Arrived in Ulaan Baatar last night after a 115 km day.

14 September, 64km, Finished off into a head wind and heavy rain, decided that a hotel would be nice to have a wash and keep dry for the night, although we found that the hot water was off in the city and so there was no hot water for a shower.

15 September, 64km, hoping for a tail wind, the weather has changed to blue skies and sun shine and a head wind.

16 September, 60km, Very cold start into head wind again, stopped by road to camp into almost ideal conditions though. Grass, no wind, very nice. The weather changed over night being hit by strong wind change, now its blowing the correct direction…

17 September, 115 km, into Ulaan Baatar, close enough to make it in one day with a tail wind and smooth road. Arrived Ulaan Baatar at about 4.30 pm.

Looking into coming home early, but looks like its all booked out, so what to do in Mongolia for two weeks…..

We have added some pictures from the trip to the blog.

Its been a while since the last update, and many km's since the last update.

Starting from where we were up to last time,

The 5th of August to the 8th we spent in Krasnoyarsk trying to get some things on the my bike fixed and looking for a camera replacement for me. The Nikon FM2 did not handle the ride somewhere and the light meter was no longer working.

The 8th of August, we took the overnight train (20 hours) to Ulan Ude. Quite some fun packing the two bikes and Bob into a train cabin for 4 with 2 other people…

On the 10th we went to the Mongolian Embassy to get a new Visa to re-enter Mongolia, got into the queue and waited for about 3 hours only to find when we got inside, they went to lunch. What to do… They are only open 2 days- later on Wednesday.. We decided to stick around and want till Wednesday.

12 August, off to the Embassy again, got there 1 hr before they open (8 am) and are the first (only) people in the queue. We're invited in at about 8.30pm when they realized that we're back and wanted a visa. After some forms and discussion they offer to get us our visas back in the afternoon and we take this option as we can then do what we want and don't have to be back in Ulan Ude on a specific date. We ask about the eastern-most Mongolian-Russian border crossing and they confirm it is open- the Consul even taking us for a tour on Google Earth showing us the route so there can be no misunderstanding.

14 August 82 km, back on the road again to Lake Baikal, camp in a quarry near the town of Angir..

15 August 74 km, The seat post on my bike broke clean off, fatigue, hmm… that changes the plan a bit.. Some road workers come and help out and take us back to their camp and find a steel pipe to put inside it which gets us going again… Quite a good fix really. We camp in the forest at what we called mosquito camp…agghhhhhhhhh. The head nets were essential for survival 🙂

Photo of Bike Repair workshop

The ‘repaired’ seat post, pulled slightly apart, it was a Kalloy post. You can also see the stress cracks in the back of the post above the break. The bolt in the back was added later, to stop the top section rotating, slightly difficult to ride with. This repair did a good job and lasted the 1000 km before I could replace the seat post in Australia, Ill keep it as a spare.

16 August, 21km, Seat post repair giving some problems but ok, my rear wheel bearing is also giving some problems. We reach Lake Baikal and camp on the beach – just lovely.

17 August, decided to stay camped on the beach and spend the day relaxing in a nice environment. Many Russians also camp on the lake shore. We made a spiral out of pebbles, swam, daydreamed, ate…pretty nice really.

18 August, 75 km, Heading back to Ulan Ude, some mosquitoes. (Pete is the master of the understated…)

19 August, 67 km, back over a pass of 600m up and camp about 20km short of Ulan Ude in the forest.

20 August, 20km into Ulan Ude, a good day, found a bike shop to repair my back wheel and improve the repair made to the seat post (they did not have the correct size new seat post for my bike). We buy a train ticket to Chita (500 km to the east).

21 August, arrive in Chita at 4 am, quite shattered and catch a few hours sleep on the floor of the railway station (glamorous stuff). We have breakfast in the city park under the Lenin statue. Eventually we find a hotel to spend the night and get some much needed sleep. Found a map of the area to the border – yippee.

22 August, 38km, pass 3 km long radio antenna (obviously Pete was very impressed by this) We camped in a pretty field along the road side that we called 'caterpillar camp'.

23 August, 52km, long day into headwind and onto dirt road and in the rain.

24 August, 43km, day of rain and puddles on dirt road, stopped early to get warm and do some repairs to Bob. Fun riding – you only get wet the first time once……..

25 August, 46km, Passed through a town that was centred around a Russian health resort before some lovely and fun cycling through forest. Good weather again, some sun, but not too hot.

26 August, 44km, Started in heavy rain and into a village, some locals take pity on us and take us inside there home to dry off and feed us lunch for which we are very grateful!!. We are now in the Buriat Autonomous Region and they are friendly, warm and hospitable people.

27 August, 34 km, into Aginskoye for supplies and discover a new road in to the town where we want to go for the next 100 km. Awesome.

28 August, 71km, easy riding along a new smooth road.

29 August, 61km, Tail wind and the end of trees back to open plain.

30 August, 31 km, Started late due to heavy rain, good road around the edge of a lake. Pete's first flat for the trip (after nearly 4000 km)

31 August 37km, pretty morning, stopped short of town and made camp with strong head wind.

1 September 31km, into Solovevsk to stock up. Check border and seems to be open. End up staying in the School building due to some very nice Russian teachers in the town. They also gave us some delicious lunch of salad and bread – yum

2 September, 5 km to Border to cross, and things are looking good, nice day, good supply of food… Only to find out that the border is closed to foreigners… There is one 400 km to the west that may be open. We know the one south of Ulan Ude is open – hmm massive change of plan. Looks like our plan for 3 weeks of nice cycling in the east of Mongolia have just changed. A shared taxi driver offers to take us of the border crossing 400 km away, and to Bozya (100 km in the wrong direction) first. We spend some time waiting (which seems something that happens with shared taxis). We get to Borzya at about 6 pm and find a hotel, the taxi has some problem with its front wheel, but he says we will come back in the morning.

3 September, Decide that the border crossing 400 km west is too much of a risk and decide to take the train back to Ulan Ude and cross south of there, so buy a ticket for Chita that night and spend the next 12 hours in the train station….Dinner on the platform with our cooker and vegies was nice….

4 September, arrive in Chita in the morning and jump on the next train to Ulan Ude with about 1 hour wait, which is good, we arrive back in Ulan Ude at about 4 pm and decide to try a hostel that we were given a flyer for a few weeks before. The hostel is about 10 km out of the city but is excellent and we get a sauna which is excellent after 10 days camping and 24 hours on trains.

5 September, 76km, good day tail wind in the morning, rolling hills. We make an unexpected discovery and find a body in a river and tell a local Russian who reports it to the police.

6 September, 80 km, rolling to border now. River valleys, and pine forests again. 

7 September 70 km, Camp 20 km from border- a long last climb. We meet three German cyclist heading north after 15 months on the road from Germany.

8 September 47km into Mongolia, no problem, across the border in less than 1 hour.

9 September, 47km, onto dirt road started in light rain.

10 September, 45km, onto Mongolia back roads with slight head wind. Pete gets his second flat for the trip…

11 September, 47km, found water for camp which was not looking good on the map. Had a delicious wash in the stream…the water is cold.  Michaela stacks her bike- lands in the bushes…oops, lost concentration…hit a rock…down a small slope……what's more dirt to add to the existing lot….?

12 September, 34km, over a very pretty birch forest pass down to monastery, cycled 13 km down river valley.

13 September,55 km, Rolling down a river valley, and back onto sealed road. I had an accident with Bob (trying to do stunts on sand!!) and managed to bend the derailer drop out. After a few tense moments and some force I manage to bend it back to where it should be and looks good. How fortunes can change.

We should arrive in Ulaan Bataar in about 3 days now and are looking into moving our return flight a week forward as we're back earlier than expected (Partly due to the change of plans inspired by the Russian authorities).

Love Pete and Michaela

Now made it the 800 km north to the city of Krasnoyarsk, a city of about 1 million people, after many rolling hills, and raining days though farm and forests.

We're heading to Ulan-Ude by train in the next few days to see Lake Baikal and then the train to Chita and into the east of Mongolia for the final 900 km back to Ulan Baatar.

22 July, 61 km, cycled with Alex for about 40km out of Kyzyl (we were 6 legs and 7 wheels for a while). Camped by the road.

23 July, 62 km, of flat riding then down to the river.

24 July, 75 km, beautiful forested valley and river most of the day. This day was just delicious, georgeous weaher, no water worries, good food, bliss.

25 July, 0 km, rain most of the day, so stayed in the tent. Enjoyed the rain and such a pretty spot.

26 July, 81km, day started with some other campers near by giving us some cucumbers and still in the rain and fog. Saw some of the Ergarki mountains, very spectacular.

27 July, 90km, we start to the day and many insects apart from the traffic, a good days riding and nice camp in pine forest.

28 July, 62km, Abakan, a pretty tree-lined city, some trouble finding a Hotel in Abakan but good to be there.

29 July, 60km, rolling hills open feilds of wheat etc.

30 July, 87 km, hill side camp.

31 July, 55 km, lake side for lunch.

1 August, 74km, stopped in a town and it started to rain, for the next few hours, took shelter under the eave of a shop and ate biscuits! Got invited for vodka with a feidnly local guy (we didn't know about the vodka til later!) but got a tour of his vegie garden and chooks in the rain. Left without the vodka but loaded with spuds!

2 August, 63km, into final hill before Krasnoyarsk, camped after finding water in a road side spring.

3 August, started raining just after we broke camp, very nice. Stopped for lunch in a Rasberry patch. Yum

4 August, 42km, cruise into Krasnoyarsk, a bit hair rasing the last 10 km into the town with traffic.

Almost 3000 km for the trip now.

Love

Pete and Michaela

We made it into Russia and across to Kyzyl at last, its been a while with some rough travelling along the way. Kyzyl is the biggest city we have seen in almost a month. The food has improved no end in Russia, things were getting to be a problem suviving on a cup of rice and day and 2 min noodles for lunch esp without any vegies or fruit.

So what has happened since the last update

27 June, Another day shopping for supplies in Ulaan Gom

28 June, 47km, off west to a pass, had 36 km of paved road, the off into a pass, excellent views of Uvs Nuur in the distance camped by a river.

29 June, 42 km, two passes today, snow capped mountains in the distance which are in Russia, made lake Ureg to camp. The water was slightly salty for cooking though. A local herder came up and saw our stove so brought his food (goat meat) over to cook on our stove.

30 June, 23 km, made it to a fresh water well, which was good after the salt water in the lake to drink. Stopped for quite a while due to heat and wind, then made it to about 16km from the top of the next pass up a valley.  Pete's Birthday!!!

1 July, 51 km, Over the pass then found Ger's in valley and got some water from them. Camped beside river in large river flat.

2 July, 48km, Rough accross river flat with the road made from the river rocks. Went into a town for supplies (Boh Moron) which was strange, every thing was closed, we think something to do with the problems from the election and the State of Emergency in Ulaan Baatar. We managed after some time to get petrol for the stove, but no supplies.

3 July, 54km, uphill most of the day in a very nice valley with many Kazak ger camps and were invited for tea many times. Such hospitable, friendly people. Made Tasangannuur which was a very strange town that looked like it had been destroyed and rebuilt about 1 km away.

4 July, 7 km, made the border town (Ulaan Barshint) only to findout that the border was closed for the day and the next day. So we had to wait until Sunday. The border guards were very nice and invited us to stay in their house until the border was open (there was no other accomodation in town that we could see anyway).

5 July, 0 km, Waiting, the Mongolian Family took us to a local Kazakh Ger to milk the horses which was nice. But more waiting all day…

6 July, start for the border, clearing Mongolian customs first (its good to have contacts) and be keen. We get to the physical border with Russia and find that they won't let us cycle the 20 km to the customs post and that we must take a vehicle. After about 1 hr waiting another car came and offered us a lift to the customs post. So we entered Russia.

7 July, 60km, to Kosh Agach, paved road, we stopped for a head wind and rain at one stage but made town no problems. We find much better food and supplies in Russia. Although it was difficult to find a Hotel, eventually a hotel finds a family with a spare room to offer us, which is very nice and comfortable.

8 July, Shopping for supplies and we register our Visas with the police (after some confusion about needing a hotel and having to pay for another hotel for the correct paper work).

9 July, 54km, well stocked with good russian food we head off again to go through to Tuva, although we're a bit unsure of the route.

10 July, 32 km, back onto rough roads and without towns for the next 5 days, over a pass and ford a river before camping.

11 July, 34km, day of many wrong turns eventually we ford the river we were expecting and camp on the other side. Seeing what looks like a better road we start thinking of how to get out of the area and too a town for supplies should we need it.

12 July, 24 km. one of the toughest days with a wrong turn some locals direct us up a very steep ridge to get to where we need to go. After 5 hours of halling the bikes and gear separately we find the road we should be on and get to the lake we're expecting. With a few visits from local teenages on horses its a scenic place to camp.

13 July. 43km, looks like the road heads in the wroung direction (North, not East) but we follow the only thing that looks like a track (and thats stretching a definition of track) we make the Kargu valley and roll down the valley most of the day on good tracks. We're not sure where Mugur Asky is but make to see the town in the afternoon so stop short by the river.

14 July, 6 km, Cycle into Mugur Asky and start stocking up with supplies.

15 July, deciding to take a vehicle to Chadan we organise a shared taxis to take us over the next 150 km of dirt road. Eventually this happens (only a 7 hour wait!) and we're on our way, arriving 5 km short of Chadan at about 7 pm, we get off the vehicle to camp by a river in the long grass.

16 July, 80 km, after a short visit to Chadan and the music festival we make good progress on the paved road and double helping of food.

17 July, 80km, another 80 km day easy cycling along paved road and cafe's by the road selling pancakes. With smims in the river (with all the locals) to avoid the mid day sun, which is very hot now.

18 July, 54km, about 50km to Kyzyl we take it a bit easier now, we camp by some herders near the mosquito river (heads nets come into their own now! but under water in the river is the best place to be). The hearders bring us some yogurt which is very nice.

19 July 51 km, we make Kyzyl by about 11 am after starting at about 6:45 am to avoid the heat of the day. We find on arrival that all the hotels are full, after some waiting and checking all the hotels out we find one (the first one we looked at) has a room avaliable at 3 pm. We meet Alex who is riding a bicycle and interested in our trip.

20 July, 0km, in Kyzyl its sunday so not every thing is open we do some shopping for snack food and fresh fruit.

21 July 0km, Kyzyl still, Alex brings an Russian TV crew, and Tuva news paper to interview us about our trip and what we think of Russia and Tuva, which is excellent and we're enjoying the food and friendliness of the people we meet.

The list of broken things is getting longer  (like wholes in the bum of Michaela's favourite pants!!) athough the bikes are still holding up well.

We off north now to Abakan and Krasnoyask for a tast of bigger cities is Russia now.

Regards,

Pete and Michaela.

 

We're now in Ulaangom, more cycling, days off and a two trucks later, Ulaangom is here,

 

 

Last update was from the 6th of June,

 

6 June, Departed Tsetserleg, camped 10 km from town after pass. Bob (which the trailer has been named) was the first one to get a flat.

 

7 June, 57 km, dry and hot day with a double pass.

 

8 June, 53 km, Spectacular thunder storm during lunch, and our first tast of yak yogurt, very nice, we should have stopped and brought more- have been dreaming of it ever since.

 

9 June, 56 km, Khoron tourist camp, good day, both feeling cycling fit now. Michaela and Bob had an incident involving a yak (although I still don't know how the yak was involved) causing Michaela tos sample some dirt, she is not getting enough food, but thats taking it a bit far (Hmm actually it was otherwise known as a faceplant- thankfully no facial grazes to show for my efforts- the yak spoke, I was contemplating a reply when Bob appeared under my wheel…).

 

10 June, 0km rest day in touist camp, with a few repairs etc we decided to have a day off. In the afternoon another tent appeared in the field. Two french cyclists had setup camp because they had broken the derailer hanger on their bike and did not have a spare. We tried to help, but they were unable to fix it. They were cycling from Mongolia to France over the next year and were very heaverly loaded.

 

11 June, 27 km, after not getting enough water in town stopped by the lake with a dehydration headache. A local motor cyclist wanted some help fixing his back tyre, so I helped for about 1 hour and he got on his way. Michaela, me, enjoyed whiling away the afternoon in a daydream…

 

12 June, 40 km, cold wind to start, ended in nice day camped before the town of Tashir.

 

13 June, 36 km, cold start again, good shoping in Tashir camped at base of what we expected to be a pass through to Tosontsengle.

 

14 June, 0km, I was sick in tent most of the day

 

15 June, 26 km, Started late in hail and snow, tried for the pass, although the road ran out. So above some Ger camps decided to turn around at about 4 in the afternoon to return down to about 4 km from where we started, looks like we would have to take another route.

 

16 June, 0km, both now sick and stayed in Tent after being up most of the night with gas, and the runs, ee suspected Gardia, so both took Tinidazole, what a wonder drug, within a few hours I was feeling better and by the end of the day I was feeling much better and Michaela was improving.

 

17 June, 32 km, back to Tashir (both feeling better, although weaker) we took a truck to IhUul (about 90 km) over a very pretty pass. Arrived about 9.30 pm as its just getting dark and camped just out side town by a river.

 

18 June, 38 km of hard, rough riding, camped on river before Tosontsengle.

 

19 June, 33 km, shopping in Tosontsengel, bit of a strange town, we brought a fish from the river in town and cooked it on the stove, very nice..

 

20 June, 57km, to Telman Nuur- a salt lake

 

21 June, 45 km, to Nomrog, meet a French cyclist (solo) who had ridden from france over the last 5 months, expecting to make Ulaan Baatar in a few weeks to fly home.

 

22 June, 47 km, to Tudevtey. Meet a local family who invited us into their Ger for food and we camped next to there Ger. Nice people the family who mostly lived in cities were having a summer holiday with there grandfather. I got beaten at Chess by the 88 year old grandfather.

 

23 June, 20 km, stopped by a lake early after not starting well with food, so stopped to do some washing and have a wash in a lake and dry things in the afternoon sun. Sheer bliss.

 

24 June, 44 km, to Bayanhayrhan, strange town with drunks hanging around and not much food to be had (we had not seed even bread for several days now). Camped up a very nice valley in trees (trees for the first time to camp under).

 

25 June, 65 km into Tes started up a nice pass (only 2 km) and then a mountain bike down animal tracks to a long down hill run along a dry river. Was expecting the river to have water so was a very dry ride counting the km's to town.

 

26 June, Arrived from Tes (320 km) by truck, took truck due to long distances without towns and water. A very rough long day in a Russian 4WD minivan. Ulaangom is a big change from the one horse (well many actually in the streets) towns we have been used too for the last three weeks.

 

lots of love

 

Pete and Micheala,

Update to where we are and our journey so far,

 

22 May, Depart Ulaan Baatar, 44km, day ended into a very strong wind and dust, camped near a town and was bothered by some teenages during the night.

 

23 May, 28km, camped after a hard day into the wind and over sand.

 

24 May, 32 km, hot day and strong sun all day.

 

25 May, 55.8 km, longest distance so far, rolling nicely in the morning, hooning along the road. Drank from dead cow river- a town marked on the map was only a place name and the river had dead cows in it so we named it thus. Camped a bit further after a break from the heat and a wash in the river.

 

26 May, 0 km, woke to a very strong wind and dust blowing from the direction we wanted to go, every thing in the tent was covered in dust (mostly Michaela's side of the tent). Moved the tent in the morning for some more protection from the wind, but the wind was too strong all day to move. Did alot of lazy around- not alot of recreational space in a 2 man tent in a dust storm….

 

27 May, 42 km, 20 km of good road, the about 15 km of sand pushing the bikes.. Stopped at a 'tourist ger camp' that was cloesed but just setting up, so talked them into letting us stay the night and helped setup two ger's and stayed in one. They were really nice.

 

28 May, 0 km, Snow storm over night and woke to blowing snow and very cold. Very beautiful though, all the hills were covered in snow. The day cleared some, but was cold and blowing all day, so stayed another night.

 

29 May, 42 km, Good day cycling, got some food stocks from a town and fuel for the stove, which we were short of.

 

30 May, 43 km, started into head wind and rolling ridges, made it back to the main highway, which we were warned off, but was excellent cycling.

 

31 May, 54km, Good day cycling on the main road west of UB.  In Rashant, a camp operator asked if we wanted to stay in there camp, which was about 20 km on, so we cycled there and stayed in nice accommodation with showers. Very scenic mountain and rocks behind the camp.

 

1 June, 60 km, Just cruising along the highway.

 

2 June, 54 km, made Kharakhorin. not much to see in town, stayed at another tourist ger camp by the river. Had a few nice moments in the old temples.

 

3 June, 0 km, planned two nights in Kharakhorin, one of the danish royal family was also staying the the same camp.

 

4 June, 64 km, nice day with smooth road and slight rain all day, stopped and camped in the rain.  Great day.

 

5 June, 48 km, stopped just short of Tsetserleg. Michaela was feeling sick (it might have been the 10 pastry rolls she ate?? Pete had his fair share but does not appear quite so sensitive to the varied culinary delights of Mongolia..) 

 

6 June, 18 km into Tsetserleg for getting supplies and due to go over the pass to the next town 20 km on from here. Met two scotish cyclists going the other way.