Day 13, 14 into Ulaan Bataar:

I messed up the day counts so, there is no day 12.

Along with 10 others, we rode the trucks into Ulaan Baatar.  The thought of riding into the wind for another 150km was too much.  Besides getting to have another rest day and to spend the day in YuBee, was too attractive.  I have commented that, yes we are here to ride across Asia, but we are here to see the countries, not just ride through them - I gather I am be quoted on this point a fair bit.

Ulaan Baatar (yes there are lots of spellings), is not at all what I was expecting.  It is a very large modern young alive city.  Tremendous energy to the place.  It does suffer from having grown exponentially - the traffic grid lock is almost total.  In our taxi ride in and out of town, the 3 miles in town took a full hour each way (see more below).This is explained in that, back in the 1960’s YuBee had a population of 40,000, today it has a population of over a million and growing quickly - everywhere there is construction.  The suburbs vary from what easily could be anywhere in Richmond, to trailer parks where all the buildings are Yurts (called Gur’s in Mongolia), to one acre concrete blocked off pastures with a Gur for the home.  Livestock are grazing effectively everywhere - more populace than the deer i Oak Bay.

Yesterday, after we arrived we hired a taxi that took us out to the Chingess Hann statue - many of the cars here are right hand drive (but they drive “normal” on the right), I gather this is another export destination for used Japanese cars - and they are very aggressive in the very crowded conditions  two inches space is too much — good entertainment itself in just the ride.  The statue complex itself was very impressive, the largest horse statue in the world.  

The little dots above the horses ears are people:

I am not surprised that it is quite cold in the morning, normal desert, but today in YuBee it has been very cold all day - back to wearing socks.

Check out this youtube video of a Mongolian school bus delivering small kids to school - based on what I have seen, I believe it is real:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKzuaPzip34

Day 11 to: Desert Camp, 82km, 1051km to date, 715m up, end elev 1317m

Again a very hard day.  There is a pattern here, the first 40 k was not bad, a bit of a light head wind, but then the wind hit, again up to 30knots plus right on the nose, made for a really hard 45km to lunch.   The day was supposed to be 153km - no way I was going to make another 71km into the wind, so I called it at lunch.  I was only able to make about 8 to 10 km/h against the wind so it would have been after 7:00pm before I arrived in camp - that’s if a truck’s wind-boas didn’t knock me over.  Road the truck to camp.  I made it to lunch, 8 of the riders didn’t make it to lunch.

On these Tda tours they have an expression of EFI, meaning the rider has risen Every F’ing Inch.  Today we established a revised version, Enough F’ing Inches. 

I’ve had variations of this happen a couple times: Our 25year old driver asks me how old I am, he seems to be impressed that I’m almost his grandfather age.

I’ve noticed that the Mongolians have a wonderful sense humour, very serious when they need to be, but otherwise always joking.

I’m impressed/amazed at the amount of livestock scattered over the countryside.  I have trouble believing that the countryside will support what I am seeing - there are always flocks of sheep, cattle, horses and camels around.  My understanding is that the land base is essentially a large communal ranch land. 

Still a couple pics of interest:

A graveyard in the middle of nowhere - with both “normal” headstones, and in the foreground, simple unmarked graves:

This is what you look like afterward, sweat, sand and a helmut:

Yes, we ran out of gas:

Our camp tonight is in the back livestock compound of a truckstop.  The outhouse is a 10 hole long drop, don’t have anything loose in your pockets, you won’t be getting it back:

Day 10 to: Darlanjargalan, 157km, 969km to date, 634m up, end elev 1116m

Out of our nice hotel back into the Gobi Desert.  Another hard day.  The first 90 k was not bad, a bit of a light head wind, but then the wind hit, probably 30knots plus right on the nose, made for a really hard last 30km.  As I sit in my tent writing this the wind is still very strong.

Lot’s of noise around me, various tents seriously flapping, the occasional blast of sand on the tent.  Sleep might be a challenge.

Apparently we will be seeing a lot of mutton and horse meat in camp dinners for most of Mongolia - needless to say this announcement prompted numerous cracks.

The scenery today was very simple - very flat desert.

Still a couple pics of interest:

An elderly local woman in traditional clothing - clothing that absolutely makes sense living here:

The local greeting committee:

There have been several of these pedestrian crossing signs in the middle of nowhere - we think it is connected with the bus stop and there being a train flag stop on the railway about a 1/2km to the west:

No idea what this gate represents:

Day 8 to: Sajnsand, 62km, 812km to date, 332m up, end elev 1022m

Day 6 of 6 in a row.  Alarm went off at 5:15, pack up tent and prep everything in just breaking light.  Temperature about 1C, brisk wind and raining - a perfect day for riding in the Gobi!

Another extremely hard day, straight into the hard wind with light rain, commonly making only 8 or 9 km/h.  Nobody was going to make the 140k to the hotel, so the ride was called at 60k and we were transported to Sajnsand.

Although the desert is continuous flat sand and rock, it is still fascinating.  Saw several herds of Gazelle, many flocks of sheep, cattle and wild horses.

I went past this rock monument, it is called an Ovoo, a sacred cairn, often located at the tops of mountains or marking passes, also used as demarkation points between tribes.  They must contain at least some holy wood.  It is custom for travellers to stop and circle an ovoo three times clockwise and add a rock to a pile with each lap.  I got the stopping, adding a rock and three times part right, but missed the clockwise bit, I went counter-clockwise - I’m sure the gods will not look down on me for this small transgression. 

I liked this “sand fence”:

I’m starting to almost expect the juxtaposition of old and new - in this case a yurt in the middle of the Gobi, with the man standing talking on a cell phone:

These are three of our drivers,  I would love to have one of their great coats - I think it would be excellent to ski in:

These vehicles will be with us all the way across Mongolia:

A fine Italian red with chocolate as part of dinner:

I’m slowly finding out more about my fellow riders:

One of the ladies (grandmother) has now been to 85 countries,

Ruth and Michael (not related) have both cross-country skied unassisted to both the north and south poles.  I believe both have done lots more but are somewhat quiet,

One of the lead A-team riders is a South African TV actor and has a pacemaker,

A very skinny lady (I have nicknamed bones) has done 12 ironman’s,

One of the guys has extensively hiked in Africa and SE Asea,

Many of the riders have done the Africa Tda tour, also the South American tour.

I am now in a very nice hotel on the top of a hill in the middle of the Gobi desert.  The town below not surprisingly is a combination of old and new, half the town lives in yurts, right beside modern concrete buildings:

The walk/ride up to our hotel:

The town from the hotel:

We head off tomorrow for three days riding to YuBee the local nickname for Ulam Bataar.  It will be 3 long hard days, camping the two nights - hopefully at least one of the nights will be clear - the night sky in the desert is always extraordinary. 

So next post will hopefully be from YuBee.

Day 7 into Mongolia

Day 7 to: Bush Camp, 68km, 751km to date, 532m up, end elev 1115m

Hello from Mongolia!

Day 5 of 6 in a row.  Starting to suspect all the way thru Mongolia will be very hard - upwind all the way. Wind on the nose for the whole ride today, except for a period it was blowing sand hard from the side.

We crossed out of China into Mongolia today, hence didn’t start cycling till 12:30.  Saw some probably wild camels today, also horses.  I’m not sure if we are technically in the Gobi desert or not, but the landscape is absolutely flat mostly sand or rock.

Getting organized just after the border crossing:

Welcome to Mongolia:

First night camping - all seems to be good, remembered how to set up my tent (in the brisk wind) and I seem to have remembered most things that matter.

Too exhausted to write more...

Looks like it will be another very hard day tomorrow, but then a rest day - which I suspect will be taken up with resting.

cycling in hard blowing sand

Adding some of the pics to the previous post:

Lunch stop in a sandstorm:

Approaching the "Drumheller" of China:

Yes, those are two kissing dinosaurs that span a four lane highway:

A cycling group from Erlianhaote out for a ride.  If my counting is correct, I have had my picture taken 843 times so far...

Riding conditions were very tough, probably the hardest I have ever ridden in, the picture doesn't due justice to how hard the wind and sand were blowing.

Day 6 to: Erlianhaote, 121km, 683km to date, 190m up, end elev 1000m

The web connection is extremely slow, so posting any pictures will have to wait...

Day 4 of 6 in a row.  Another hard day, actually a very hard day.  Very strong wind on the side mostly from slightly ahead, occasionally square on the side.  Upwards of 30 knots at times, continuously blowing sand - I felt like I had spend 8 hours inside a sand blasting machine.  I was starting to wonder how much sand blasting exposed skin can handle - since I’m still intact, apparently quite a lot.  Serious sand drifts across the road at times. I would have taken pictures however the visibility was very poor.  It took four washings of my riding clothes before there was no sand in the sink.

The lunch stop today was in the middle of nowhere.  Making a sandwich when it is blowing sand that hard guarantees it will be a “sand” wich.

This area is also the Chinese equivalent of Drumheller.  Yes, the two kissing dinosaurs are really big - spanning a 4 lane freeway.

Also when I approached the Dinosaurs, there was a group of Chinese cyclists - many many pictures were taken.  One of them asked me how old I was - the answer prompted a lot more pictures.

We cross the border into Mongolia tomorrow morning, apparently we are not allowed to cycle across the border so the Tda guys have arranged a collection of trucks - they are not quite sure it is going to work - they have never gone into Mongolia before.

Part of the extra fun associated with border crossings is changing money - the best answer according to our local support is to use the money changes that work out of a corner to the town market.  After a bit of haggling on the rate, I now have a very large pile of 10,000 unit Mongolian notes.

Tonight we had a Welcome to Mongolia event that involved singing, sharing a short of Vodka and each of us received a Mongolian scarf - very classy.

Day 5 to:Sonid Yougi, 120km, 561km to date, 395m up, end elev 1138m

Day 3 of 6 in a row.  A hard day.  Fairly strong wind, always right on the nose.  The bad news is that we will have  a similar day tomorrow.  My goal for the remainder of the day is to survive past dinner before I fall asleep.

The countryside is now very flat brown “prairie”.  Seems to be all range land, mostly sheep with some cattle and some horses.  We rode the full 120km almost totally with nothing manmade in sight.  In fact there were no “corner stores” or “coke stops” the full day.

I was delayed a couple minutes whilst a 200-300 sheep flock crossed the road:

Mike and Frieder having a nap at the lunch stop:

We had another fantastic dinner tonight, although we had to walk 5 blocks in a sandstorm to get there.  There were a group from a dance school having a dinner in the restaurant, after many many pictures (grey/white hair seems to be a real novelty…), we had a wonderful performance, both of a couple doing Chinese very fancy ballroom dancing, then a singer - excellent!

Day 4 to: Xianghaungyi, 160km, 440km to date, 559m up, end elev 1396m

Day 2 of 6 in a row.  A fairly long day, 160km.  Fairly strong wind, however mostly from the side or back, although there was 20k that was uphill straight into the wind.

A couple shots from yesterday that connection problems wouldn’t let me post:

yes, a farmer plowing a field with a mule and plow.  What a contrast to the large “factory” farms

Today the scenery changed from the hilly country typically associated with the great wall, to the open flat grasslands, very similar to our prairie, complete with bareback horseback rider.

Also saw my first yurt, what I believe will become very commonplace.

We are getting away from areas where foreign, white haired, round-eyes are seen, so we are now the tourist attraction.  Twice today people simply stopped their vehicles to greet us and take pictures.  As is the case everywhere, the vast majority of people are very friendly.

We had stopped to take a picture and this guy stopped, didn’t seem to be concerned that his front end loader was blocking one lane of the road.  Big smile and wave.  First thing he did was offer us two cigarettes - this was an offer of friendliness.  Then another car stopped - we were the tourist attraction.  I have our cycling route on my phone (in maps.me) - it is quite good at communicating where we started and where we are going.  Also where home is.  This morning the three of us that stopped at a small store in a village were from South Africa, New Zealand and Canada - made for a fun “conversation” with the shop owner.

A couple other pics from the day:

First yurts:

The road signs here feature a bit of English, Chinese and old Mongolian.  I say old Mongolian because this area of China (Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region) still uses it, however Mongolia itself has moved to Cyrillic (Russian).

I believe every square cm in China has been farmed, built on, dug or whatever.

Day 3 to: Zhangbei, 60km, 281km to date, 980m up, end elev 1423m

I am having internet connection problems, so this post will be a bit messed up and missing stuff - I'll see if I can fix tomorrow.

The meal we had last night was probably the best meal I have eaten in China, that is saying something since the standard seems very high.  Afterwards we wandered a bit, at the end of the street beside our hotel seemed to be a combination disco/red light/gay gathering/general party place.  We didn’t stay long.

Today was the first of 6 riding days in a row (prep the Camel butter/butt grease).

Just at the start of the day we stopped at the Dajing Gate, a gate in the Great Wall of China, this gate was effectively the gateway to Inner Mongolia.

(Cut from Wikipedia)

      Among all the sections, the Dajing Gate is the most famous and best-preserved. The four characters 'Da Hao He Shan' (Grand 

     Mountains and Rivers).  The gate used to be the boundary line dividing the Han people in the Central Plain and the nomad tribes

     of the frontier areas in the Quing Dynasty (1644 - 1911).

    The Great Wall is a grand military defense line in ancient times, whose construction work had been implemented in many 

    dynasties. Due to the strategic location, nearly all of the dynasties took the area as a vital military stronghold and built the 

    Great Wall there, measuring 1,121 miles (1,804 km) in total and occupying two thirds of the whole length in Hebei Province.

    It is the most overlapped section. Many parts were built on the foundation of the older sections from the previous dynasties. 

    Some parts in the Batou area, for example, consist of multiple layers built over five dynasties.

The major part of the ride today was a very rough hard climb.  

At the ridge at the top of the climb was a major wind farm, the turbines stretched as far as one could see.  The wind farm feeds a large energy storage complex, the largest in the world I was told.

The town/city we are in tonight appears to have been recently built, is still being built.  I have seen that elsewhere in China - the master planners decide that a city should be built here - so it is, all in one go.  I’m convinced they have standard plans for a city of 3 million.

For the Chinese the number 8 very very good, lucky.  So, take a guess at the Wifi password for the hotel…   Yes, 88888888 i.e. 8 eights.

Whilst I am writing this, there are fireworks in the background - a very common thing, at weddings, at the completion of a stage in a construction project, just for the 'ell of it, etc.,

Also, there is always someone singing, right now it is on the street outside the hotel, almost always in any city square.

A typical lunch stop