July 19th-20th (Day 7-8): The end of the (paved) road

On day 7, after spending a rest day in Kharkhorin, we left Dreamland and rode what was left of the mostly-continuous pavement and onward on the dirt road. A dirt road in Mongolia is usually not a single road but rather a maze of tracks as everyone tries to pick the least bumpy route from point A to point B.

From Ulaanbaatar to ...

Soon after the pavement ended we had our first roadside vodka shot with a group of Mongolians and Russians. Later in the day a Mongolian family approached us to take our photo and we had our second roadside vodka of the day. This helped ease the pain on our sore behinds and we managed to bike about 82km that day despite the fierce headwind.

From Ulaanbaatar to ...

On day 8 we continued on to Tsetserleg. We're staying at the Fairfield guesthouse which is run by a British couple. It's a real oasis of cleanliness and all things familiar on the road that is otherwise become a wilder and more foreign place for us. We were hoping to have a rest day here tomorrow, but some mining company has booked the entire guesthouse and the other hotels are not particularly inviting. In the evening we headed up to a temple perched above the town.

From Ulaanbaatar to ...

We've updated the pictures in the "Ulaanbaatar to ..." album (we'll start a new album after this but can't rename the album "UB to Tsetserleg" otherwise it causes problems with existing links). Here's the map for day 7 and 8 (view it in google earth)


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