After finally reaching Olgii and having some rest we decided to get a jeep dropoff in the Altai and then make our way back. It wasn't actually a jeep or a jeep looking vehicle. It was one of those Russian vans that are nearly everywhere in Mongolia (UAZ Buhanka). In western Mongolia most vehicles are Russian jeeps (UAZ Kozel). But anytime people refer to travelling by vehicle they say 'jeep' whether it's a jeep, land cruiser, or van. If it's a truck they're referring to they'll say 'machine'. Anyway, after accepting that we were being a little lazy for choosing this option, we hopped in and headed out. The ride ended up being a little cheaper than we thought because we were able to share the ride in with a couple of other folks wanting to get to a nearby area to do some walking. Travelling by van was a total contrast to the previous 5 weeks. It was so fast and easy! It provided a safe shell(even though there were no seat belts), protection from the elements, comfy seats (even though those vans are notoriously UNcomfortable, and was able to traverse the painful roads at speeds unthinkable to us. Once near our destination we needed to select the exact spot...which was hard because it was raining a little bit and the sky was grey and it was cold...and we looooved being inside this warm machine! Finally biting the bullet we had the driver stop after 5 hours and we unloaded in an area that resembled a bit of a cold wasteland. Seeing the van drive away made us wish we were inside...inside anything...the van, a house, you name it! We basically rode a few hundred meters and camped on the first level and flood-resistant spot.
Waking up to clear skies was a much better introduction to the Altai than the dismal dropoff. To the west of us running north-south was the main spine of the range. Peaks with trees, snow and glaciers looked over us and the valleys between them wound their way up to China, just over the passes. In our valley there were a few lakes that we planned to cycle along. On the eastern side of the lakes the mountains were slightly lower and were quite treeless and snowless in comparison. Our first day of cycling was spent slowly meandering around a lake on a very rough and undulating road. The lack of geographical progress was not cared about at this point...we were here to take it easy and enjoy the views. Along our way we saw more balbals and also had a nice visit with some Mongol-Khazaks in their ger over tea and bread. The main participants of the conversation (dictionary pointing) were the man (56ish) and his mother (older, obviously). They were both really sharp and seemed interesting. At one point he got their passports out and showed us their stamps...reams of Mongol/Russian/Chinese/Khazak stamps of all types lined the pages. Clearly they know this part of the world really well! More biking and a longer river crossing on slippery rocks brought us to a nice wooded area that somehow escapes the view of the local gers. In fact, the very spot we camped had the imprint of a ger from earlier in the year. The next day was more slack-riding and sightseeing. Some more front rack repairs made sure our spirits didn't soar too high. As we neared the goal for the day, a small mountain that was supposed to have petroglyphs on it, we started getting excited. We pushed the bikes up to a rock where we parked them and ventured up to the "petroglyphiest" looking rock slabs. Within minutes B spotted a few and the easter egg hunt was sparked. We now knew what we were looking for. Over the next couple of hours we saw hundreds of images. Of course the quality varied and there was much repetition of the favourites: ibex, elk, hunters. At length we did end up suffering some petroglyph burnout...it reminded me of a candy store I went to in Hong Kong last year...Chris and I kept discovering NEW types of candy that we HAD to have. We made camp where we had left our bikes-no gers, no traffic, no visitors. Just us, the mountains and a lake (and 10,000 of our favourite petroglyphs!).
The next day started with us needing to go around our little mountain in order to get to a road that would lead up a pass and away from our lovely laked valley. After a ways we got to go nuts over some more standing stones and then noticed that the rocks above us looked suspiciously like the rocks yesterday where we found...pet...petro...glyph...must see petroglyphs! Another hour of petro-fever-glyphing yielded a whole new area filled with drawings. And, of course, much more modern graffiti done by bored herders. OK, done with petroglyphs! Onward up to the pass...and up and up and up. This was an interesting section as we had absolutely no idea where the road was going for the first 2-3 hours. The undulating terrain was such that it hid our road so we never knew where it was going to go next. Finally gaining a plateau we could see ahead to a downhill, a river crossing, and the final steep up to our pass. I particularly liked the uphill part: about 45 minutes of sustained high output pedalling nearly spinning out the whole way up. It sort of reminded me of mountain biking with the boys back home (except for the 100 pound bike). The other side was named "snake valley" and according to the Lonely Planet was home to standing stones and balbals. We zipped downhill for a ways and made camp next to a creek. A man and his young daughter came by and gave us a bottle of their milk. He had a nice sized herd nearby and his home was a couple hundred meters down the valley. We put out some of our goodies and shared our dinner as well with made for a nice little feast. It was a nice coincidence as this day we had cooked a massive amount of food!
Just a short side note on the Khazak horse riders...when they ride they break into song! It's always a pleasure to watch one of them gallop with one arm out to the side and singing a tune.
The next morning we cooked our cream of wheat with our new milk which made for a tasty start. Today was basically spent running from standing stone to standing stone and hoping for balbals(man stones). We also saw many burial mounds and a Khazak cemetery. The cemetery was divided up into a number of areas each surrounded by their own wall with a number of burial structures inside. Nearby the cemetery the odds caught up with me and I tumbled into a creek. With a string of successes behind me I got a little cavalier in my approach to biking across this particular creek. I took the wrong angle, I kept my shoes on, it was deep and a little swift, and the cobbles were just big enough to throw my front wheel around. After losing control I was tasked with
a) keeping my camera out of the water...which was around my shoulder and not completely done up in its case(dumb)
b) keep panniers from fully submerging sideways
c) minimize my own personal wetness
d) minimize bodily harm
and most of all
e) try to save some face while the laughing Khazak herder on horseback casually watches!
The outcome was nothing more than wet feet, damp pants, and a moistened ego.
The next couple of days back to Olgii was on mixed terrain and we took it easy. The highlights were seeing the ger trucks heading out of the countryside, school starting, and getting back to Olgii. Many of the gers you see in the countryside are summer camps for families. Towards the end of summer they start moving back to their towns. In the evenings we'd see many empty trucks (old gurgly things coughing their way up the hills) coming up the valleys and then in the morning there would be fully loaded trucks going the opposite way. Whole gers all rolled up and stuffed on the back covered with belongings, some animals, the sattelite dish if they had one, and then sprinkled with the family members. Throughout the summer most towns were pretty quiet. Although there were many small stores, usually only about half were open. Things were different now. The influx of people combined with school starting made the towns burst with energy. It was quite refreshing to see so many kids in the same place for a change. On the second to last day we crested a pass with an ovoo. There was to be one more pass on our final day but by reading the map I could tell that it'd be a flattish pass and likely no ovoo to make a final offering so this was the day. Out came my bottle of vodka that I'd been saving for the occasion. I circled the ovoo 3 times while guzzling and splashing vodka. Then I tied an orange piece of cloth that had been on my bike for over a month onto the top of the ovoo and sealed the deal with some money placed under some rocks. I asked to gods to once again bless everyone that I know with good health. The lucky passerby on a motorcycle also got to chug as much out of my bottle as manners would allow.
Some more sand, rack fixing, and washboard brought us to 5 km from Olgii and the road turned into a paved paradise. Into town, eat, sleep, ride to airport, pay a massive amount for overweight luggage penalty, land in Ulaan Baatar, spend hours in traffic jams getting to the hostel (we got the pickup...otherwise we'd surely die by some crazy driver hitting us while texting...it's an epidemic...both text-driving and text-walking). Back in Ulaan Baatar...just in time to get sick again (oohhhh...bad...a tropical disease specialists xmas present!), some self-medicating with over the counter prescription meds, see some more sights, and catch a train to Russia.
