October 5, 2016
Week 80: to Tsetserleg: taking a ride
All during the night we hear sleet and snow hit our tent.
By the morning we expect to see quite a layer, but it is still only a dusting. The wind just makes it sound worse than it is. It is about minus 10 C and the inside of our inner tent is covered in ice, condensation from our breath. We don’t know how you would winter camp and avoid this. We carefully pack up to avoid knocking the ice into our sleeping bag, and then brave the outdoors. There is not much wind anymore which makes it a little better. We have one bottle of water that was not frozen solid so we heat this up for a cup of coffee and some oatmeal.
We are happy to see the road snow-free; the wind must have just blown it all off. We start riding east but it is too cold. Rachel loses feeling in her fingers and thumbs, Patrick struggles with cold toes. After a couple of kilometers we see the temporary bridge where diverted traffic is crossing the river. We see a bus approach from the other side, but it stops at the river crossing and sits there for quite a while. We wait for a while at the junction, thinking of trying to get a ride, but when the bus does not seem to be going on we head out again. Another ten kilometers down the road the bus does finally pass us, they stop when we wave them down, but it sounds like they are not going to Tsetserleg. We ride on.
The view is pretty surreal, with snow covered hills across the valley, a few Gers and yaks. We slowly warm up a bit through the riding, but our decision is made: we will try to get a ride today. Another couple of kilometers further, just as Patrick crests a small hill Rachel shouts “trucks coming”. A convoy of five large empty trucks is coming up the hill. We wave them down (stretched arm moving up and down) and the first truck slows down and stops. They are going in our direction. The driver climbs in the back of the empty cargo trailer and Patrick hands him all our bags and the bikes. We bungee the bikes to the side of the trailer, climb in the cab and off we go. The driver does not speak English, so our communication is limited, but it sounds like they are going all the way to Ulaanbaatar and we are welcome to join. “Just to Tsetserleg please”.
There is one break along the way for lunch, and when we pass a scenic canyon our driver pulls his rig off the road, drives onto some tracks to get us close to the canyon for some photos. This is a beautiful stretch of road along the White Lake, the Chuluut canyon, though much of what we’ve seen the last week. It’s tough to not be cycling, but when we get out of the warm cab of the truck back into the cold, we are okay with the decision to take a ride. It was the sensible thing to do.
There were three hills on the section, looking worse on the elevation graft than what seemed to be from the cab of a truck. The last hill before Tsetserleg seems to be the worst one: steep and gravel. At the start of this climb we see Pierre, we wave and shout. He is very, very cold.
We are dropped off at a gas station, load up our gear and head into town. At the big round-a-bout is a large billboard for the Fairfield Inn with a picture of a cheeseburger. That seals it. The Fairfield Inn was recommended to us by other cyclists and the guidebook raves about it. (Not always a good sign). The building is not that impressive from the outside, but neither are any other buildings around here. The price is per person and at about $20 each a bit high, but it includes a hot breakfast and free WiFi.
We’ve settled into our room, and Patrick hears Pierre’s voice. He is also staying here having checked out three other hotels that were just as expensive and no Wifi, so we have time to catch up a little on our adventures since we parted. The Fairfield Inn is more expensive than what we are used too, probably because we are getting closer to UB.
The showers are hot though, there is laundry service and the café downstairs serves good western style food. The beds have real mattresses, good pillows and a nice comforter, much better than a blanket on a board, what most “hotels” offer. One drawback: no alcohol. We think it is either a religious thing (there is a bible in our room), or it has something to do with the Australian owner’s involvement in alcohol abuse programs here. Alcohol is a big problem in Mongolia, we are okay with skipping a beer for tonight. The cheeseburger is great by the way!
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Today's ride: 33 km (20 miles)
Total: 23,443 km (14,558 miles)
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