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TOPIC: Mongolia

Mongolia 06 Aug 2019 09:02 #30457

  • dennisd
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 Great report Serge. Thanks and keep them coming
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Mongolia 06 Aug 2019 09:28 #30458

  • colinp
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Hi Serge, your report is making me want to find room for a bike on the caravan !!
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Mongolia 06 Aug 2019 09:29 #30459

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Good stuff Serge, keep it coming!
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Mongolia 06 Aug 2019 15:32 #30460

  • Ken R
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Thanks Serge.

Who trashed the umbrella girl??
It's just more time to be flat out!
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Mongolia 06 Aug 2019 17:44 #30461

  • Serge C
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Morning! 

We had breakfast and prepared to pull out.  The sky was looking a little gloomy this morning, so we pulled over at a monument site and donned some wet-weather gear.  Now there was a point to this statue, something about each animal sharing the load blah, blah, blah!





And it wasn't long before we were riding in the rain.  It lasted a good 30 - 45 mins, but fortunately we were still on 'good' bitumen, so the riding wasn't taxing.  We were heading towards the Sum centre of Karakhorum, the ancient capital (13th - 14th century) Mongolia, during Chingis (Genghis) Kahn's rule.  The site housed many temples within its walled 'city', but invasions, communist/socialist rebellions and other war-like activity decimated the area, such that only a few buildings still stand.  There has been restoration work done and the government has bought back many priceless artifacts of Buddhist, Sharman, Tantric and Mantric religions and put them on display.











We visited a practicing Buddhist temple and listened to some chanting for a while, before heading out to get some lunch.  Us white folk attracted a lot of attention and it wasn't uncommon for locals to want to get a photo with us (as much as we wanted to get one with them!)



From Karakhorum, we were making out way to the Orkon Waterfall, the highest waterfall in Mongolia and a UNESCO World Heritage site.  The trip here gave us our first real experience of outer-Mongolian roads.  Now as point of clarification, I use the word 'roads' as simple a term to define a carriageway that MAY provide a directional option for locals to use. It does NOT imply that you HAVE to use them, they are just 'serving suggestions'.  It is quite difficult to explain what they are like.  It is as if God cooked up a pot of spaghetti and dumped it on the earth and said, "there ya go, drive on that!"  'Roads went everywhere!  Here's a screen-shot from Google Earth which might give a better indication.



So, these roads went everywhere and as long as you knew what direction you wanted to head in, you'd just follow the best one.  new roads were made if one was too boggy, or if a tree started to grow or even if a yak was too lazy to get out of the way of an oncoming vehicle.  But they were smooth, a mixture of hard packed sand and gravel and this made them fun to ride along.  Supper grippy with enough twists and turns and undulations to keep you on your toes.







We stopped along the way and had afternoon tea (as you do), overlooking the Orkhon Valley, which was fed from the waterfall we were heading towards.









Back on the bikes and we passed lava fields with wild horses grazing through them.





And eventually came upon a traditional nomad family who invited us in to try some mare's milk, mare's butter and vodka distilled from mare's milk.  I tried everything except the vodka.  I wish I hadn't!





The nomads have been living this way for centuries and the practice continues to this day.  Most of the land in Mongolia is owned by the state, so you can literally pitch your gir wherever you want and live there for as long as you want.  Around 50% of Mongolians live this way.

After these delicacies, we headed onto the waterfall.  We had to park aways and walk in, so a 'guard' was left to keep an eye on the bikes.  The waterfall did not disappoint.  It was very pretty and was visited by hundreds of locals because (surprise, surprise), it was a public holiday!







After an hour or so, it was time to move on and make our final push into camp for the night.  More of the same terrain panned out before us and we were relieved when the camp came into view.  We'd covered around 200ks for the day and were all looking forward to a hot shower, beer, food, beer and bed.



"That's what I do, I drink and I know things!" - Tyrion Lannister
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Mongolia 06 Aug 2019 18:58 #30462

  • Serge C
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Ken R wrote:
Thanks Serge.

Who trashed the umbrella girl??

She was trashed before we met her! 
"That's what I do, I drink and I know things!" - Tyrion Lannister
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Mongolia 07 Aug 2019 13:33 #30470

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Very enjoyable read, thanks Serge! Ride safe, Simon J.
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Mongolia 11 Aug 2019 16:39 #30512

  • Serge C
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After another comfortable night's sleep and a solid breakfast, we loaded our gear into the support vehicle and headed out.  Brilliant sunshine and warm air greeted us as we made our way along the 'roads' towards the Tamir River.  We followed the river for a while, travelling on and off the roads and just playing on the bikes, constantly jockeying for pole position in a race that wasn't really there!

Now I haven't mentioned it before, but there was a 'reasonable' amount of traffic as we made our way from here to there.  Some of it was nomads on horse-back, some was nomads on the Shineray 100 (a nasty Chinese motorcycle adorned with crash bars and pillion grab rails), and the Toyota Prius.  You wouldn't ordinarily think that the Prius was renowned for its off-road ability, but we saw Priususus in places where Priusususus shouldn't be.   Infact, some of these Mongolians took their Priii (I'm not sure of what the plural of Prius is!) to places where some of you blokes wouldn't take a 4WD.  But they had an action plan if anything fell off the car, they'd simply STICKYTAPE it to the roof and deal with it later!  It certainly wasn't uncommon to see a Prius with a bumper bar taped to the roof.  Ingenious!



Not exactly the model we encountered, but similar.

We stopped along the river to take in the views and take photos.  Our tour guide (Mindae) was chatting to someone along the way, who had asked if his kids could be photographed with us, so Bruce put the kids on his bike and posed for the camera.  This happened a lot!








We climbed up into the hills and took in more views, then when the truck caught up with us, we were treated to morning tea amongst a field of wild flowers.  After tea, we came out of the hills and ran alongside a forest, once again just playing on the smooth and twisty trails.  We encountered lots of animals that seemed to enjoy sitting on the roads.  herds of sheep, goats, cows, yaks and horses all had to be disturbed and mooved along to let us pass.











And another little 'tradition' we were to adopt, was the 'I do my own stunts' jersey.  Whenever someone had an off, irrespective of it being simple or spectacular, they were presented with the yellow jersey of shame, and this had to be worn until the next person earned it.  Andy was the first recipient.  An innocuous step-off whilst climbing a hill was all it took to be endowed with the trophy!



We stopped for a road-side picnic lunch of crusty bread and sardines and a herd of yaks came down to join us.  They looked pretty cute initially, but some of them started to snort and stamp their feet and I don't mind telling you that I was a bit concerned and poised for a quick retreat if they decided to get a bit frisky!  Fortunately, they headed for the river for a cool off.



After a day of around 170ks, we pulled into our accommodation for the night, a real HOTEL!  With HOT water and INSIDE toilets!  HEAVEN!  And this hotel was build at the foot of a thermal fed river, so they pumped the water into pools for our relaxing pleasure, just what we needed.



So after a 'swim', we had a few beers and dinner.  We chatted to another tour group of motorcyclists, who were all riding the aforementioned Shinerays.  they were not impressed with them one bit and tried in vain to swap with us.
"That's what I do, I drink and I know things!" - Tyrion Lannister
Last Edit: 11 Aug 2019 16:48 by Serge C. Reason: Forgot something
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Mongolia 13 Aug 2019 11:12 #30532

  • Ken R
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Good one Mr Serge
It's just more time to be flat out!
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Mongolia 15 Aug 2019 13:52 #30540

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It's day 5 of our tour and were all settling into the drum of get-up, breakfast and ride.  Another warm morning greeted us as we headed off into the green steppes that Mongolia is known for.  But it wasn't long before Onion sheepishly pulled up with a considerable amount of mud on the side of his bike and down the side of his pants!



He'd had an off (albeit a little one) and tradition dictated that it was time to transfer the yellow jersey of shame across to him.  So in true form, Andy added a bit of personal filth onto the shirt and the ceremony commenced







Resplendent in his new riding top, we continued on.  Through more country side, water crossings and livestock traffic jams until we pulled up, waiting for the truck to arrive for morning tea.





When the truck finally arrived, the support crew got out, shaking their collective heads.  The engine was making a funny noise and the dash looked like a disco with all the warning lights coming on and off.  the bonnet was lifted and the engine bay examined and eventually the problem was found.  The bearing on the fan belt tensioning roller had collapsed and the belt was getting ground away on the fan housing.  it took quite a while to pull the assembly out, but only seconds to replace the bearing.  And although the vehicle was American and put together with AF bolts, the bearing was metric and the same size as an XR wheel bearing, which the support crew had in spare!  So, eventually the whole thing was put back together, but it took nearly 4 hours to do the job, so we were considerably behind time.

We got moving on into the next town for an un-scheduled lunch stop.  Once again, as soon as we pulled up in front of a restaurant, locals came out to have a look and kids climbed all over the bikes.



After lunch, we grabbed some more beer and supplies at a supermarket.  Onion wanted to get some more cash, so he used a local ATM, but it swallowed his card!  Not something you want to happen in a foreign country.  One of the support crew ran around to the affiliated bank and a bank representative open the machine, found Onion's card and returned it.  What great service.  I can't imagine that happening in Australia!

So after this extra set-back, we hightailed it back to the main road and tried to make up some time.  We stopped to have a break and take some more pics of the Tamir River and waited for the truck again.







Although the truck was 'fixed', it was overheating as the now damaged fan belt had worn to half its original size and was slipping on the pulleys.  Nothing to do for it now other than to nurse it along, so we continued on our merry way, stopping for increasing longer periods to wait for the limping truck.

The plan was to stop at an extinct volcano at Khorgo, a popular tourist spot.  On arrival, we noted that it was starting to edge toward twilight.  Our guide said that was a good time, as it meant the CLIMB to the top would not be so hot.  CLIMB,  no one said anything about a CLIMB!  But off we went and it wasn't long before we were all, heaving from the exertion.  I passed a lung about half way up, but I noted where it was so I could pick it up on the way down.  The path was covered in volcanic scree and was very slippery but we eventually made our way to the top.


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After spending a half hour or so, checking out the views and allowing our heart rates to return to normal, the call was made to head down as it was starting to get quite dull.  looking around, we noticed that two of the guys were missing and we eventually noticed them INSIDE the crater and making their way down to its core.  our guide was less than impressed and this would take them the better part of an hour to return.  The rest of us headed back to the bikes and when we got their, our guide and ride leader were in hot debate as to what to do.  We decided to wait for them and by the time they returned, it was dark.

So, under dirt-bike headlights, we made our way into camp.  We still had an hour or so to travel, so this was gonna be interesting.  now, I'm not a big fan of riding off-road in the dark, but I must admit, the ride was a blast, easily one of MY highlight of the trip!  And considering Bruce hadn't done much trailriding before this trip, he handled it rather well.  The video I posted earlier in this report will show a little of what the run was like, but it was better in person.

so we finally made our way into camp and headed strait for the (cold) showers before a late dinner.  we'd arrived around 10:00 and the water heaters had been switched off at 9:00.  Still, dinner was hot and the vodka that the crew had bought us (as thank you for helping with the truck) helped to warm our bodies.



I know I slept well that night!
"That's what I do, I drink and I know things!" - Tyrion Lannister
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