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Report from a two-months tour through Mongolia. The tour was self-supported and self-organized. We cycled 3000 km around the Changai Mountains and through Gobi Desert

Wide steppes, wild horses, and two mountain bikes - Mongolia

Waltraud
2004-03-05 08:22:30

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this was cheaper than any hotel) packing our gear for the tour and looking around the city. UB itself is absolutely ugly, dusty and dirty. The only nice thing is the monastry which is at the moment being restored. Anyway, we were glad to leave the city on September 4th!

Out in the steppe

Our first goal was the town of Harhorin. During Chingis Khan times this was the capital city of Mongolia and it also has a famous monastry. We were lucky to have the first 300 km paved road. This allowed us to get used to the bikes and all the weight, and of course to the BOB trailer. When we started, Waltraud's bike had about 40 kg of food plus personal gear and 20 liters (20 kg) of water (since there was no water available for the first 300 km). Andy was pulling the BOB (30 kg) and had about 50 kg of stuff on the bike. Both of us were using two panniers in the back and two panniers in the front. Since the road was paved for the first 300 km, we made good progress and rode 100 km each day. The landscape was typical steppe, with mountains and grassland (no trees). Along the roadside we saw gers, the type of tent of the local nomads. Also, everywhere there were animals (cows, horses, goats and sheep) grazing the grassland near the gers. Sometimes we also saw something that could be called little towns, basically consisting of one or two concrete houses with many gers surrounding. At these towns, it is possible to buy things in little kiosks, but you can never be sure what they have. We decided to ride on and not to stop at any of those towns. People from the towns and also from the gers along the road waved to us, and they never could imagine that someone travels by bike! We basically had the feeling to be THE attraction for local people. Whenever we put up our tent somewhere we thought it was nice, we could almost be certain that within half an hour one, or two Mongolians would arrive at out tent and just look at all those things we had. And ...