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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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L and shortly after that, the river had disappeared. Also, the vegetation had changed, we now had less grassland but more of thorny wooden species. We soon noticed how nasty those thorns were when we kept having flats. So no more "leaving the track once it's bad" - a technique that has proved to be very useful. We had figured out that usually riding on the grass without a track can be nicer than staying on the track when it has a real nasty washboard pattern. However, on this road we were rather lucky, it was good most the time. Maybe this was due to there not being so much traffic - we were cycling for three days and did not see a car or truck. Since Ulaan Nuur was dried out when we were there (early October), we did not bother about it much and went on directly to Baindsag, some sediment cliffs, where the fist Dinosaur Eggs had been found.

The desert mountain range

Also in that area there is a "forest" of a special tree species that grows on sand dunes and sediments and has especially long roots to be tapped to the ground water. We were so fascinated of this patch of green in the desert, that we spent half a day just wandering around among the bonsai sized trees. Acutally, the Gobi is not as barren as the word "desert" may make you think. There are wooden dwarf shrubs all over and we found a lot of smaller plants flowering. The next day was the hunt for Dinosaur eggs - not really, but we looked at the cliffs. Especially during sunset they have a fascinating red color. These cliffs are a major tourist attraction. Dalanzadgad is only 80km away, so a lot of tourist visit the cliffs. That meant also, that from now on we had more traffic on the tracks. Dalanzadgad is located near a mountain range called Gurvan Saykhan. Its highest peaks are around 2800 m. We now were at an elevation of around 1000 m and basically the landscape was flat again. When we approached Dalanzadgad we always saw the big mountain range at the horizon. Especially ...