Week 79: to Uliastai: miserable but rewarding

September 28, 2016

There is a light snow flurry while we pack up our camp this morning and it is close to freezing yet the sun is trying to break through. The road improves considerably on this side of the river. We have to gain about 700 meters to get over the pass to Uliastai but at least we are able to ride it.

There are two Buddhist monuments near the road today; we stop at both to take photos. There are yaks, herdsman and golden larch trees on the hills. The last couple of kilometers get too steep for us to ride on dirt, so we push. The temperature drops to near freezing.

At the summit is a large Oovoo, a “gate” and snow banks. We are 17kms from our campsite. Even with all our clothes on the downhill is very cold. At least on the uphill the work-out keeps your body warm, on the downhill all warmth seems to be sapped away by the biting wind, especially keeping fingers from freezing. The sun does try to get through, but there are threatening clouds everywhere.

We descend into a wide valley with awesome views to the west. Then an unexpected climb to yet another hump. The profile shows a little bump on the downhill, but it is much bigger than it seems. (Or we are just ready to get there….) Another nice Oovoo and views down the valley to Uliastai. The city is very colorful from a distance.

We arrive through the industrial side of town with many dilapidated Soviet era factories, cranes and smokestacks. Then two river crossings and the round-a-bout that makes the city center. We have done our research and head straight to the Uliastai hotel, probably the nicest place in town with a good restaurant and English menu. The lobby and hallways are nice, the rooms a little less so. The hot shower we were expecting will have to wait a little since there is no hot water until 7 pm. In the restaurant we order lunch from the English menu, with our waitress who doesn’t speak a word of English looking up the equivalent in the Mongolian menu.

Good food though and friendly people. The Wi-Fi works well in the lobby so a chance to catch-up again.