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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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load two bikes, 8 panniers, and a trailer if not right at the beginning.

The ride was 19 h, and all of it was unpaved road with really great washboard pattern! There were a few pee-stops and two stops for eating. During the ride it was absolutely cold, simply because someone always opened the window for what ever reason. We were glad to have a warm jacket available. The bus arrived in UB at three in the morning (I don't understand it: why don't they depart later and arrive maybe at six or seven in the morning???). Of course the long distance bus stop in UB had no lights, so it was our job to find all our belongings basically in the dark and put our bikes back together. Well, the bikes had survived the tour pretty much o.k., apart from one tire, which was poked through by some sharp metal thing. But that was rather easy to repair. Now, where to go in UB at three in the morning if you don't speak the language?? We decided to go to the nearby park, and sleep on the park bench for a few hours. I have to add, that it was end of October, and it was pretty cold. We had experienced the last few nights that our water bottles were frozen in the morning. And sleeping without a tent was even a little colder. However once we were lying in our sleeping bags we quickly got warm.

Since we had three more days before our flight back home, we decided to leave the city again and look at another Monastry in the nearby mountains. It was located near Zuumod. This monastry also had been destroyed, but currently is rebuilt. It is among the standard tourist attractions for each Mongolian tour. When we were there, it was off-season and we could enjoy the place all by ourselves. This last trip allowed us to see some of the spruce forest in the mountains near Ulaan Baatar, something we have not seen during the rest of our tour. So, altogether we have pretty much covered all there is to see in that country.

Well, when we returned to Ulaan Baatar we were able to go to the same family we had to book our overnight stays with (for the invitation). We stayed in UB for another day (repacking, buying some souvenirs etc.) before we had our flight back home.
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For more information: http://www.mountainbike-expedition-team.de