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We are headed south to the Gobi Desert and the road is now paved 611 km to Dalanzadgad. Leaving UB we again did not go thru the city, but headed east and then south to the cut off road to Zuunmod. From there we had a somewhat warmer but windy ride 311 km to Mandalgovi.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4460/...f0373d23_z.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-14 at 17.25.40 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4481/...90afcd86_b.jpgMandalgovi Contour by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Since it has been so cold at night and windy we were not that keen on camping. To top it off Orvar has had a pretty bad night with GI issues. Here in the town the options are pretty poor. We did settle for the best of the sketchy places. For us the first room was made up, but smelled terrible. The room next door looked slept in and they just started to make the bed up again! I said no way and stripped off all the bed clothes, which they then made up fresh. The place is almost clean. The bed itself is just a mat on a board and we again had to pump up our Expeds to get a good nights rest. For dinner we opted for noodle bowls from the grocery so as not to have to eat here in the restaurant. All that said we did have a good rest. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4467/...32a58975_b.jpgMandalgovi Contour-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Today it is very windy, but it should be to our backs most of the day. It is 301 km to Dalanzadgad.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4366/...2a84685c_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-06 at 17.00.20 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr It got warmer from 15 at 10 am to 30 by afternoon. The terrain gets flatter and more sandy thru the Middle Gobi. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4366/...fc5b93b2_b.jpgDalandzadgad Contour-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
There are large herds of Camels all along the way.
https://youtu.be/oLHEyfBhzrw https://youtu.be/fOTLYLuewWY https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4458/...84234cc1_b.jpgDalandzadgad Contour-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4401/...ae4db4db_b.jpgHeading South Mongolia-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4416/...45721640_b.jpgHeading South Mongolia-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4411/...77403874_b.jpgHeading South Mongolia by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4498/...8f444ced_b.jpgDalandzadgad Contour-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4363/...a3aeeed8_b.jpgDalandzadgad Contour-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The manager of the hotel speaks some English and he was able to arrange a driver with a Land Rover for us for the next 3 days. First Sara has had enough of the sand and a trip to the Gobi Desert is out on the 650, which is a lot to handle in sand and mud. Orvar has been sick for a few days and he has decided to ride in the truck as well. This means we can all enjoy the desert and Dan and Trevor can ride with naked bikes! The car and driver is 60$ CDN a day plus diesel a deal not to have to ride the dunes with luggage. The driver arrived to the hotel the first evening to sort out the planned route and the provisioning.
We met again at 10 am and packed up the gear. It was then off to the grocery store for food for 5 for 3 days and then gas. He also toted 30 L of gas for the guys if they needed it. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4336/...97998fa6_b.jpgGobi Loop by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4432/...ae359569_b.jpgYolyn Am by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Our plan it to go thru the national park at Yolin Am, through Dungenee Canyon, then head towards the big dunes at Khongoryn Els, and finally to the Flaming Cliffs.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4442/...4c0c1101_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-11 at 10.44.21 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4355/...7a2c9c05_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-10 at 18.19.37 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4410/...617dec0f_b.jpgDalandzadgad Contour-16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4494/...50b97569_b.jpgDalandzadgad Contour-17 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The first 20 km were on the paved road that leaves DZ and eventually goes to China (foreign nationals can not cross here). We turned off the paved road here on to the dirt track and into the national park.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4359/...9a9ff644_b.jpgGobi Loop-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Dan and Trevor were ahead and when they got to the control gate the guard came out and said the entry was 10,000 T each or 5$. That seemed steep and so Trevor ever the practical one said to the guy “ let me see the ticket”. On it was clearly marked the entry for Mongolians 300 and others 3,000! Bingo trying to rip us off. Just after this we pulled up with the truck. The driver said to him 4 tickets and the guard took the 12,00 and said nothing else! The road into the Vulture Mouth Canyon (Yoliin Am) is about 14 km on a winding dirt road. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4341/...39f2f4b2_b.jpgGobi Loop-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
You park and then walk about and hour to the slot canyon. This has ice for quite a few months a year, but not in summer of course.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4381/...2e3a2006_b.jpgGobi Loop-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4460/...5e04d78e_b.jpgYolyn Am-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4436/...7a055777_b.jpgGobi Loop-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4334/...9b36889e_b.jpgGobi Loop-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4361/...9916049a_b.jpgGobi Loop-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4408/...820fd099_b.jpgYolyn Am-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4406/...88e8f524_b.jpgYolyn Am-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4333/...ae1d7b62_b.jpgYolyn Am-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4339/...9635f1a9_b.jpgGobi Loop-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Arriving back to the parking lot some excited local ran up to show us the video of the Ibek they just saw on the hillside! We consoled ourselves by making lunch there before we headed out again. Our driver speaks no English and despite that we managed to communicate well with a combination of drawings, google translate and hand gestures.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4333/...df38ed5e_b.jpgYolyn Am-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr From here we back tracked to the main track and then made a left on the Dugany Am or Dungenee Valley road. This is a beautiful wide green valley to start and the road is gravel and a bit curvy. There is one steep climb that the Prado had a challenge with. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4349/...dd95b9a7_b.jpgGobi Loop-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr The valley gets narrower and narrower and the road is one direction (south) only. About half way the road starts to be very washed out and in fact the river is flowing down it for several km. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4370/...44d06ff9_b.jpgGobi Loop-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The narrowest part is near the end of the valley and the truck just fits thru. This is blocked with ice until July and can be impassable even after the ice has melted.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4411/...05221d48_b.jpgGobi Loop-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4407/...9bf12dc3_b.jpgGobi Loop-17 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4412/...282e1d0e_b.jpgGobi Loop-18 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
When you are leaving the valley you are dumped out onto the plain with a number of tracks. Then we continued for 20 km on a track across the semidesert grassland and you cross over the main paved road we had left earlier on the other side of the mountains. Here the track continues west.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4390/...36d6f68e_b.jpgGobi Loop-23 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4342/...758c8e9e_b.jpgGobi Loop-25 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We were ahead in the truck and really flying. The driver kept a keen eye for the guys to see if they were behind us. We saw the headlights lights, but just after this we did not know they stopped. Dan’s bike was dead (loose battery ground again) and poor Trevor had to book it to catch up to us. 120 km/h on the track can be hairy. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4386/...b4393aba_b.jpgGobi Loop-26 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4451/...72d612b1_b.jpgYolyn Am-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
After about 100 Km we could start to see some of the beginnings of the Gobi Dunes.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4397/...53db43e4_b.jpgGobi Loop-27 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr It was now 615 and time to quit for the day. We searched around for about 15 min and found a flat spot at the base of a ridge that was out of the wind. We set up camp and cooked up a pasta dinner. The driver has his gear to bed down in the back of the truck. We woke up to light rain that became heavy as we were packing up. Luckily we could shelter under the rear door of the truck to get some breakfast and coffee in us. The driver had a butane stove and so when we woke he had hot water ready for us. we packed all the gear in the back and all 5 of us got in the truck to wait it out. You could see the black clouds coming at us, but after 20 minutes it lightened and after 30 it stopped raining all together. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4407/...9a44acf0_b.jpgYolyn Am-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Who thought you would need rain gear in one of the driest places on earth. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4374/...f6dd9f67_b.jpgYolyn Am-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4412/...2f959929_b.jpgYolyn Am-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Our plan is to get to the big dunes and then to camp at the Flaming cliffs.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4403/...83646a35_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-10 at 18.19.57 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We set out again west and it was about 50 km to “the big brown sand”or Khongoryn Els, which are 180 km from DZ. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4407/...e3738751_b.jpgGobi Loop-28 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr The dunes are up to 300 m high, 12 km wide, and 100 km long. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4402/...c6e8db89_b.jpgGobi Loop-36 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4342/...72de77a6_b.jpgGobi Loop-30 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4416/...ce6e4d58_b.jpgGobi Loop-33 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4375/...e748ca7a_b.jpgGobi Loop-35 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The track is initially gravel, but gets progressively more sandy especially after we turned south toward the actual dunes.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4350/...779a2088_b.jpgGobi Loop-31 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4423/...70bcc4de_b.jpgGobi Loop-34 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4377/...8cb02b28_b.jpgGobi Loop-38 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4421/...08222978_b.jpgGobi Loop-41 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4393/...5f5d45b1_b.jpgGobi Loop-42 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4403/...8f7b6542_b.jpgGobi Loop-44 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4407/...5c7d87c7_b.jpgGobi Loop-37 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Trevor had one sand nap and the Africa twin took about 15 min to recover before it would start. It sure was nice to have the truck as Dan was way ahead and we could turn around to see what was keeping Trevor and help him out before Dan turned back.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4332/...dbd918ec_b.jpgGobi Loop-39 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr The worst of the sand was about 10 km and then in fact the track got better after that on the way to the big dunes. Here the guys had some fun with hill climbing the sand, but it was pretty steep and pretty soft. Certainly not like riding our dirt bikes in Oregon with paddle tires!! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4441/...e55e0102_b.jpgGobi Loop-48 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4374/...1e839002_b.jpgGobi Loop-46 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4441/...28b20db7_b.jpgGobi Loop-52 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4389/...254e8667_b.jpgGobi Loop-49 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4359/...f82cf1fe_b.jpgGobi Loop-53 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4378/...648e9cc2_b.jpgGobi Loop-54 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4357/...3f727075_b.jpgGobi Loop-50 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4348/...8dc2c777_b.jpgGobi Loop-51 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr DAN'S HIGH MARK ON THE BIG DUNES ON VIDEO HERE https://youtu.be/9DuDKUU0F-s |
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