Day 28 - 27 July East of Balgan - Erdernet

ODO 579km, rode 42km

We got up early in the morning so we could make it to town early and hopefully avoid any potential head wind.  We packed up a soaking wet tent, ate our brekky and we were off.  This was one of the most pleasant days of riding. The weather was cool, we had a light tail wind and the traffic was minimal.  We made it to town in time for lunch.  We checked into our hotel room and put our wet gear out to dry.  The hotel even had a random room that I could set up the tent in to dry out.  The afternoon was spent watching TV shows on the laptop and napping.

Well earn rest. 

Day 26 -  25 July Unit- Balgan 

ODO 519km, rode 96km

We got up early and left camp before 8am- we said our goodbyes to the family and decided to get a few km’s under our belt before breakfast. After breakfast we were happy to get on the road, and did we do that! We cruised over two passes and then down to Bulgan. It was a big days ride but we were both ready for a bed and shower at the luxurious soviet Bulgan Hotel. During the slow ascent up one of the hills both of us were swarmed with flies - it looked like something out of a cartoon.  We definitely needed a wash!

We arrived in Bulgan about 6pm and had completed our biggest day yet. We headed straight for the shower then some food, I managed to eat a little soup which was good. Considering I hadn't eaten for about 30hours I was feeling pretty good, and impressed myself with managing a 96km day without to much stress. However, it would catch up to me! 

Locals selling Arig

Taking opportunity to wash and dry 

Bulgan 

Messing around in Bulgan

Tired after 96km! 

Should we cut down the tree before putting in the path?.... Nah 

Bulgan Hotel 

Day 25 - 24 July - Diarrhoea Day :) 

Today, I woke up and headed straight for the toilet, I wont go into anymore detail than that, but to say that the family were super nice in welcoming us and then letting us stay while I recovered in the comfort of the ger. I spent most of the day asleep, took some drugs and was right as rain the next day. I released that my greed the day before had brought with it a lesson, not to stuff my face just cause I can!. 

Courtney had a great day chilling out with the Family and I’ll let her tell you that story. 

Courtney typing:

Eliza woke up feeling a little unwell, we packed the bikes but quickly decided that we weren’t going anywhere.  By pointing at Eliza’s stomach and wiggling our pinky (equivalent of a thumbs down) we conveyed to the family that Eliza was not feeling well.   She was quickly invited back into the Ger and I rode into town (only a couple of km away) and loaded up on sprite, juice and baby wipes.  The day was spent hanging out with the kids, for 10hours or so I was the most interesting person in the world.

In the morning there was a bunch of excitement and the father grabbed the rifle out of the ger, ran over to the horse and galloped away.  It turned out that a dig had killed one of their goats on a hillside.  Dad shot the dog, grabbed the goat and came back and butchered it.  I got to eat boiled goat for morning tea, lunch and dinner.  I was also given some very large pieces of fat (I assume  choice piece) which I was unable to decline and managed to eat it.  Lunch was soup with flour and dinner was soup with noodles.  

Other activities included many rounds of snap, old maid and a mystery Mongolian card game that the kids could not explain and I couldn't decipher despite quite a few rounds of being shown what to do.  I helped shovel animal poo out of the pen, caught grasshoppers and put them down the boys shirts, went through their english books from school, had all my gear inspected.  The kids used my bicycle to herd sheep.  Of course during this time I was frequently checking on Eliza, encouraging her to drink more fluids and letting her know when she could take more drugs.

In the evening Eliza emerged from the ger looking a little bit more alive and I managed to escape the children for an hour or two and hike up the hill behind their ger.  The view was great and it nice to have some time to myself for a little while.  That night we all piled back into the ger.  I was woken up at 1am by the child next to me vomiting on my thermarest.  I managed to clean it up using my bike rag, spun my mat around so I didn't have to smell it.  All this commotion woke Eliza up who did not expect to hear what had happened.

The family who put us up for a few nights. 

Court enjoying the baby

Sunset 

Day 24 - 23 July Khutag Ender to Unit (Unt) 

ODO 416km - 37 km (on dirt) 

Today we spent all daY riding on dirt and construction. It began ok, Courtney decided to negotiate the sandy side road, where as I choose to stick to the half  bitumen (less bumpy road) either way it was tough riding and the heat did not help us. 

We decided to take it as it came and had lots of breaks. We managed to find some shade for lunch and spent about and hour lying around. 

It took us all day to ride 37km and we were pretty tired by the end of it. Insert some pictures  

we reached a small village at around 6pm and headed straight for dinner. I was so hungry and we both had our favourite Tsuvian (noodles) I was still hungry so order some Khusshon (beef  pancake) which I would later regret. 

When we were feed and watered we road on to find a campsite. We noticed a bit of a storm developing so a few K’s out of town decided to ask if we could sleep with a ger family. They politely obliged and we were set for the night. 

Lunch Break

Storm approaching. 

Loving the dirt 

The road passed by..

Courtney's had enough 

Tsuvian- our favourite Mongolian dish. 

Day 23 - 22 July 2014 Iil Uul to Khutag- Ender (Bridge just past) 

ODO 374km Rode 20km 

Today we had heard that we had about 100km of roadworks to struggle over, we decided we would try our luck at hitching a ride to a Khutag-Ender where we thought the bitumen started again. 

We rode/pushed our way back up the hill to the main road and choose a good spot to wait for a ride. It took about an hour and half to get a ride and this only came with the help of some locals who had worked out what we needed and interpreted for us as we spoke with passing cars. 

We hitched a ride we a middle class family from Erdenet, they were returning from summer holidays in Khusgvol and seemed to be reasonably well off. We loaded the bikes on their roof and enjoy the comfy back sit of the car for about 5 hours! after seeing the road we were pretty happy we opted for a lift over this section. 

During our trip we stopped a few times and the family wanted a photo - insert picture. we also stopped for strawberries which Courtney and I were very grateful for. The family had one daughter who decided she would sit on Courtney’s lap the whole time which for me was fine, but tiresome for old Court. 

Once we got to Khutag- Ender we had some food with the family and then parted ways. we decided we would ride from town for about 15km down to the river. This was a great idea as we managed to find a pretty nice camp site for the evening (Insert picture) we also had a bit of a wash, which was a good feeling after a few days on the road. 

We still had some pesto left so had a quick dinner and settled in for the night. 

Cooking dinner at campsite for the night. 

Just another pretty nice place to spend the night. 

Oovoo - Mongolians tend to give crutches to the sky gods... 

Fresh strawberries we bought on the side of the road, Yum! 

Getting a ride out... 

Family we got a ride with.

River view

Day 22 - 21 July Tosontsengel to Iih-Uul (pronounced Ik-ul) 

Odo reads 354km rode 49km 

We had another great day on the bikes today. The road was good bitumen, the sun was out and the wind was behind us. Riding through Mongolia is extremely pretty at times, as the hills roll over each other the the road mi-anders through the valleys, there is some sort of peacefulness that gets to you. (Although ,this is not everyday just a lucky few) 

We left early from camp and had the road to ourselves - we took some classic shots before heading off as we were both feeling pretty grand about life. 

Riding off from our camp. 

Enjoying life on the road. 

Tail wind :) 

We made it to Iih Uul around one and had a smashing lunch! this was the best beef and rice lunch we have had so far! it was so tastey. We also managed to find a toilet with an accompanying foxes skin, which is always an interesting experience for one travelling. 

We set up camp just outside Iih Uul by the River, it was very sunny and windy in the afternoon but overall a pretty nice spot to crash. We managed to camp right next door to the Jetty, which we didn't realise as it is just a stick, but were pleasantly surprised when we could observe the locals trying to cross the river with their motorbikes on an old wooden canoe. 

My handlebars decided to slowly twist backwards throughout the day- this led to difficulty using my brakes and changing gears and forced me off the road until mechanical repairs were made. 

Camp site for the night. 

Moving the motorbike 

Camp site sunset.. 

We were hit with a tremendous storm half way through cooking dinner and had to barton down the hatches until it passed, we survived. It was horrible at the time but upon reflection all part of the adventure really. 

Day 20 - 19 July Moron to Tosontsengel 

Rode 70km ODO reads 305km 

Today we rode 70km! our biggest day yet. We left Bata’s Guesthouse in Moron early. We did a quick ride around town to fill up with water and get some more trusty tuna which is in low supply at the moment. We were both mildly disappointed as we were unable to find any happy cow cheese, which has become a stable breakfast item, but we rode on. The first 20km out of Moron was a subtle incline, it became wearing after awhile and I was happy to see the end of it. There was a slight tail wind which made life a bit easier. We stopped for lunch in a nice sunny spot and enjoyed some tuna and crackers. After lunch the tail wind picked up and we had a fantastic afternoon of easy riding (although uphill) we cruised over a pass and down the other side with ease, it was delightful riding and overall a really great day on the bike. We hit Tosontsengel mid afternoon and found the water pump, we stocked up and rode on another few kms to find the perfect campsite for the night. 

Leaving Moron

Getting petrol... (for the stove)

Leaving Moron

Camp site 

relaaxing

cooking

More relaxing...

view from Camp

Mongolian Fence. 

We did come across another cyclist today which was exciting, a strapping young American man with a sweet Surly bike that looked like it had done a few K’s. He was headed the other way and had had a rough time going against the wind all day.