We’d now been in Mongolia far longer than planned. We were into our 3rd week now, out of 4, and we still had 3 countries to go. We got up early and hoped to get to Russia by this evening. It was 275km, but mostly off road, and with a big river crossing, so it was going to be a long day. We were going to get breakfast on the road. We set off, through the town and stopped to get petrol. We needed water so I leaned the bike over into the stand to go and see if there was any in the shop there, only the stand wasn’t down so the bike went over
in doing so, I through my back out, I couldn’t move, couldn’t walk, couldn’t get up.
Ah Jaysus! There was nothing for it only to go back to the hotel and rest up for the day.
As hotels went, this was a good one
The boys went off to see if they could get near a glacier on a mountain nearby. They couldn’t, but met some locals having a picnic
The locals invited the boys to join them for lunch
We chilled out for the rest of the day. The pain subsided a small bit but I was still worried about getting out of here the next day!
I woke up the following morning still in pain. I figured we had to just get going, and we’d see what happened. The pain is a familiar pain, it happens from time to time.
Turns out riding the bike helped, the pain was gone by the evening.
We rode for maybe an hour before turning left, off road and up a mountain.
Me, ready to go
Top of the mountain
Once we went off road, there were no more villages, so breakfast was off the table. We had every terrain you can imagine this day. Big stones, small stones, sand, mud, grass.
Thing about Mongolia is, that it’s so vast that you could see for miles and miles. I have no clocks on my bike so can’t monitor speed, time or miles. When we’d stop, the boys would tell me how many km to the next village so I’d be guessing all the time. We came over a hill at one point and I could see a village. This was good as I was hungry
I was counting seconds in my head, probably not very accurately, to try and gauge how far away it was. We rode for about 50 minutes before we got to it, and we were probably doing 50/55 mph. That’s how far away you could see. When we got to the village, it was abandoned, ffs! We still had another 20/30km to go. I know I’m talking in miles and kms. Kev’s bike is in miles, the gps and Fritz’s bike in kms, so we were using all.
The way to the village was actually very picturesque, loads of funny shapes big rocky outcrops. I’ve no pictures, we didn’t stop. The sand was quite deep here, I don’t like riding on sand. You get used to it, but it’s scary as hell!
We arrived into the village and were riding around looking for petrol and a shop. We met a guy who came over to help. He gestured for us to follow him on his bike. We did, and he brought us to his house. His kids came out and wanted to sit on the bikes and get pictures. Yer man was in the phone, we thought he was organising petrol. He got off the phone and came over and said his friend had a 4x4 and would ‘help’ us cross the river for $250. That’s nearly a month’s wages over there! Cheeky git. We said no and got in the bikes to get out of there. We rode round to find a petrol station and yer man appeared again, telling us he’d organise petrol. The petrol stations are often unmanned, you’d just wait there and someone would come to open up. We decided we’d carry on and get petrol at the next village, this guy was a pain in the ass. He was following us everywhere, so we didn’t stop at the shop, we just got out of there.
We needed to find a good spot to cross the river. It had been raining for weeks in Mongolia, so we knew it was going to be tough. So we were riding round, looking for a track that the cars were taking across the river, yet man was on our tails. We crossed a few small rivers, bits of the big river and that got rid of him. We were properly off track now, riding through reeds and sand and water. Both Fritz and I buried the bikes in sticky mud and had to be pulled out. The mossies were out in force. There were millions of them and it was a roasting hot day!
We had no idea how wide the river was as it was in many bits of rivers. We crossed several bits of water 6/7 meters wide and deep enough.
The first wide bit of the river was manageable. We were kinda going diagonally across it.
The next bit was very deep and very wide and fast flowing.
We had no choice but to cross this river. The boys were going to push the bikes across one by one. As we were standing discussing it, Kev’s bike fell over, and the clutch master cylinder
While they patched it up, I walked across the river, to gauge it, and bring helmets across. I really struggled to stay upright. It was up past my knees and very strong. Kev told me to keep going and see how much more river we had to cross and if we’d manage. I walked about 150 meters, there were a few little crossings, 5-8m wide, then the big one.
There were some locals on the other side and they were pointing the oath across to me. So I went back to the boys saying, it’s grand, the locals showed the way, they seem friendly, it’s similar to this bit you’re going to cross now.
I videoed the crossings but I’m not sure how to get videos up here(using Tapatalk)
Fritz had some mossie spray so we doused ourselves, it was really bad, we were being eaten alive. It was worse than anywhere in Russia! We were under pressure anyway with the river, we were watching the time as we were trying to make the border crossing and we were hungry! We still hadn’t eaten yet that day!
The second wide bit was way way deeper than the first one, and when we tried walking the bit the locals were showing us it was scarily deep and fast flowing. Kev and Fritz walked about 500m up the river to see if it got any better, but it didn’t. I crossed the river, the boys threw me one end of a strap and they tied the other end to a bike. I was pulling this side and they were walking the bikes across, the locals came and helped me pull the bikes across. We didn’t get any footage of the bikes crossing the second bit, only the boys walking over afterwards.
Finally across, we jumped on the bikes and rode about 40 km to the last village in Mongolia before the Russian border.
We needed petrol and food. When we got there, we barely had time to get petrol as the border was going to close shortly. So, still with no food, we raced to the border. There was about 5km of fabulous tarmac, then awful potholed, gravelly old tarmac the rest of the way.
We made it, parked up, went inside and queued at passport control, then customs check. Kev and I went out and took our boots off to empty the gallons of water out. As Fritz once said, “yes my boots are waterproof, once the water goes in, it does not come out!”
Fritz was inside, trying to find out if he’s get a refund on the money he’d paid when he picked the bike up from the courier in Ulaanbataar.
First he came out and said we had to go, he wasn’t allowed til tomorrow as they needed to speak to someone in the courier office.
Then he came out and said they’d let him go if he paid the Mongolian equivalent of about €30. This was fine as it got rid of all our Tugriks (Mongolian currency).
Next thing he came running out saying we had to be quick as the Russian side of the border closed in a few minutes! We jumped on the bikes, raced across no mans land, got to the border, to be told нет, niet, no. Border was closed!
We had to ride back to the Mongolian border control. The man asked for our passports, had a look, and said “I’ll give them back tomorrow, leave the bikes inside the gate and you must leave!”
So, we were bikeless, passportless, tugrik less, and back in Mongolia!!!
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