heat before everyone else arrived. Eventually they did and we all agreed to press on and meet at the Hot Springs, north of a Lake on the middle route.
Breakfast
Drying boots before another river
more time being wasted beating Aga's metal pannier. did i say that i don't have any time for aluminium boxes yet?
Sami gearing up, or gearing down...I can't remember. still sporting the wrist support though.
but he was wearing two at one point! Sami, have you always had a problem with limp wrists? ;-)
shaking previous countries' currency and dust out of my tent
Kristian, my photography teacher, showing me a new trick
Kristian always admired my bike mounts. This was too difficult for him due to some 'organisation procedure' he goes through as he get on?
one of today's river crossings
easiest cross to date
still come up like a drowned rat
Waiting at Naraambulaag
this chap insists that the only way to ride a bike, is to do with with a large bottle of vodka in his hand. he and the rest of the Mongolian men
Kris waiting in line for fuel. he actually dropped his bike about a minute after this photo, but he still looked cool as he did it!!
When we got there, or at least we think we did. The springs seemed to be quite elusive and since we were all starting to smell like turnips with leprosy, we had in our minds, radox adverts shot in Iceland. What we got was a concrete building with some students who allegedly were English majors but who barely had ‘yes’ or ‘no’ down. Either the Mongols or the Bradt guide to Mongolia (which is incidentally much better than the Lonely Planet guide to Mongolia if you’re planning a trip) had oversold on the springs and underdelivered.
Again there was some angst – partly fuelled by the heat and the springless springs – as no definitive decision was made as to how much further we’d get and whether we’d camp by the saltwater lake as some wanted a swim since we hadn’t had a chance to wash somewhere clean since the Russian Altai. It was agreed that we’d ride another 15kms or so, and then try to camp by the lake. The boys took off first and I caught up with them. They wanted to keep going, and aware that we’d told the rest that we’d ride for 15 clicks, I said ‘you ride on and I’ll let them know we’re going on further’. I waited and asked Aga to take a photo of me sitting on a rock. She and Pawel then had a barney because the wind blew her bike off the side stand and broke the mirror, irritating Pawel, so I took off to let them sort it.
view of some camels by the salt lake
the photo before the war between P&A before i left to go on my own before the hurricane.
I knew I was about 20 mins behind Sami, Pauli and Tuomas, so I gunned it to catch them. 45 mins later I stopped a 4×4 and he said that 3 bikes had just gone past. I saw no dust plumes and was surprised at how much ground they’d covered. So, I blasted it once more and half an hour later a jeep stopped to chat and one of the girls in the back spoke pretty good english. She said that no motorbikes had past, so I figured the guys had pulled off somewhere to camp. I was on my own now as I knew that Aga, Pavel, Kristian and Gesa wouldn’t ride this far today, and now the Finns were behind. Enjoying the freedom of no responsibility or decision making processes, I got up on the pegs and moved quickly across the steppe. It was wide open and the most open land I’d seen since I started on this trip. There were no yurts, livestock, and the only sign of life in this remote part, was the occasional 4×4 kicking up a plume. By now, dusk had kicked in and I was getting tired and not seeing the road so well. I narrowly avoided dropping the bike the in a few big holes and the final straw was when a squall hit me from the side and nearly blew me and the bike over. ‘Time to stop’, I thought. I spent about 30 mins looking for somewhere out of the wind, as it was fearsome. Eventually I found a place which I figured to be the most sheltered spot. I tried pitching the tent, and almost, inadvertently, began kite surfing across a Mongolian steppe. This wasnt’ going to work as the whole side of the tent went concave and on one occasion went flat when the frequent squalls took leave of the hurricane. I walked a bit further and finally found somehwere which offered at least a little protection no matter what direction this changebale wind blew from.
contrary to what this photo suggests, this is quite a sturdy Mountain Equipment tent.
Once camp was set, I cooked up some Korean noodles, opened a tin of tuna, and sat in the solidude of my tent. As I sit here writing, it is strange to be on my own. We have lived in each others pockets for several weeks now and the guys are camped somewhere within 100 kms behind me.
My big disappointment now is that I forgot to zip up my tank bag for a large section of the ride today. In it I keep my netbook, camera and lenses, Leatherman, spare key, high def flip camera, and peztl headtorch, ie, all the really important stuff. When I realised that I’d left it open through a very bumpy 40 kms or so, I checked that that camera etc was all still there. Everything seemed to be in its place, so I was relieved. But tonight when I was getting ready for the evening in my tent, I discovered that I’ve lost the torch. How disappointing! It has been one of the most used items to date and now I’ve had to resort to this crappy wind up thing that cost about 2 quid in some backwater pound shop in Coleraine. The redness of my nose is, at present, giving off more light.
Well, the battery in this netbook is about to die, I need a pee, and should brush my teeth and check out on this windy night in Mongolia. I’ve no idea what tomorrow holds, but there are not other directions for me to go for 140 kms or so, so directly east to Sangino it will be. There’s some kind of vole hole at the front door of my tent, I hope it doesnt’ hassle me during the night!
Thanks for reading and goodnight. Si
