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| From Tosontsengel to Olgii |
July 31st (day 19, 49km): We continued along the main road around the lake and over a pass into Nomrog. We quickly located the nice (and only) hotel in town (we had found information about it previously). The owner speaks German as he had worked in a Mongolian consulate in Bonn. We had expected Nomrog to be our last town with good services for a while as we planned to leave the main road shortly afterwards. We were surprised to find that it had no electric grid, no bank (we were running a bit low on local currency) and the main Mongolian cell phone company did not have service there (and therefore we had no internet access).
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| From Tosontsengel to Olgii |
August 1st (day 20, rest day): Despite the limited services in town we took a rest day as the hotel was comfortable and had good food. We went for a nice (slow) hike in the hills above town. We enjoyed a chat in the hotel's restaurant with a university professor from Ulaanbaatar who spoke English well. She left when her driver finished fixing the car.
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| From Tosontsengel to Olgii |
August 2nd (day 21, 76km): We followed the main road for another twenty-some kilometres, but it didn't seem all that major any more. We found the junction with the road to Tudevtey. We are impressed that our GPS map knows the location of this intersection (it doesn't seem very major at all). We stopped for some Huushuur (fried mutton pancakes) in Tudevtey before pushing on over a pass and settling into to camp. At times the road was merely a faint track in the grass (though it follows telephone poles so does not feel completely remote).
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| From Tosontsengel to Olgii |
August 3rd (day 22, 70km): We continued on through Songino where we stopped for lunch in a ger guanz for some buzz (boiled mutton dumplings). The daughter in law of the owner spoke English. She's from Ulaanbaatar and is in the country side for the last 2 months of her pregnancy (she was due any minute). We enjoyed this increasingly rare opportunity to chat. We filled up on water (25 liters) before pushing onward (we would not see another town for over 250km and other opportunities to get water are limited).
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| From Tosontsengel to Olgii |
August 4th (day 23, 80km): We decided we had enough water to continue on the direct road to Hyargas Nuur (lake) instead of detouring to the town of Ondorhangay for water. We had originally intended to carry an extra day (or at least half day) worth of water for this stretch in case we had a mechanical breakdown. However, the road sees more traffic (mostly heading to Ulaangom) than we expected and we were confident we could hitch a ride or get water from a passing vehicle if needed. Nonetheless we stopped to examine roadside wells to see if we could replenish our supplies. They were all dry, but one polite motorist saw us looking at one and gave us a bottle of (store bought) water. Later in the day we unexpectedly come across a guanz on what is an otherwise uninhabited stretch of road. It's a busy place! We enjoyed a meal with other travellers and manage to get several litres of water. We've never been charged for water in places like this despite all their water being trucked in. We continued on a bit afterwards and camped.
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| From Tosontsengel to Olgii |
August 5th (day 24, 60km): The morning was rainy so we got a few extra hours of rest before starting off. We had biked only a short distance before we came across another guanz where we had lunch and got more water. In the afternoon we met a French solo cyclist who was going the other way (Olgii to Ulaanbaatar). He was the first foreigner we'd seen in over a week. He was on leave from his military assignment in Afghanistan. He planned to complete the route in only 17 days. This seemed impossibly quick to us, but based on his rapid progress thus far it seemed like he was on track to succeed (he had taken only 5 days to get to this point). However he had a broken rear spoke and didn't seem to have any ideas or plans to deal with it. The roads in Mongolia are extremely washboarded which is difficult on the equipment. We're hoping his bike doesn't let him down. We camped by Hyargas Nuur (salt lake).
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| From Tosontsengel to Olgii |
August 6th (day 25, 46km): We cycled further along the lake shore to a soviet built resort (Har Termes). We washed up in the nice outdoor sink (closest thing we'd had to a shower since leaving Tosontsengel). There was a veterinary conference wrapping up and we enjoyed the educated company (some English spoken). There was a lively beach scene of picnickers and bathers. We hiked up to the cold springs (the only fresh water in the area) and filled up on water. For dinner we made the mistake of getting the mutton and noodle soup rather than the fish we had for lunch. The soup tasted old.
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| From Tosontsengel to Olgii |
August 7th (day 26, 69km): We continued on the washboarded road through the town of Naranbulag. We were pleasantly surprised to find that we got cell phone reception and we stopped on the way out of town to send out a quick blog update. Most of the traffic we had seen in the last few days turns north-west at Naranbulag towards Ulaangom. We instead headed south-west towards a town called Olgii (in the Uvs province, not the larger Olgii in Bayan-Olgii). We saw no traffic along this road except near the two towns. The road also gains significant elevation and is in parts very sandy. We cycled on this road for about 20km past Naranbulag before camping.
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| From Tosontsengel to Olgii |
August 8th (day 27, 47km): Chris woke up with some traveller's diarrhea. We decided to start antibiotics right away as there's not really any room to "wait and see" on this deserted (water and traffic-wise) road. With the help of some Imodium we push on the hot, uphill, and sandy road to Olgii (Uvs). We filled up on water, gas and food in town. We then found a beautiful campsite overlooking Har Us Nuur (lake) 6km past town. We like to hide our camps from roads and gers as we don't like to have too many visitors. This particular campsite involved pushing our bikes up a steep hill over a ridge. We were hidden from the gers and road below but had a beautiful view of the lake. Despite covering only 47km it was one of the more difficult days thus far.
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| From Tosontsengel to Olgii |
August 9th (day 28, 64km): Chris' stomach made a quick recovery and he was back to full strength. We continued along the road (which became sandy again) around Har Us Nuur to Omnogovi. At some point the road veered off the path shown on our maps but continues on towards Hovd (Uvs). The road is still sandy. We don't like washboarded roads, but they are better than sandy roads. It's very rare that the road is not washboarded or sandy. When it happens, we usually have a fierce headwind.
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| From Tosontsengel to Olgii |
August 10th (day 29, 76km): The mosquitoes were vicious in the morning so we had breakfast inside the tent. We continued a descent from a pass we had gone over late the previous day. The road was so sandy in spots that we have to get off and push our bikes despite a very considerable downhill gradient. We crossed Shiver Gol (river) and took advantage of it to cool off and wash up. We continued on through sandy roads past Hovd (Uvs) and joined a more popular road at Achit Nuur (lake). There were quite a few gers by the lake. The road improved considerably as we climbed up and camped near a pass after a very long day (we were eager to reach Olgii the next day).
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| From Tosontsengel to Olgii |
August 11th (day 30, 71km): The road continued to be good but we had a strong headwind. We took plenty of photos on a 15km section of the road which runs along the side of Hovd Gol (river) in a steep canyon. With our dwindling energy we climbed the pass above Olgii (Bayan-Olgii) and descended into town. After checking out various accommodation options we settled in to our comfortable hotel room and went out for a huge dinner at a Turkish restaurant (we had been dreaming about this place for weeks).
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| From Tosontsengel to Olgii |
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| From Tosontsengel to Olgii |
August 12th-13th (day 31-32, rest days): On our rest days in Olgii we've arranged some permits for a trip into Altay Tavan Bogd park. The area lies near the Chinese and Russian borders and therefore requires a permit from the border police. Getting this was a bit intimidating (the Lonely Planet claims it cannot be done without a local guide or affiliate) but it turned out to not be too much of a hassle. We've met three Americans who are touring the area on cheap locally purchased motorbikes and have enjoyed sharing stories over prolonged breakfasts and dinners. Our plan is to do a 300-350km round trip cycle to the park and come back to Olgii in a week.
Additional pictures from this part of the trip are in the Tosontsengel to Olgii album.
Here's a map of route for days 18-19 and 21-29 (google earth version). Sorry, not sure why the google maps version is so jagged (google earth looks fine):
View Larger Map
