Mongolia

A small city stroll on Sunday, nice conversations with the other travelers at the Oasis everything feels as if I had never been at home in between. My I got my motorcycle right on Monday Cate got hers on Tuesday, that she is a great passenger doesn’t help over that disappointment. After my tires are missing it couldn’t do as much as I planned but the other work kept my occupied the whole day anyway. When we start on Wednesday with 3 days of delay, I’m definitely unhappy with the condition of my bike, at home I wouldn’t start like that.

Already the first driving day starts with two breakdowns and incredibly helpful Mongols. We still surpass our day’s goal and pitched up our tents close to Khuld. In the evening a cow in the morning a Mongol in the morning by no means we were unnoticed. However, society in the Mongolian steppe is not really impressive. The more we get closer to the spurs of the Gobi desert, the less vegetation and the fewer people and animals we meet. In the distance I notice a flock of camels and stalk me slowly with the Telezoom. After a short consultation with Cate we will drive to “Ulaan Suvraga”. It is a rock formation off the road. It’s a good opportunity to see what I can demand from Cate. Even the first meters are enough to see that Cate approached the matter with the right attitude in her head. The rest will be solved by a little bit of practice, and we are hoping for support in Dalanzadgad for her broken luggage carrier. However, Dalanzadgad will be remembered especially because to my astonishment I did not break my arm when a Mongol with a car pulled me into the barbed wire in the road ditch. Because of the hectic packed luggage I lost my laundry bag shortly afterwards. I would not have found it again without the requested pee stop by Cate.

The road to Bogd slowly feels like real desert. Also the stage to Bayangovi already offers some small sand chicanes. But it got worst when Cate wanted to cross the river bed against my recommendation. After that I ask myself if the 250 is not too weak. Cate did not have as much fun in the sand then I had. In Bayanlig the biggest advantage of my KTM is slowly becoming clear. Due to its size and height, the Mongols do not dare to sit up unasked. At Cates Honda this happens regularly. For the evening we bought peanuts. The nuts are uninteresting but the can can be a replacement for the lost baffle of the cooker. The wrench on the previous day worked only limited. The next stage after Biger again provides new chicanes, watergrooves run across the street. The first one we fly at nearly 80 km/h and the subsequent change of view says it all. We are throttling the speed, which will then be the fate of the next groove. With good 80km/h nothing would have happened. We camped shortly after that and started our first dung fire before. The navigation is again typical Mongolian on the next day. With a compass it can take quickly  50km until you notice that you took the wrong road, but also with the GPS you need 10km. The locals do not always give the right information. The most beautiful was when a lady with her little daughter as passenger guided us the way on her motorcycle. Before that, she gave us some homemade cheese which we rewarded with sweets. The next day these problems are gone, at Altai we reach asphalt again.

My motorcycle annoyed me before with start-up problems I could not explain them to myself until it let me down completely. I detected the loose plug-in contact of the ignition box. A little while later, it’s completely dead. I am incredibly grateful to Cate when she found a group of Mongols to support me, they all started to touch my partly disassembled motorcycle. However, she also distracted a part of them immediately, so I could find the faulty fuse in peace. In Khovd we meet Jörg and Kai again, with which we spend the evening and parts of the following day. The mountain road between Khovd and Tolbo is gorgeous. What we really can’t say about Ulgii, we decide not to stay here and continue to Russia. At the Russian border post we are unfortunately five minutes to late, please come back tomorrow. Our motorcycles stay in the border zone and we stay in a kind of mass camp which is called a hotel.