On the Road to UlaanBaatar - Karakorum

After a good night sleep and a nice Occidental style breakfast (pancakes!), we kept pushing east today and it was again a glorious day despite my mechanical problems.

After a bit of fun on the tracks... we reached the town of Karakorum which was once the capital city of the country and hosts the first and still one of the greatest Buddhist monastery in Mongolia - Erdene Zuu Khid.

If all goes to plan, we should arrive in UlaanBaatar tomorrow evening and will then have a few days to find a proper mechanic work out what to do about China.

A big thank you to Walter for his support... very grateful!

Super day again

We drove today from Tariat (next to the Great White Lake) to Tsetserleg. It was a good 163km drive along some very nice roads in Central Mongolia. We actually had 17km of tarmac (brand new) and it felt so good to be speeding again.

Both Cyril and I have improved a lot when it comes to bike handling. The small trails, the sandy tracks and the offroad don't bother us anymore and we are riding quite safe at much higher speed than we originally thought we would ever do in these conditions.
We arrived in Tsetserleg at around 14h and had a great lunch at Fairfields, a guest house and restaurant owned by 2 Brits. We had our SHOWER!!!!! (finally) and ate some good old English pub food, nice. Steak sandwich for Cyril and burger for me.

We even had some time to visit the city (small one) and find a great internet cafe.

Cyril is a bit worried as his bike is playing up again and he doesn't have power at low and high revs, hence he drives all the time between 3,000-5,000 revs. Anyone has any idea? We hope the bike makes it to Ulaanbaatar (2 days away from here).

Oh and you'll see from the new pictures that I was attacked by a tick at the leg.

On the road again

Yesterday we were stuck in Tosontsengel as Cyril's bike had some problems again with the engine. We had some good 92 Oktan petrol and still it didn't want to accelerate.
We started working on the bike in the middle of the street but we amassed so many people that we decided to push the bike back to the hotel parking lot and worked on the bike their. We tried several things, draining the mixed 80/92 petrol tank and using only pure 92, changing the air/fuel mix, changing the fuel pump, etc...until we decided to open the carburators and have a look and clean them. And the carburators were indeed dirty (i.e. the air needle was stuck!), hence too much air was coming in the engine. We cleaned one carburator and tried the bike and it did work fine. As it was already 17h, we decided to stay in the same hotel for a further night and move on only the next day.

A quick interjection on the Mongolians and privacy...none exist! They enter your room without warning (not the hotel employees but other guests), have a look and then leave again leaving the door open. When we stop, they touch your bikes all the time. At the internet cafe, they literally sit next to you and check the things you do...but they are always nice and helpful.

Anyhow, today was a superb day again. We had nice blue sky and a bright sun. We left Tosontsengel with the aim of reaching White Lake, one of the most beautiful spots in the country according to our guide. The road leading there was beautiful with a mixture of valleys with rivers, Alpine scenery, frozen lakes everywhere and yaks in pasture. The pass to the high valley where White lake is situated (2,100m) was at 2,600m but the sun was warming up the air, so we had pretty much 8 degrees celcius all day long. The road itself was quite interesting as it changed from a dirt and sandy track to a very nice gravel road, to a great offroad type road to a gravel road again...etc...

So what is our opinion on White lake? Hmmm, I think it is certainly not the most beautiful spot in the country (Uureg Nuur was nicer) but indeed it is quite nice as most of the scenery we saw in Mongolia.
Judge for yourself and have a look at the pictures below.

Mongolian dreams and nightmares

The last few days have been very intense in emotions. While, we are cleary living a dream and enjoying every second of the amazing Mongolian scenery, the riding has been particularily challenging on both the riders and the machines...

We spent the last 4 days travelling from Ulaangom to Tosontsegel in Central Mongolian on a mix of dirt roads, sandy tracks and pure off-road, getting lost many times and fully relying on our GPS for the proper directions. The landscapes are simply breathtaking and we hope to be able to download more pictures soon.

Yesterday was my worst day (by far...) since the beginning of the trip. It all started with my engine not running very smoothly and delivering very little power at low revs. As a result the first steep climb in the mud was simply hell with the bike not even able to start on 1st gear. On a fall, I completely destroyed the protection underneath the bike leaving the engine completely exposed to any hit. A few kms further the front brakes got completely stuck and we had to dismount both brakes pistons at 2000m high. A few kms further... the engine just stopped ! We dismounted the entire engine on the side the road to get access to the carburators, clean them, clean the air filter, the spark pluggs... without success. Niccolo had to go on his own (for the first time since the beginning of the trip) to get some help and found a bunch of very helpfull Mongolians and a old Russian jeep... After many miscommunication and iterations, we loaded the bike in the jeep, removing the jeep seats in the process.

We got to the nearest town (more a few houses/yurts stacked together) and got told that it the nearest decent mechanic was 700km away in UlaanBaatar... and the transport would cost about USD500. Moral was at its lowest and on that note, we decided to take the bike all apart and try everything possible to get it fixed. We spare you the details but it seems that it was due to the very bad petrol quality and changing the air/petrol mix did the trick so far (engine not running very smoothly still...). Thanks to Nicco for the patience and the technical support.

After a snow storm yesterday evening, and a night inbetween a snoring Mongolian and ... couple (no privacy here in the yurts), today was simply beautifull with greatest sunshine, blue sky and superb scenery.

We will keep going east over the next few days and hope to reach UlaanBaatar in about a week. By the way, so far, we have not found any shower facility in the country... but we keep asking !

Now it's my turn (Nicco)...For me it was an excellent time even though we had these tensions and problems with the bike. My bike (Fat Bertha) behaves so well for the moment even though I mistreat her badly by throwing her around big time and she still likes me somehow...

The last few days have been what this trip was about, a real adventure! With the technical problem solving, the off-road riding, the GPS navigation, the personal tension sometimes, but in the end we have come so far and this is a testiment of the great team we are..hehe, a bit of self motivation.

We have both learnt so much in the last few days and these are the experiences we were looking forward to. Let's hope both our bikes keep up to the mistreatement and we arrive safly back on tarmac (near Ulaanbaatar).

Genghis Khan, here we are!

After a beautiful time in Russia and the Altai (really woth a short trip on its own!), we entered Mongolia with snowstorms and lots of wind. The Russia side of the border took us quite a while (1h) but the Mongolian side was super easy (15mins) and off we go to check out Genghis's place.

I was quite worried for Mongolia as we saw so many nice things on the road over the last 2 months, that I felt Mongolia couldn't impress me anymore and was sad about this...but I was so wrong, it is clearly the highlight of the trip!

The first impression was, where are the damm good Russian roads?! No roads, but sandy/rocky tracks and offroad is the word here. The second impression is the lack of vegetation. On the Russian side there were trees, here in Mongolia, very little vegetation.

So off we thought to our first camping in Mongolia...close to Tsagaannuur...but the wind was so icy (3 impression, it is damm cold here!) that we decided to find a warm home for us. We found a family in Tsagaannuur that was willing to let us sleep with them in their room. It was a great experience and the family was lovely. The next morning the wind was still there but we had another surprise, -7.5 degrees. After a few snowstorms (they come within mins) the sun came back and we decided to give it a try and go to Uureg Nuur. The landscape was breathtaking with a gorgeous valley, an immense plateau (where we got lost several times even with GPS), beautiful mountains and the best sun ever...but with lots of wind. When we finally arrived at the last pass (2,400m) after several hours of being lost in the valley below, we had an unforgetable sight on Uureg Nuur (mountain lake). After a few hours to finally reach the destination (offroad or small tracks, so you can't drive more than 50-60km/h) we found a nomad that offered us to sleep with his family in his ger (Mongolian yurt) which we happily accepted as it was icy again.

After a good night sleep we headed for Ulaangom but using a small valley were the driving was mostly offroad. We made good progress until we arrived at a very large river with so many big pebbles (the size of a football) on the ground, snowcovered water, icy water, etc... and after me falling at least 6 times in the river bed, we decided to find another route to go around it.

The driving here is a pleasure as the sights are unbelievable wild and beautiful. Yesterday we encountered 2 other vehicle in 1 day. Today 4 or so and this on the main road to Ulaangom, so the rest of the time, you just ride, watch the scenery and enjoy this country whilst feeling your the only one in the world.

For the bikers amongst you envisaging a similar trip. Don't do the same mistake as me. I am a short (1.70m) and light (65kg) guy and whilst I LOVE the 1200GSA, it is too heavy and too high for me. On tarmac, you're the king. On tracks and offroad I learnt a lot and am getting good at it but when it comes to pebbles (river beds) and very rough offroad when you can only drive slowly, it is a nightmare and once down it takes 2 to put it back upright...take something lighter and lower. A big thanks to Cyril who helps me once the GSA is on ground.

For some reasons, I can't attach pictures to the blog but have a look at the Russian and Mongolian photo albums, we've added pictures.

Anton the Russian mechanic

Altai

Altai

Amazing time in the Altai !

The Altai mountain range well kept its promise ! We had heard that it was amazing and we were not disappointed despite the very chilly temperature - we recorded -6C on a 1700m mountain pass, our lowest so far. We spent 3 days there on the way to the Mongolian border and the landscapes were simply breathtaking - people very friendly and the road (still - cf. the Mongolian post above) very good.

Cherry on the cake, we managed to replace my dying drive chain in Gorno Altaisk thanks to Anton, the local moto mechnic and genuine motobike fan - a true Russian genius! A very good contact for any motorbiker traveling in the region who will also help you find the good adresses in town.

The border crossing into Mongolia was not too painfull for once but lasted a good 2 hours and interestingly there is actually a 10km no-man's land between the two countries - an Mongolia does not ask for an custom declaration (i.e. likely possible to sell your bike/car there without going through the registration hassle...).

More pictures in the Russia photo album

Waiting for the right meteo window to head for Mongolia

We are currently in Gorno Altaisk, a small town at the beginning of the Altai mountain range and are waiting for the weather conditions to soften a bit before heading towards Mongolia. Snow storm this morning and pretty chilly temperatures...

We should be leaving Gorno tomorrow and reach the Mongolian border 2/3 days later.

Russia here we are

We are now in Barnaul, a quiet mid-sized Russian city. The weather is so far so good, but much colder than Kazakhstan.
We arrived 2 days ago in Russia after waiting 2h30mins at the border...the Russian side took us quite a long time (for the insurance). They wanted us to pay in Roubles, which we didn't have but there wasn't any exchange capabilities...I suggested to sleep at the border to see how they would react. In the end they took our USD but don't count on it (for all future bikers, have some roubles with you!).

There is a big gap between Russia and Kazakhstan. The people here are much more European and white. The countryside is much more developped than in the empty steppes of Kazakhstan. The roads are much better here. Oh and they don't speak any English in this part of Russia.

We are heading towards the mountain range Altai in the next days before entering Mongolia.

Semey - North Kazakhstan - on our way to Russia

We just arrived in Semey - a medium-sized town on the north east corner of Kazakhstan closed to the Russian border which also used to be home of the former Soviet Union nuclear weapon testing center...

This is a pretty grim place but after 3 days across the steppe, it feels good to finally see a town with streets, shops and restaurants. Since we left Almaty, the landscape was very flat with little to no agriculture apart from a few apple trees and wild horses here and there. We were lucky with the weather and had a pleasant ride despite the heavy mileage (about 400km/day on uneven roads).

I ran out of petrol for the first time about 30km short of Semey and we had to transfer a few liters from Nico's bike. A good test before Mongolia but it tastes horrible - even worst than some of the outdated lamb shashlik we had so far!

If everything goes along plan, we will get into Russia this afternoon and reach Barnaul by tomorrow. We are now both thinking hard at what to do with China... everybody we meet is telling us that entering the country with our bikes will be very very challenging - these days even more than usual. We might very well need a B plan (if me make it across Mongolia).