Western Mongolia - The Northern Route

After stocking up on money and other items we left on the camp and started to head north. While not too bad the roads started to degenerate and after 50km unfortunately Fritz came through a small dip and on the uphill rise the track was heavily cambered and his front wheel slid away from him. He face planted quite heavily and although not knocked out he was pined under the bike. We got that off him and he got up thinking he was OK but after he got his jacket of it was obvious he wasn’t. His collar bone was sticking up at a weird angle and although not sure I had seen the same thing on my mate Errol. We persuaded him to settle down for a but and two of the lads road over to a camp in the distance. They returned after half an hour with a Landcriuser from what was a mining camp. They had a Doctor with them and he took one look and said that was it for Fritz, he wasn’t going to be riding anywhere. They arranged for him to be taken back to town and his bike stored safely at the camp. The last we heard was that it was a complete separation of the shoulder blade and collar bone and that he flew out of Ulan Bator to the United States Just before we arrived. A speedy recovery mate.

Just after this Fritz came off

The mining camp in the distance

The Doctor arrives and transport back to town

We made it to Ullangom, and after a night in a nice hotel with a late meal as we had lost another hour in the time zone change we set off the next morning across the northern route of Mongolia. The first couple of hours were wasted as we got lost and ended up on some goat track that some of the others were enjoying but were just annoying me. The beef and egg that Thomas and I had had the night before started to take its effect on him and by lunch time we were waiting in a small village in the middle of the mountains to see if he would get any better. At 14.00 we decided that we would stay and we were offered some beds in what I think was a school. The up side was that they were holding there Nadam festivities that day so we unloaded the bikes and rode back over the hill to see the horse racing. The stocky little horses they have are ridden bareback by what look like kids of about 10 years old for about 12km from what I could understand and they look ready to drop when they finish. Later on that evening we went up to the arena to see the prizes being given out.

The main road!

The school house accomodation

The winner is brought home

The next day was Friday and although we got away early the tracks started to get worse and progress was slow. After riding for twelve hours we got some supplies in a town and headed just far enough outside and up onto the hillside where we might no be disturbed for our first “wild camp” As we parked up and got off the bikes it was my turn. I was sick and then later that night running out of the tent to try to find somewhere to use as a toilet by the moonlight!! Some again in the morning before anyone else was awake, but the scenery across the valley with the wild horses kind of made up for it.

The road continues

Camp for the night

The horses paid us a visit

Time for bed

The Saturday wasn’t much better, and I can’t remember the name of the place we stayed, but it was a typical Mongolian country hotel, two sort of clean beds in a room with no wash facilities and a squat outhouse round the back. Not great when you still aren’t feeling well.

We were on the final leg now and on the Sunday we decided to try to make it to the white lake where there were supposed to be some fairly up spec Gher Camps. We would have made it too, but as we went through the last water crossing which was pretty shallow, Tom hit a large rock in the middle with his front wheel and then came down on it hard on the sump. The result was oil leaking quite badly. So we laid the bike on it’s side and then spent the next three hours repairing the cracked sump with some metal putty. When we got going at 19.00 we still had another 150km to go, and as the sun was already setting we were soon in the dark with hundreds of cars coming towards us on the return journey from the Nadam festival in Ullaan Bator. With the dust, lights and what can only be described as a track that has then been carpet bombed! We had to call it a day and once again try to get off the road as far as possible to prevent getting run over and set up the tents.

Take your pick of road. None are better than the rest

A herd of Yaks

An easy water crossing

Turns into a big problem

We made it to the white lake the next morning by morning break and Thomas decided he wanted to stay for the night there. Three of us pressed on to Tsetserleg that night, the end of the dirt tracks and back onto tarmac. I was soooo glad to see that. Back into civilization with a hotel, a shower, proper toilets and at the Fairfield café (run by an expat aussie) some very good food.

Mongolia's Grand Canyon

I was very happy to see tarmac again

So back to just Uwe and I on the Tuesday, to cover the last few hundred KM into Ullaan Bator. Uwe had said that the traffic there was a nightmare as had some other reports that I had read. We sailed through the city!! Apparently in the last two years they have not only repaved the main road through they had introduced traffic management systems that now keep it all pretty much under control.

Down to Mongolia

Wow what a long time ago it seems that I had the chance to sit down and write anything. Where to begin?

One of the old Soviet tanks in the park in Barnaul

Tyres and oil changed

I got the tyres fitted and the oil changed on the bike and everything was fine. We headed south towards the Alti region and the border, through some stunning countryside.

The Russian people have discovered this area as a holiday destination and there are all sorts of cabin resorts being built, although none of them seem to be open for business at the moment. Apparently their president has built a very nice new dacha there and while you can’t see it, but the new road and gates look very nice. We found a room in a small guesthouse for the night and although there was only a shared toilet and washbasin on the landing, the lady persuaded us that a banya would be good later on.

Our accomodation at the highest point in the Alti

The ladies went first at around 20.30 and then at 21.30 she knocked on the room and took us round to the banya. For want of another name it’s a sauna, but boy was it hot. I only managed about 5 minutes the first time and one the second. I couldn’t breath!! But at least the pours were opened up and I sweated out a bucket load and felt clean after.

more beautiful scenery 

A monument to the truck drivers 

The next day we headed down to the small town just before the border and along the way picked up a third person “Tom” from Germany on an Africa twin. We found a nice hotel to stay in and prepared ourselves for the crossing in the morning. We set off early and after only 50km we arrived, only to find that it was closed!! Who forgot it was Sunday? All of us! So we rode the 50 km back and ended up with another room, although we needed to wait until 14.00 before we could check in again.

Finally on the Monday morning we made it back to the border, along with everyone else that had been waiting to cross for the weekend. What a mess. There is no queuing system and the Kazakh person in front of you might have had 12 passports in his pocket. Seven and a half hours it took us to get out of Russia and then on the way through to the Mongolian border which is about 20km away it started to rain, then hail, then snow!!

The que at the border

We pulled up at the border looking like a cross between an ice pop and a snowman, much to the amusement of the border guards and after another hour we got a big smile and “welcome to Mongolia” The tarmac then ended, and we rode our first track to the town of Olgii. Along the way we had picked up another two. Thomas from Belgium on a BMW F800 GS and Fritz an American on a G650 GS, they had been travelling together for a while through the “Stans”  

The tarmac ends and the gravel begins, and it was cold

Once we got nto town we easily found the Blue Wolf Gher camp and checked in for two nights.

Our accomodation

Inside the gher. comfortable.

The Motherland Calls (and beyond)

It’s a long way south to see a statue. Was it worth it, you bet it was. I said before on facebook that it made the Statue of Liberty look small. In face it’s slightly smaller than liberty, but, The Motherland Calls is not on a plinth. Anyway it’s a bloody impressive statue.

The Motherland Calls

The hall of remembrance

Every hour they change the guard. Impressive!

I asked in the hotel if it was near. Yes she said, 5 minutes away. She thought I meant by car, I walked!! I ended up scrambling up through the gorse and trees every which way until I came out at the back of the statue. I caught a taxi back.

The bike loaded with the off road tyres 

The next two days were spent getting to Ufa to meet up with Uwe Remmers a German guy I had met through Horizons Unlimited who said he was going the same way as me at the same time and we could support each other through Mongolia.

Samara by the sea (or the Volga) but a beach never the less 

Lovely promenade in the evening.

The monument of Glory built to honor the local aviation workers

Rain that evening and the next morning made the bike and me very dirty with all the road dust and muck from the trucks. We managed to get to the Hotel the same evening and had no problem getting aqainted. He speaks perfect English and as travelers we have no problem finding things to talk about.

Uwe with his bike and we met a Egyptian guy, Sharif Loutfi riding to Tokyo on this Goldwing!!

We did a couple of the sights the next day as well as getting the bikes cleaned and ready to go.

Hands up who doesn't know this guy??

Salavat Luaiev, very popular in 1774

 Popular wedding day on the Saturday. He then picked her up and put her on my filthy bike in that dress!!

All through the small Russian towns and along the roadside wherever the traffic has to slow down there are people selling things. Some days it can be sleeveless warmers and garden gnomes and other days it can be home made honey or preserved fruits and berries, one day it was samovars. Whatever it is it’s the same thing all day. How much of it they sell is difficult to say as you very rarely see anyone stopped at the stalls.

The next four days  through Chelyabinsk, Omsk and Novosibirsk to Barnaul have been heavy going. 650–700km per day. I was asked if I was going so hard for a reason, but no the truth is that there are very few towns in between these places and the ones we stayed in have nothing much (as far as I could see) to make stopping any longer than overnight necessary. Time will be better spent in the Altai region and Mongolia which should be more scenic. The only relief from the open plains and wheat fields is when you cross over the Ural Mountains and enter the Asian side of Russia. Enjoying it is not that easy as all the trucks have to slow down, and then it becomes a game of dodgems with the traffic coming the other way to make any sort of progress.

our truck stop accommodation for the night

This is pretty much the view for hundreds and hundreds of Km 

In Novosibirsk the Opera House

And our hotel which may have looked "interesting" from google earth but it was very nice

On the way out there was this train museum. Unfortunately it wasn't open

So we are now in Barnaul. We have a nice apartment for two night and we are going to try to get the off road tyres fitted at a bike shop rather than struggle with them ourselves. The next post might be a while away as we will be entering Mongolia and who knows what awaits us there??

Hotel in Barnaul


In this area??