to Darvi: Across the grass lands on a short-cut road

September 20, 2016

“Sure do like these waterproof socks” Rachel says. We stop for a lunch break at a point where the road and river become one. To push the bikes across the river, Rachel puts on the waterproof socks and keens while Patrick braves the cold water with just his keens. We’ve been navigating the “shortcut” road.

The night is not nearly as cold as last night, probably because we are at a lower elevation. Early in the morning we are awakened by a herd of horses that walks past our tent and what sounds like sniffing on the rain fly.

The weather has changed and there are dark clouds in the sky to our west. We pack-up, have breakfast, push back to the road and tackle that hill we were looking at all yesterday afternoon. It is about 11 kilometers of steady climbing to the summit at about 2200 meters near DM5. There is some very nice camping on green grass along a small stream around DM7.

After the summit are several gas stations but no shops, then the Khushuut mine and the end of asphalt. About three kilometers past the mine the road briefly skirts a river, then climbs back up towards a mine-village and (we think) on to Khovd. If you are headed towards Darvi and Altai like us you should just follow a track (to your right opposite the mine camp) on the west bank of the river instead of climbing the hill like we did... Googlemaps shows this as the main road to Khovd, but Maps.me shows the track along the river as the main road. Don't climb the hill.

We took a track to the right just at another mine village, the river is on our right. It seems like the track will peter out any minute, but it just keeps going through a very scenic area. It would make a great camping space. Then when a large rockface blocks any more progress on the left side of the river the track crosses the river. We have no trouble, but this could be a challenge after heavy rain or in spring.

Up ahead on the right side of the river, we could see the shortcut road that Maps.me shows head steeply up a short hill. The road to Khovd crosses back to the left side of the river. The next 16 kilometers are awesome cycling. The track is packed hard enough to make riding easy on our 37mm tires, there is a slight downhill and we have a tailwind. We sail across the grassy rolling plains of Mongolia with great views in all directions! If you are headed from the opposite direction, another cyclist blogged that you would look for two mountain ranges and aim for the lower one on the left side.

When we exit the valley there is a modern radio tower to our east (on our right) and a salt lake is visible to our north. If you are coming from Darvi, aim for the radio tower to be on your left as the road skirts around the ridge to the right. Along it snakes the road from Khovd to Altai. The shortcut road takes another ten kilometers or so to join up with the brand new asphalt road. We have read other peoples blogs about how awfully corrugated this road used to be, now it is smooth sailing. We hope it lasts....

Fourteen kilometers from where we joined the asphalt we reach Darvi. Quite the sight, the pictures do it justice. We eat a lunch at a small restaurant where the bus that passed us an hour ago has stopped too. A dish of rice with cut-up vegetables, cubes of potato and lots of small pieces of mutton, gristle and fat. We eat it because we are in Mongolia.

We find the hotel at the end of this Main Street on the right. It's kinda funky painted. No indoor plumbing, back to the Soviet style sink where water is poured into a tank above the sink and a bucket collects the water below, and pit toilets. Room is clean though.

Next morning along Tsetseg Nuur. Dark clouds have moved in and threaten rain.

After the mine the asphalt stops. Googlemaps shows the gravel road to Khovd, but we need to take the road shown on maps.me. This is it.

This is still the "main", probably old road to Khovd. In another five kilometer there will be a "shortcut" towards Darvi.

This would be a nice area to camp. Green grass and water. The road crosses the river near here.

The river crossing. This could be tough at high water.

On the "shortcut" road across the prairie.

Mongolia. A bit brown now, but this would be all green in spring.

The first person we see in quite a while.

Most of the road is very well rideable on our 37mm tires. You do have to watch for sandtraps like these though.

Darvi. The first impression pretty much sums it all up.

There is no running water in Darvi. People fetch it at a well and haul it home in milkjugs on little carts. Our hopes for a hot shower are dashed.

Downtown Darvi. Half of these buildings are shops all pretty much selling the same products.

Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 22,633 km (14,055 miles)

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