to Waterhole Camp: good road goes to tracks

October 1, 2016

"Which way to town," we ask. The lady of the Ger just waves in the direction down the valley and says any road. We’ve grown accustomed to just aiming for the direction we know we need to go and then weave our way from one track to another that offers the best cycling.

Pierre slept inside the Ger with the family. He said waking up at the beginning morning light, with one eye open, he watched the elder woman get out of bed. She started the fire in the iron stove in the center of the Ger, and he watched as the smoke and steam filled the room and up to the opening in the center of the ceiling.

We slept in our tent just at the side of the Ger amongst the goats and dogs. As the family stirred, we packed up and went inside to warm up and start heating water for our oatmeal and coffee. All packed up we take final pictures, give a donation of 5000T each, along with a wooden “Om” key ring Rachel has carried since India. Then we set off on one of the tracks. Rachel has a soft rear tire and a little later Patrick also needs to inflate his rear tire. Pierre keeps on going and that is the last that see of him today. Our paths may cross again before Ulaanbaatar.

Early morning. It is below freezing but the yaks have to be milked.

The sheep, goats and yaks have spent the night near the Ger, now they are being herded away to graze.

Leaving the Ger camp where we spent the night

Today continues a gradual downhill and we have a tailwind!! When the surface of the track we selected to ride is hard packed with little sand, we make good time. Then that track will become sandy and we select another one to ride on. We keep the “main road” that is very sandy and corrugated either to our right or left. We check GPS on the tablet several times to make sure we are still going the direction we want to go.

The valley we are riding through is beautiful, we continue to see gers, herds of yaks, goats and sheep, and horses running across the golden grass. Late in the afternoon a storm is building, the wind still behind us but getting stronger.

Cycling through the Mongolia grasslands.

Portrait. The people squint their eyes constantly. It is hard to say if their eyes are open or closed.

Mongolia roadsign. The road is under construction, most traffic is using the parallel tracks.

We had looked forward to Temel, a small town we are passing today. There are two restaurants at the main road, but the one we try does not currently have food. We settle for a large bottle of ice tea and peanuts. The road after Temel town is also under construction, heavy dump trucks are hauling dirt to raise the road above the plains. Someday soon this will be asphalt. We get past this and find a nice camping spot near a watering hole with a view of the hill we have to climb tomorrow.

We sit in our tent with a hot mug of coffee while the wind blows and ice-cold rain pelts the back of our tent.

Tent site near the watering hole. Ahead is the ridge we have to climb tomorrow.

After pitching the tent, we get two separate cars come up, one seems to invite us over to the Ger just up the hill from us. The wind is very strong now, we have pitched the tent so one door is directly to the wind, but the other vestibule is sheltered so we can cook dinner in the protection of the rain fly. It rains and sleets; the wind buffets the tent so we add two storm lines for extra safety. After dinner we settle in and see no better thing to do than get into our sleeping bag and keep warm.

Herd of horses at the watering hole behind our camp.

Today's ride: 83 km (52 miles)
Total: 4,382 km (2,721 miles)

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Rich FrasierWhat an amazing day! The images are beautiful, too. You must have incredible memories built from adventures like this.
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1 day ago

Rachel and Patrick HugensHi Rich,
yes, this was one of the most precious days of this stretch of the tour. Thank you.
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1 day ago