Northern route - Russian border to Ulaangom road open?

[takeonafrica]

I know a couple of weeks ago the road between Ulaangom and Tsaaganuur near the Russian border was closed/impassable because of flooded river...
Does anyone know if it is passable yet?
Leaving Ulaangom tomorrow and wondering whether to try it or just cycle south and via Olgii instead... maybe it's worth going that way anyway.
Thanks

[colebatch]

Originally Posted by takeonafrica

I know a couple of weeks ago the road between Ulaangom and Tsaaganuur near the Russian border was closed/impassable because of flooded river...
Does anyone know if it is passable yet?
Leaving Ulaangom tomorrow and wondering whether to try it or just cycle south and via Olgii instead... maybe it's worth going that way anyway.
Thanks

Not sure if anyone has done that stretch this year. Almost everyone I was following this year on the northern route went border - Olgiy - Ulaangom.

I recall hearing something somewhere about a 20-25 km detour to the north at the river to find a crossing point.

If you go via Olgiy, its a nice scenic route (head along Northern Route from Ulaangom to Uureg Nuur), with a 2600m pass just 10-15 km south of Lake Uureg (Uureg Nuur). Then a long gradual descent to go round the eastern side of Achit Nuur, and ends up with a nice canyon thru the Khovd river valley before Olgiy. There is pretty much only one village on the route and thats a mining town of Khotgor. Its pretty grim but has one or two shops.

[takeonafrica]

Thanks colebatch.
Just after I wrote this, I popped out and came across a couple of german overlanders who had just come that way yesterday - they mentioned about driving up and down the river some 50km to find a crossing point (and then it was about thigh-deep), which seems to correspond with what you'd heard.
That route via Olgii sounds quite nice though so think I'll give that a go.

[takeonafrica]

I took that route to Olgii.
That was one helluva lung-busting arm-wrenching (dragging the bike) climb to the top of the pass, but definitely worth it for the hell-raising downhill on the other side! And the views were lovely too. Uchiit Nuur is not a lake to stop long at though - the mosquitoes were ferocious! My legs are now itching like crazy.
Wasn't so keen on the soft or corrugated gravelly tracks after that but the canyon was indeed lovely. Took 3 days.
Thanks again for the suggestion colebatch.

Off to Russia tomorrow...