Moron to Ulaangom

With a looming timeline and a desire to get a glimpse of the Altai mountains we sacrificed the Khovsgol lake and Khatgal plans and headed west. Initially, the primary goal is to get to Ulaangom (red sand). We figured about 10 days would be about right. From Ulaangom we would do another 4 days to Olgii which would serve as a base to explore a bit of the Altai. The trip across the northern part of Mongolia has proved to be quite amazing. The weather is certainly undecided but the scenery is fantastic and the people are kind and friendly. Many wooden buildings sport similar blue window dressings and front gates as parts of Siberia. Some horses are decorated with macrame bridles and their saddles occasionally have silver on them. The trim on men's and women's clothing is also a little more ornate here than what we've seen elsewhere in Mongolia. It also seems that these northern towns, big or small, seem mostly a little better off than their southern counterparts. Of course there are exceptions, Zuungov for instance. We speculate that perhaps it's the proximity to Russia or to resource rich mountains or agriculture that makes the difference. The scenery that we've encountered has varied from arid plains to mountains to rivers to gigantic sand dunes. There's been many shrubs and forest too. We've been through some nice forests in other sections of the trip (notably the road to Jargalant) but shrubs have been absent until now. The road has been equally varied...from fast hard packed dirt to washboard and sand-mud. In the days we spent traversing the North we've seen one road sign that indicated there was a turn off. This is extremely funny since the road network is a nearly undecypherable spaghetti network.


Day 21 Leaving Moron.
camped at: 49.63743 N, 100.16011 E
6:28 riding, 74km

Woke early enough to get a good jump start on the day only to discover that B's other front rack holder braze on had snapped off the previous day. That makes two in one day...the exact mount as the other side. This leads me to believe that Surly had something wrong with their production line. Anyway, it didn't take too long to replicate the re-mount that we'd done to the other side the previous day and then we were on our way. Before long we were speeding along heading West along the southern shores of the Delgermoron river. That is, before we a) got our first flat and b) realized we were on the wrong side of the river. The flat, I think, was a product of the vicious pounding and possibly lower than optimal air pressure. The result was a medium fast leak in the valve(I speculate). There is a collection of standing stones and deer stones 20km West of Moron that we wanted to visit but now that we were 20km along on the other side we decided it wasn't worth the backtrack and we continued a little dejected in the mounting heat. We ended up camping beside the river in a great little secluded spot.(B gives it two thumbs up!)


Day 22
camped at: 49.55272 N, 98.83403 E
5:18 riding, 47km

Many passes today...a bit slow. Started with a nice climb out of the river valley that led to different scenery in the ups and downs that followed. Near the end of the day the undulating plateau started to descend and we made camp. There were several gers not too far away and the visits started almost as soon as the tent was up. First, the owner of the closest ger came to see what was going on. He left soon after and let the older herder whose ger was a few hundred meters away do the talking. He has a small herd of about 30, a wife, and 3 kids. One kid, 25, is a doctor in Moron and is a definite source of pride for the man. The 22 year old is a teacher who also is a driver. The 16 year old, who popped by later, is a near mute and is very friendly and communicative in his hand gestures and whispering. After much chatting and snacking on our peanuts with the older fellow he finally got down to business and pointed to our bikes and asked if he could try it. Since the bikes were unloaded and the ground was soft we enthusiastically obliged. He rode around in a few circles giggling like a school boy. It was quite a comical site! He was then on his way. Shortly, an extremely friendly fellow on a motorbike stopped by. He put his rifle down and babbled away in Mongolian and asked a few basic questions with his hands that were caked with fresh marmot blood, the partial rigamortise of which was strapped to his bike. He made sure we had water and were not in need of tea. He also offered some of his marmot which we declined as gracefully as possible. Although I would love to try marmot, it is a main vector in spreading "the plague" which is alive and well here in Mongolia. The yummy way of cooking it is with a blow torch which probably doesn't give the deep-cook needed to rid it of the Black Death.


Day 23, Aug 11
camped at: 49.47182 N, 98.05939 E
6:28 riding, 78km

A fast day. Quick start to the day and fast roads without any headwind helped us gain some lost distance. Had lunch at a small pass with a very nice ovoo. Back on the bikes we continued to make excellent time until we realized we were on the wrong road. As it turns out there was a fork at that nice little pass. With some hunches and confirmation by a local we went cross-country for a while until we joined a barely used track that led us back to the proper road. The headwind started up and slowed our meager progress to a crawl. We rejoined the main road 100 meters from a guanz. After some interesting conversation between us we decided to go. B doesn't like guanze food (mutton)...I love it. It didn't help that after acquiessing she fell into the creek that we needed to cross to get there. In the guanz there were some people already eating-the same people that we had met about a week before atop a pass near Shine Idre. At the pass they had recruited a the kids from their minibus to pretend to be hungry and ask for our canned fish. Pretty low if you ask me. After we said no they were off like a dart. They seem middle class and have a revolting attitude...sour human beings with permanently snotty grimaces. I hope I never see them again. Once filled, we biked/pushed up a sandy hill nearby and camped in time to beat the storms that lasted all night. Moral was a little low at this point!


Day 24
camped at: 49.48269 N, 97.48791 E
5:51 riding, 48km

More moral crushing conditions. A dead-on fierce headwind ALL day on wet dirt and sand. Normally not bad to ride on, the road felt like we were riding in an inch of molasses with tires at 10 psi. At least the rain was only sporatic. Had it rained we would have needed to camp as the cold would have been too much if we were also wet. We passed through another Tsetserleg, a bustling little town, in the afternoon and quickly grabbed some groceries. Funny, our moral got better near the end of the day. Perhaps we were happy that it didn't rain.


Day 25
camped at: 49.59058 N, 96.78235 E
5:09 riding, 65km

A morning storm delayed our start while we played cards. Or I should say B played cards, I simply participate and usually lose. The route was treed in parts and had joined up with the Tez river. Some well earned downhills and some compact ground in the valley brightened our hope that one day we would reach Ulaangom. A couple of unpleasant dog interactions and a brief visit with a really nice family made for good variety. The camp spot was on a knoll near to the spot where we departed from the Tez river and had fantastic views of the valley and a sweet sunset. Near to the end of the day I must say that I caught a glimpse of Tuva in the distance! I would love to visit Tuva and I was honoured to get a mountainous glance.


Day 26
camped at: 49.66803 N, 96.00121 E
5:29 riding, 65km

Started the day with a scenic grind up to a pass which led to a gradual downhill all the way to Bayantes. On the way into town we were approached and befriended by a drunk guy who gave some directions to a guanz that his buddy owned. We thanked him and resumed our entry into town...only to have him hop on his motorbike and catch up to us. His buddy was ahead of us showing us the way while the drunk guy 'herded' us from the rear. I looked back to see B riding along in a straight line while he was swerving radically from side to side trying to keep his balance. After a couple of minutes of this nonsence we stopped and asked how far it was to the guanz. They pointed to a spot way down by the river. This meant an undesired UP after eating, no thanks. Politely as we could we abandoned them in favour of grocery stores and a guanz within 50 meters. The drunk wasted guy felt bad for something and gave B a chocolate bar. The guanze, the best so far with both khooshoos and buuz and a veggie dish for B (made possible by some sign language). Some ups and downs on generally good ground led us to a spectacular camp spot on a little saddle near the road. To the east we could see the pass that we just decended and a massive sand dune. To the west, a beautiful valley with the Tez river rimmed with jagged peaks. To the north, a small, craggy mountain range that looks like Mordor. And to the south looked up the side valleys peppered with bushes. We confirmed to each other that the route along the Tez river is awesome. I cannot imagine the main highway matching its beauty.


Day 27
camped at: 49.71415 N, 94.95956 E
7:10 riding, 89km

Another good day of riding. Started with a downhill on sandy ground which flattened out and brought us to the town of Tez. I love these northern towns. Some sand and washboard temporarily broke our spirits but we were rewarded near the end of the day with a nice downhil to a large plain on which there were wheat fields. The road along this plain was slightly downhill and was pure pleasure to ride. We got to the end and climbed a small hill and set camp only to discover that we had bought diesel instead of gasoline for the stove. We were able to cook a blackened meal that nourished our tired bodies.


Day 28 Aug 16
camped at: 49.84742 N, 94.01409 E
5:40 riding, 83km

Consistently fast riding and no navigational blunders made this an efficient day cycling. More people on the road meant for some more visits as well. A very large family with several jeeps and a broken down truck made for some entertaining conversation. A couple with a baby on a motorbike hailed us over and fed us field strawberries. We'd seen them(strawberries) before but had not yet tried them. Super sweet and delicious! Passing through Barantuuran, another splendid town, we met a Swiss fellow named Jeremy. He was doing a motorbike trip across part of Mongolia and in order to get a bike he had to get in a Mongolian's name. This fellow was also his passenger and would buy the bike from Jeremy at the end of the trip. Jeremy referred to him as "my guy" and they seldom talked as neither spoke each other's language. A funny situation. We saw them again 10km later where a couple of other foreign motorcyclists had drowned their bikes in a river crossing. More flat and fast roads followed with minimal interactions, save for the border police:
them: "visa, passport"
us: "no mongoli" (they didn't look truely legitimate)
them: "visa"
us: "no"
them: "thank you, good bye" and they drove off.
...pretty lax border control! (we will NOT try this tactic when we're back in Russia)
The terrain got really flat and treeless and not the best for riding. We managed to surmount a temporary 'sense of humour breakdown' over a fork in the road and ended up camping in a fenced area that had a row of trees behind it. But not before engaging in a roadside vodka ceremony with some drunk motorcyclists. There was also a well nearby that was pressurized by gravity and was squirting out water. This was presumably an old Soviet setup to start some wheat growing. Some recently planted trees, however, indicated that perhaps the project has not been entirely abandoned. Some impressive storms went by us without consequence but pounded the far side of the plain with rain and lightening.
With so many drunk drivers one may be tempted to be scared cycling. The upside is that curiousity and terrible roads overwhelms drunkeness and slows them down a little.

Day 29
camped at: 49.89526 N, 93.28395 E
5:30 riding, 58km

A morning of wind and rain, mud and washboard. At the peak of misery we entered the black outskirts of a town named Zuungovi. The piles of burned trash and who knows what else framed the washboard all the way to town center, a dephlogistonated rubble heap. The people seemed ok except for the kid who threw a rock at us. Bought cookies and headed off. As the afternoon progressed the road got drier and the going got easier. One river crossing that required panniers off punctuated the rest of the day. Camp was beside the road due to no other option on the featureless landscape.

Day 30 Aug 18 To Ulaangom!
Hotel: 49.99078 N, 92.06416 E
6:30 riding, 99km

A long day that seemed longer by the amount of washboard we needed to endure. At times, it's truely maddening. Luckily there were a few sections of smooth + tailwind that would recharge our cursing reservoirs. The bummer about a tailwind and washboard is that it doesn't help much because the washboard has a natural speed limit. I wish I could 'bank' my earned tailwind and use it when it's actually useful! Passing by Uvs Nuur, a massive but shallow stagnant lake, we had a brief interaction with a toothy family. They all had missing or gold teeth. I did my usual "lift my bike" gesture as it usually gets some instant respect and people magically run out of things to talk about. It did have the desired affect although the young fellow lifted it with apparant ease (50%+ of men cannot get it off the ground, the rest only with significant effort)...I'm glad he didn't want to arm wrestle! The washboard ended with an easy river crossing and a short ways along some newly packed dirt indicated some road construction. Easy riding led to fresh pavement for the last 10km. It's amazing how awesome pavement is! Fast and quiet. For once we could have a conversation without yelling things over and over again. A final downhill brought us into town at the end of day 10, right on schedule.