We started from Tariat via the Northern shore of the lake "Tsagaan Nuur". After days and days of open steppe we now found ourselves amidst the hills and lava fields - wow!
The tracks were decidedly more rocky. We keep passing livestock, like these goats and sheep. A family needs a herd of about 300 animals to make a living. We have been asked if we had animals and more than once we said no, but mentioned your farm, Helen (Tim's sister) in New Zealand and people were impressed!
Our new road, leading straight through the central heart of Mongolia was more and more off the beaten track and involved plenty of river crossings.
We also proved a mini-Tourist curiosity ourselves, sometimes being railroaded by a busload of Korean whilst having lunch. Once in a while we were asked to pose for photos with other tourist, like these guys. We asked for a return photo.
The top of hills and mountains are marked with "stick ovoos", like this one marking the last pass (bl***y steep and sandy, Sara fell off!) before we finally got a view of of the lake - nice!
We really enjoyed the cruise along the lake in the afternoon heat. This big expanse of water is quite a site after the many days of water sparsity.
We stop early for a swim and some bike maintenance - and oh no! Tim discovers a split in his rim. That's no good! Well at least we made it to here - we decide to go on as far as the bike takes us - although it is remote here, plenty of trucks and jeeps pass us during the day and in an emergency we are sure to be able to hitch a lift to the next town.
Lovely breakfast with lake view - the usual: bag of cakes and 3 in 1 coffee mix - sachets (that's 60% sugar, 10% coffee and 30% powder milk - quite a morning turbo booster!)
Early morning riding. This day was cold - with hail, wind and storm.
A rocky track took us over the highest pass so far 2354m
Our orange survival bag proves to be invaluable to wait out sudden thunder, hail and rain.
We have a day of icecream heads from the cold weather and numb feet from the cold river crossings - good fun!
The landscape is ever changing from green lush valleys to dry rocky wild west Cowboy land. When we roll into valleys young children come running from gers offering us freshly picked forest berries from jars. Yamm! It seems like quite a fairy tale childhood, endless valleys to roam, lots of animals to play with and complete & utter freedom in the first few years in life. What a place to grow up!
However the next morning Sara wakes up with a fever and drained of all energy. So we use the opportunity and stay in a Tourist Ger camp for a couple of nights. Basically a cluster of traditional gers with a facilities and a restaurant building. Very cosy.
Each ger has a table, a wooden stove and a couple of beds. Tim went up the hill, whilst Sara slept off her fever. See a view over our camp below.
After passing through the small town of Jargalant we crossed another interesting bridge, classified for 1.5tonnes - not sure whether that was before or after the pier failure....does not seem to stop anyone here from going over it with any manner of vehicle.
Yak, yak, yak - these are everywhere. They look heavy and cumbersome but are extremely agile and quick.
Here at the top of the last pass before the town of Shine Ider - whenever we stop, take a breather, someone will turn up out of nowhere - just like this herds man. Often not to talk with us at all - but to just sit or stand there and check us out. (funny at campsites - as they would just sit and look at us and our tent for literally hours... the guy with the rifle was a little concerning mind)
Beautiful vista, top of the pass.
The roll into Shine Ider was just like riding on a dried up river bed - not good on a broken rim!
We also made some new friends - these young men had great fun knocking each other on the head to test the "quality" of our helmets.
From Shine Ider we decided to take a Jeep - as a precaution, as Sara now also had developed an all over body rash (which thankfully actually disappeared after a day) and we did not want to risk the Tim's rim. So we met our driver Sanjaar - who had his license for less than a year (proudly presented to us) and his Russian jeep, including full music system with 180 songs on shuffle> Whoppee! After much "brake pumping" and "cooling off" stops we made it to Moron. Guess a jeep ride is one of the must-do experiences in Mongolia - tick!
There is no chance of bike repair here (that'll have to wait until Beijing) Anyway - with bellies full of berries from the market and delicious fried beef or freshly caught fish with rice dinners we are looking forward to our last week here before we hop on the train to Beijing...and cross the Gobi desert.
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