July 28th-29th (Day 16-17): We reach Tosontsengel

On day 16 we left what we really (really, this time!) think is our last tourist ger camp until we reach Olgii in about three weeks. After crossing an interesting bridge, we followed the north side of Idre gol (river) towards Ih-Uul. The going got pretty sandy and we had to push our bikes through many sections. We covered 44km before the storm clouds gave us an excuse to quit for the day.

From Tsetserleg to ...

On day 17 we continued 10km to Ih-Uul where we rejoined the main road and onward for a total of 55km to Tosontsengel. Tosontsengel is a transportation hub for western Mongolia and is of decent size (4000 inhabitants). We're staying at a friendly hotel which we feel lucky we found. We were planning on staying at a hotel recommended by cyclists who had gone through here last year, but it was closed. This is our first non foreign-tourist oriented accommodation (other than camping) in Mongolia. There's no plumbing (squat toilet outhouse in the back) but otherwise it's a pretty reasonable place. We went to use the showers in the town's public bathhouse. We did some major food shopping to stock up for the more remote sections of our trip. We even found some fresh fruit.

From Tsetserleg to ...

Photos from days 16-17 have been added to this album.

Map of route for day 16 and 17 (google earth version).


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July 25th-27th (Day 13-15): Off the main road

Day 13 was our second rest day at the Kongor camp. In the morning we walked over to check out Tsagaan Nuur (lake). In the evening we chatted a bit with the guide and driver of a German group that was staying at the camp about the possibility of staying on the north side of the lake and going through Jagarlant rather than going back to the main road on the south side of the lake. They agreed this was possible and that the pass we would have to go over might even be a bit lower than the one on the main road. The other advantage is that we would have one more tourist ger camp at Jargalant.

From Tsetserleg to ...

On day 14, Chris wasn't feeling too good so we only made it 24km along the lake and made an early camp in a beautiful and quiet spot on the lake shore.

From Tsetserleg to ...

On day 15, we went over a 2350m pass on the route to Jagarlant (the lake was at 2070m). This was much lower than the 2600m pass we would have to go over on the main road. From there it was a speedy descent down to Jagarlant (at about 1650m). The scenery was beautiful (reminded us of Switzerland) and there was even less traffic than on the "main" road. After a great 67km ride that day, we were really glad we made this route choice. Along the way we stopped to chat with a well off Mongolian family (they were driving an Xterra). They offered us some meat from a bucket (marmot and sheep), airag (fermented mare's milk), and some solid version of the latter.

From Tsetserleg to ...

Photos from days 13-15 have been added to this album.

Map of route for day 14 and 15 (google earth version).


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