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The weather held off but it was pretty cold and windy. We had booked into a nice hotel with all the comforts for 30 Euros!! Tried some Russian bubbles as well. There were several Mongol Rally cars here too.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4359/...bb5d11f5_c.jpgUlan Ude-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4358/...c2d39dfc_c.jpgUlan Ude by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4435/...ba043934_c.jpgUlan Ude Russia-21 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4427/...3578ce60_c.jpgUlan Ude Russia by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4381/...3066927b_c.jpgUlan Ude-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The next good thing was there is a launderette a few blocks away as well. The hotel wanted to charge by the piece and this would be about 100$ where the laundry mat was 6$. The very nice lady here did the wash, dry, and fold. You even pay at a kiosk.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4350/...db26b52f_c.jpgUlan Ude-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4369/...87391cb3_c.jpgUlan Ude-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4355/...e2165f40_c.jpgUlan Ude-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4428/...d3e7134f_c.jpgUlan Ude-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We also found a great Chinese restaurant close by! NO goat or mutton! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4412/...fa4fca9a_c.jpgUlan Ude Russia-22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4362/...569ed39c_c.jpgUlan Ude Russia-23 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The houses near the river are all old wood buildings with elaborate windows. They look like fire traps.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4411/...e391b676_c.jpgUlan Ude Russia-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4368/...c7e03296_c.jpgUlan Ude Russia-15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4356/...68084fca_c.jpgUlan Ude Russia-16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4352/...853af23c_c.jpgUlan Ude Russia-17 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4363/...6edcf3be_c.jpgUlan Ude Russia-18 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The original plan today was to head out to Lake Baikal and find a place to stay overnight. The options are ger camps or cabins. Since it is forecast for rain we are not too keen on tenting. The ride out is 169 km and getting out of the city was easy.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4343/...16bf16c0_z.jpgScreen Shot 2017-08-26 at 15.45.55 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr About 25 km from town you head over a pass and it was raining foggy and 5 degrees. It improved quite a bit on the far side at least as far as the rain. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4438/...6968c8d1_c.jpgLake Baikal-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4425/...2f31aab3_c.jpgLake Baikal-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The “beaches” along the lake south of the towns were covered in garbage! The wind is howling and the lake is white caps. We arrived to the Ger place in Gremiatchinsk, that we had seen on bookings and it was totally tragic. It is a few ratty gers in a sand parking lot with the full brunt of the wind. The next town Tourka is over is 6 km and they do have some other accommodation, but it is sketch and double the price of the comfy hotel we had last night. We did have a nice lunch with a view of the lake.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4399/...25685ab5_c.jpgRussia Lake Biakal by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4381/...3451f320_c.jpgLake Baikal-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4439/...441be0e4_c.jpgLake Baikal-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4433/...47d0e2da_b.jpgLake Baikal-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4421/...20217a23_c.jpgLake Baikal-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4392/...dcdab0d8_c.jpgLake Baikal-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4360/...52cbf41d_c.jpgLake Baikal-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4344/...79c3ee23_c.jpgLake Baikal by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
So back to Ulan Ude it is!!! The trip back was much nicer as the sun was shining. They thought it was very funny when we showed back up at the hotel.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4343/...16bf16c0_z.jpgScreen Shot 2017-08-26 at 15.45.55 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4408/...9aba68d0_c.jpgLake Baikal-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr This small trip had also convinced us that we do not want to ride 1400 km thru more Siberian forrest to the eastern Mongolian border. This seems now a crazy waste of time and tire tread. We will wait out the bad weather here for a couple of days and then head back to Mongolia. We can then have 2 weeks to loops about as we like. We are basically hiding out the few days of rainy weather in a comfortable place with great wifi. This means we have all been able to catch up the last 6 weeks of the blogs. This also means we can avoid the 10 km of the road that turn to a mud pit in the rain (it took Nicholas 3 hours). |
There is Yamaha dealership here and we stocked up on Motul chain lube. Trevor also got some new winter gloves and Orvar bought some fork oil to change his out (you can not buy in UB).
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4394/...fba48acd_b.jpgUlan Ude Yamaha by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4331/...50d1683f_b.jpgUlan Ude Yamaha-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4354/...1191555c_b.jpgUlan Ude Yamaha-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4346/...50b01f98_b.jpgUlan Ude Yamaha-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We also ran into our Icelandic friend Gudmundur and his new riding partners Edouard and Mathilde from France. He had checked our SPOT and saw us across the tracks from them. We probably would have met anyway since their bikes were parked out front of their hotel and the guys walked by there and went in anyway. We made a plan to go out for Chinese tonight. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4390/...55c2e8ae_b.jpgRussia Ulan Ude by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4357/...bc76e317_b.jpgRussia Ulan Ude-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4411/...0cac839c_b.jpgRussia Ulan Ude-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The forecast is for no rain today, but it was still only 6 degrees when we set out the 230 km to the border. The plan is to get there and depending on the weather and the time for the border we will with stay at the border town of Altanbulag where there is 1 hotel or go 120 km to Darkhan where there are lots of hotels.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4382/...2d14c6c6_z.jpgScreen Shot 2017-08-28 at 18.48.29 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We stopped again at the same and only spot to have some coffee and soup to warm up and this is 80 km from the border. The road was dry and no issue with mud. There is a police check just before the border and they record your passport info. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4489/...237736af_b.jpgDarkan Contour by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4358/...d8ea94a3_b.jpgDarkan Contour-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We gassed up to get rid of some Rubles at the border. Then lined up at the exit gate. They kept letting all the trucks in and we had to wait over 45 minutes just to get access to the border area.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4484/...eb876fa6_b.jpgDarkan Contour-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr From here you ride 300 m to the customs clearance. You are directed to park outside and there are vehicles going in both directions here. This place is total chaos. You have to go up the stairs 2 flights (follow the pictures of cars and the arrows). There is a room with desks behind glass, a bunch of numbers are posted on the glass, and 50 people waving are passports and customs documents covered with dozens of stamps. After 15 min of no queuing going on and only 1 of the 3 agents seeming to be doing anything Trevor pushed his paper to the front and said CANADA. The agent took his paper immediately, scanned his QRS code, signed it and gave it right back. That was enough for all of us to then do the same and get served right away. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4407/...dd7956dd_b.jpgDarkan Contour-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Then you go outside and the same mean Russian lady as last week was there to check your paper and then 3 agents searched your luggage. They kept asking if we had weapons or drugs specifically Tramadol. 1.5 hours and we were finally done. Then you ride 300 m to the Mongolian entry gate. There is no agent there and we waited until a truck came and they opened the other gate. We were told to follow him thru the decontamination bath of spuge. Here you are supposed to then stop and return back to the guardhouse. The want your passport and moto paper and give you a paper with boxes on it for your stamps. They enter all your data into the computer. Then you ride down 400m and park under the covered area. Here the agent stamps your paper the first time. You go inside to passport control to get an entry stamp. Then you must pay for the decontamination. Here there is a bit of a scam as the local are paying 1000 T (.50$) but the woman asked us for 100R ($2) Trevor called her on it and she gave us the local price. Next you go to customs clearance for the bosses stamp. He enters your data also by chicken pecking on the key board. Then you go out to get a final stamp on the paper and you are done. 1.5 hours as well. Then you ride 300 m to the exit gate where they check you have all your stamps. There is again a fake insurance person and a tax office outside the border zone and we just rode by. It is cold an windy and now 4 pm, but we headed south. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4474/...8685be2c_b.jpgDarkan Contour-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
In Darkan we made for the first hotel “Jasper” and it was cheap, clean and had nuclear hot water for the showers. There was another biker here Mark who lives in China and just bought a Russian bike and is headed???. They also produced a decent chicken “stew-Fry” for dinner. Breakfast was hot and included for 9$usd per person per night not bad.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4390/...0f9a6283_b.jpgDarkan Contour-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4468/...651c06d8_b.jpgDarkan Contour-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4483/...8c07678a_b.jpgDarkan Contour-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr What a difference a day makes. It is clear skies and sunny. It is still 10 degrees however. The ride south will be so much more pleasant than the rainy cold day when we went north. The plan was to ride 225 km south to the airport, pick up our parcel, meet the guys at Oasis for lunch and then ride on to the Ghenghis monument complex. From there we would head to the next town Erdene for the night after 315 km. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4405/...7dbdaa05_z.jpgScreen Shot 2017-08-28 at 18.17.26 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Dan and Sara set out ahead at 11 am as they needed to go to UPS and the Customs clearance at the airport and we left the guys to tighten their chains. We did see them once when we stopped for coffee about 90 km from the city and then not until the Oasis. We luckily had asked for some instructions from the Oasis staff on where to go at the airport as there is no signage. Go to the red building near the DHL in a south east direction….In fact even with this we had to ask locals to make make 2 calls for further details. The second was made by a DHL guy who saw us driving back and forth. He made a few calls and then walked Dan behind the “MIS training centre” to find the customs office to get his paper work. Then they both went back to the DHL office where they actually had the UPS packages. This is 2 stators courtesy of Electrosport! Thanks so much. Dan was in the secure employees only area with the UPS guy and he had his colleague pull the parcel. Then they discussed the duty it looked like it was going to be over 150$! After some discussion the package guy walked away and UPS guys said to Dan “I have to go make a call” wink wink… in other words take your package are go!
UPS in the red tower https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4334/...1a55e908_b.jpgUB2 Contour-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Across the road from UPS is the Customs office, but around the back https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4483/...794ab76f_b.jpgUB2 Contour by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr It is now 230 and we are 21 km from the Oasis….Traffic is horrendous in UB as usual and once we hit the city and were 7 km away this took over 45 minutes. It is just grid lock and nothing moves for long periods of time. This is poor urban planning with a single thru road in the city. That said the guys had had even worse traffic the way they came and actually arrived just before us even with our hour at the airport. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4423/...f0b3aa12_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-08-28 at 18.20.15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Trevor is not feeling well and so we booked a hotel near by with a private bath on Booking.com. This is 1.3 km away and the route is on a very bad dirt road full of massive holes and ends at the hotel (not where it says it is on booking.com and it is not even a functioning hotel!!) Back to the Oasis where at least the dorm room 1 is empty and close to the bathroom. They have a ger as well for us and the beds here are soooo comfy. They have good food, but the kitchen closes at 6 and so we pre-ordered and put it away in the fridge for later. We were all set up with the big screen for the season finale of Game of Thrones. Trevor was much better by morning. |
Today we will set out east from UB towards Chinggis in 329 km, but first we plan to visit the Ghengis Khan Statue Complex 48 km east of the city.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4361/...9c5817a7_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-08-30 at 15.26.03 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4377/...3f5908e7_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-08-30 at 15.27.33 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr This is a 40 m tall statue of Ghengis on horseback said to have cost 4.1 million USD. It is made of stainless steel. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4389/...9b42165c_b.jpgGhengis Complex Contour by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4500/...db982f21_b.jpgGhengis Complex Contour-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4333/...b756fee7_b.jpgMongolia Chiggis Khan Monument-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4442/...9e77dc87_b.jpgMongolia Chiggis Khan Monument-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4361/...1d2d2444_b.jpgMongolia Chiggis Khan Monument-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4437/...231c7b38_b.jpgMongolia Chiggis Khan Monument-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4427/...2619194a_b.jpgMongolia Chiggis Khan Monument-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4404/...cf1b1f7b_b.jpgMongolia Chiggis Khan Monument-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4414/...a5f62798_b.jpgThe Great Khan by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4409/...ef956a96_b.jpgMongolia Chiggis Khan Monument-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4346/...7b5e0f14_b.jpgMongolia Chiggis Khan Monument by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We visited the neck of the horse for a great selfie spot. The biggest issue we had here was the hordes of tourists we had to keep chasing off the bikes. They would go over a sit on the for photos if we walked away. In the end we moved then up behind the building of the monument base.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4343/...b2de1f4f_b.jpgMongolia Chiggis Khan Monument-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4411/...b46d9b7f_b.jpgMongolia Chiggis Khan Monument-15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We did not leave here until after 1 and brewed up a coffee on the side of the road. The road is paved and there is little traffic once you leave the city. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4345/...4fe752c6_b.jpgUB To Chiggis-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4375/...ea3c42e1_b.jpgGhengis Complex Contour-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We decided when we were about 100 km from Chinggis that we would wild camp and so we stopped at a small store and stocked up on water and supplies. We found a track from the road and went about 2-3 km to find a sheltered valley to set up.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4367/...7018ab37_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4465/...33700ff9_b.jpgGhengis Complex Contour-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4466/...344239ab_b.jpgGhengis Complex Contour-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4508/...c04665e1_b.jpgGhengis Complex Contour-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4340/...318e67ce_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4388/...2eda5fd1_b.jpgGhengis Complex Contour-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4355/...c5a0990b_b.jpgGhengis Complex Contour-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4362/...1c4c62df_b.jpgUB To Chiggis-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4392/...a505180e_b.jpgUB To Chiggis-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We made some noodle soup for dinner. We finally hiked up the hill and just about missed the sun set.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4424/...de304878_b.jpgUB To Chiggis-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr After dark is was a bit cooler about 10 degrees and the guys started a cow pie fire. Not 20 minutes later a truck pulled up and the Mongolian guy came over for a drink of vodka we offered him and to give us some advise on the fire protocol with cow poop. We had some amazing stars again tonight and a cozy nights sleep in our tents. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4349/...c115d3cf_b.jpgUB To Chiggis-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4344/...c39231e8_b.jpgUB To Chiggis-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4396/...1911ba19_b.jpgUB To Chiggis-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4340/...51fb4fe9_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4361/...f3374095_b.jpgUB To Chiggis-15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Outstanding pics and story, it all looks amazing! I particularly like the cow poop protocol, something you will have to share with me sometime :clap:
Keep on keepin on.......... |
Quote:
Thanks Gino! YOU two MUST come to Mongolia!!!! Or maybe join for the Karakorum? The key is dry of course and break it into cookie size bits for optimal burn! Hello from 3 days from Lhassa!!!! SP |
We were enjoying our coffee when a goat herder rode up on a motorcycle. He was interested in the bikes and we offered him some food and coffee. We also lubed his chain for him “all bikers are brothers”.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4430/...c5a81379_b.jpgUB To Chiggis-17 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4332/...40933c35_b.jpgUB To Chiggis-16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
There is only 70 km to go to Chinngis and we set out about 11. First it is back to the main road. It is a bit rough in sections and there are quite a few large holes, but smooth in some parts too.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4483/...8167102c_b.jpgChinggis Contour-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4481/...cbc013fe_b.jpgChinggis Contour-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4407/...ae0907b9_b.jpgUB To Chiggis-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4375/...70056f47_b.jpgUB To Chiggis-18 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4431/...c8bd25f3_b.jpgUB To Chiggis-20 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4373/...9b6c4669_b.jpgUB To Chiggis-21 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4332/...1c816177_b.jpgUB To Chiggis-22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4348/...297b59d3_b.jpgUB To Chiggis-23 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
This is a bigger town than we thought and there are several hotel, but only one is really any good. The rooms are nice, but the beds are just a board with a thin mat on it and so we had to sleep on our Exped mats. The food here in the restaurant is pretty good as well. Sara will check in here for the next 3 days while the guys take off to explore more of the remote eastern reaches of Mongolia. Time for her and the 650 to have a break from the sand and have some ALONE time! That means sleeping in, reading, blogging, and catching up on some Netflix!
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4411/...bd21b08b_b.jpgChinggis Contour-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4350/...2f23da66_b.jpgChinggis Contour-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4434/...879d8e43_b.jpgUB To Chiggis-24 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The guys are headed to Dadal the birthplace of the great Ghengis Khan and then back here to Chinggis. It is 255 km loop.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4376/...5dc01ea3_z.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-06 at 17.04.07 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4459/...6020029d_b.jpgChinggis Contour-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Into the land of Temujin, the boy who would be the Great Khan.
As with most places we visit I (Daniel) know almost nothing. Mongolia is no exception. Who knew that a country with few “actual” roads and even fewer that are paved that the Toyota Prius would be the locals vehicle of choice. So what about my preconceived notions of the man who would one day rule the largest continuous empire the world has ever known. To find out we head into the north east of Mongolia a place that the Lonely Planet says “only super adventures dare to tread” in search of the town of Dadal (AKA Bayan-Ovoo)the birth place of the boy Temujin and perhaps the undiscovered resting place of the man named Chinggis Khan. Its not often that butterflies flutter about my guts but day one heading north from Chinggis city things were churning. Why do so few moto adventures or tourists venture out this way? Seriously “what’s the issue” I’m asking my myself as we leave the last pavement we will see in days. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4397/...b3463a52_z.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-25 at 19.20.19 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr So it begins, track left it is…… https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4424/...245bc8fe_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
First thing confirmed as in many places here in Mongolia there are magnificent horses and lots of them!
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4470/...3e561318_b.jpgEastern Mongolia Loop by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We are on the right track as cairns mark our way. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4369/...cfbc724a_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4391/...99b15d40_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr A quick stop for lunch and a view. Many comments amongst ourselves about the increased lushness of the valleys. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4350/...38a3a9d6_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Making great time on firm tracks! Again everything is soooo lush!! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4373/...b83dd8fe_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr The green comes from water and where there is water it will cross our path. The first of many fun crossings. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4402/...31a0987b_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4394/...7cd84348_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Among the wild we roll through small towns with BIG plans (note the fancy street lamps).
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4380/...d24b9482_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Just as we are feel ultra-adventurous a Prius comes out of nowhere and handles the tracks as easily as our bikes do. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4418/...dbe3442c_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr More stunning valleys as we continue to blast north. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4401/...381fa8b4_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4346/...1464c402_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We popped out of a valley and at the crest of a hill the road leads into a sand track but just before there is a an arch that says we have arrived. Dadal the birth place of the greatest conquer the world has ever know. This is the gateway to the land that gave us Chinggis Khan.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4403/...b70daec6_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-20 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4416/...f6e175b8_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-17 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr A simple but somehow moving monument of the great Khan when he was just a boy named Temujin. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4410/...e535a1b8_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr A kind of cheesy monument to a man who vastly changed history just outside the town of Dadal. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4440/...44d81382_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-24 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4354/...2b40874e_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-26 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
After meeting some nice locals (as we always manage to do) it was back on the trail to explore more of the Khans roots.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4407/...9024175e_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-06 at 17.04.41 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4398/...1f46844d_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-27 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4337/...12aa2a4b_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-29 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4427/...3e269c18_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-30 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4349/...cf06cd0f_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-32 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4374/...b6b02aae_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-33 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4342/...1ae1ca85_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-34 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Sometimes our exploring goes a touch to far and we find ourselves just riding in the forest with backtracking in order.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4394/...64c51a89_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-35 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4405/...db70e6d6_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-36 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4434/...e67c6854_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-37 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Sometimes it leads to an amazing track!!! We find ourselves stumbling upon a set of three rough log bridges that clearly haven’t been used in a long while. An assessment is made and repairs done, we have found a way out of a valley and over the pass. Stunning adventure riding!! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4415/...8d9aa5b3_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-38 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4373/...cd1a5373_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-39 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We are rewarded with a valley that is breath taking so we stop for lunch naturally!
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4331/...d1d14891_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-40 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4352/...5f107bf0_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-41 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4380/...17f5e008_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-42 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4343/...be2383ae_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-43 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4427/...3a0a989d_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-44 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Bucaramanga to zapatoca
most epic ride ever you spelled Zapatoca wrong
i agree i live and work in Colombia with my G650 gs Bucaramanga is one of the best places in Colombia and i have worked there a lot Colombia is a amazing place and having lived all over Bc and Canada i don't think i will be back well maybe to collect my Pension |
Quote:
Thanks for the comment. :oops2: |
We make our way to a track that follows the river and “appears” to be leading us back to the main track??? In a word wrong.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4382/...ae8ce112_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-45 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4410/...f07d6b29_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-46 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Can a person really go wrong exploring this land? If so we haven’t found it. Every turn right or wrong leads us on to a track we love. After a long day, the few wrong turns seem so right around the camp fire. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4392/...8bc6e8ec_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-48 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4392/...80a546cd_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-50 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Early the next day we run up against another river and there is no going back or going around but there is a very cool truck. All aboard!
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4398/...10fd1bf2_z.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-06 at 17.05.05 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Riding the ferry Mongolian style https://youtu.be/Nm2W0inBtBU https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4344/...e71f43c5_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-51 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4351/...5c598fb7_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-52 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4377/...7273a316_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-53 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
At times things seem so remote. Literally nothing other than the tracks and then BAM a road sign.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4432/...450a6120_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-06 at 17.06.06 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4383/...6dfd846c_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-59 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Not so strange or nearly out of place. More cairns and stunning scenery. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4430/...4fe4fd05_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-57 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Closer to the towns we see a strange creature scurrying about the steppe. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4425/...39aa50fb_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-60 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr In the end did we discover the resting place of the great Khan or perhaps gain insight into how he came to rule over such a vast empire? No of course not but wow what a place to roam about on ones adventure bike. Special is an understatement and fortunate doesn’t begin to express how I feel about getting the chance to have done it. For all the rest there is a great BBC documentary on the life of the Chinggis Khan. Check it out and then get over here and discover his native land for yourself before the tourist buses make it up this way. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4376/...44a27f38_b.jpgEastern Mogolia Loop-61 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Well Sara is fancy free and ALONE!! for 4 days!!! Time to explore the town, rest, and catch up on some Netflix.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4354/...006f23b3_b.jpgChinggis Contour-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4488/...54f2465e_b.jpgChinggis Contour-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4342/...de70e5ea_b.jpgChinggis Contour-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4376/...ccff94ce_b.jpgChinggis Contour-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4395/...5167b16f_b.jpgChinggis Contour-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Mongolian breakfast
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4460/...46f204cf_b.jpgChinggis Contour-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr After having no-one who spoke English around for the last 4 days it was nice to meet Moses from Texas at breakfast this morning. I had actually contacted him about a month ago on ADV after seeing his RR and his trajectory. Small world that we end up in the same hotel in this small town in eastern Mongolia. The guys returned from their adventure mid day and rested up. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4363/...61c4a36b_b.jpgChinggis Contour-15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4362/...07322607_b.jpgChinggis Contour-16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4411/...65292770_b.jpgMoses by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Today we are starting out towards the Gobi Desert in the southeast of the Country. It is 875 KM to Dalanzadgad, which is the gateway to the Gobi.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4394/...fbd5766d_z.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-04 at 23.10.50 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We plan to do this in 2-3 days because of the distance, the spacing of the towns, and the cold rainy weather. It was pouring at breakfast, but cleared up a bit when we finally left at 1030. It is 340 km to Zuunmod just south of Ulanbaatar. We hope to take the cut off road from Nalaikh to Zuunmod and it look half paved on google earth. This was we can avoid riding thru the horrific traffic congestion in UB a third time. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4410/...b7ab770f_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-04 at 23.14.00 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4484/...7a988285_b.jpgUB3 Contour by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
It started pouring about 100 km down the road at it was very very windy and 5 degrees! After 210 km we reached Baganuur and stopped at at cafe to warm up, have lunch, and kill 2 hours waiting out the storm which was moving past us to Chinngis. Note the ceiling design!
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4377/...0cd9810e_b.jpgUB3 Contour-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr When we left is had stopped raining and after another 30 km the sun was out and it was 10 degrees. We stopped in at the Ghenngis complex to see if the store that had these great Mongolia stickers was open as it was closed last time we were here. It was not, but the ticket girl asked around and decided to grab them for us and sell them to me. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4363/...20aaa88f_b.jpgUB3 Contour-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
From here we were much more comfortable temperature wise, but it was still very windy. We arrived to the cut off road and found the entire 25 km is paved. We arrived to Zuunmod at just after 5. The only hotel listed on the GPS and maps.me was defunct, the second “hotel” across the road was now an apartment building, and the third down the road was very very sketch ( “perfect place if it was dark and raining”). We asked a taxi driver and he said the other spot listed was Ender Dov 9 km away and on the road south. This turns out to be a defunct hotel that is now a private home and a moldy leaking Ger camp. No way. Options are camping we would need to go back to town for at least water, but we are all pretty cold and it is windy and 9 degrees and the sun is still out, hotel in UB and drive thru town(AGGGGH), Go back to the Oasis and have to back track on the cross road and come into the city by the very easy access from the east. It says it is the same time, but it would take twice as long to come in from the west.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4424/...af01b4e6_z.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-06 at 16.58.56 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We messaged them at Oasis and they had 4 beds inside for us. We decided to go there now for Orvar to get his bike service now instead of after the Gobi and so now we will not have to come back to UB before we go to China. It was like coming home….nice warm welcome, comfy beds, hot shower. They even reopened the kitchen for us to cook us some dinner. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4373/...7043f498_b.jpgOasis by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We had a warm and cozy night here at the Oasis. Orvar has arranged his service for today. The rest of us will do a little sightseeing here in UB. We plan to taxi in and then walk the 5 km back from the centre, visit the “government” department store and a local handicraft shop. We finally found a money exchange to get rid of the Rubles we had left over. Then it was time for some real Mongolian hot pot for lunch. There was a surprisingly Costco like store near the Oasis.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4412/...f5a94c9d_b.jpgUB3 Contour-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4413/...6364ec26_b.jpgUB3 Contour-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4433/...7d6faec7_b.jpgUB3 Contour-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4427/...7f112b83_b.jpgUB3 Contour-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4484/...25f7460e_b.jpgUB3 Contour-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
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 |
There was of course a decontamination station when we entered the next district.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4439/...126d6f38_b.jpgDalandzadgad Contour-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We stopped at a road side place and tried to get food that was NOT goat!! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4487/...0c5f154b_b.jpgDalandzadgad Contour-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We arrived to Dalanzadgad about 230 and headed to the “best hotel” in town. We were in desperate need of a reprieve from the usual. This is the Khan Uul and is a nice western style hotel of higher standard for a whopping 60$ CDN for a very nice room, hot water on demand, and a real breakfast. They also have a fairly hip pub with very good food and very cold beers. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4417/...819dd6b4_b.jpgIMG_9678 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4428/...055ac4e8_b.jpgIMG_9683 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4337/...2a9c240f_b.jpgDalandzadgad Contour-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4492/...01f86747_b.jpgDalandzadgad Contour-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4458/...16c9f1d9_b.jpgDalandzadgad Contour-15 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 |
Now it was time to enjoy the view and for some “noodle soups” and canned fruit salad for us and lunch for the bikes.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4354/...e3cf56fe_b.jpgGobi Loop-57 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4420/...17a8fda1_b.jpgGobi Loop-55 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4408/...16b0540d_b.jpgGobi Loop-56 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4496/...6c2af5d0_b.jpgYolyn Am-16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4363/...dc1638db_b.jpgYolyn Am-15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We wanted to make it as far and the flaming cliffs tonight and this was about 105 km.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4403/...83646a35_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-10 at 18.19.57 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr It is nice to have the local driver as he knows the best tracks and routes that would be the most fun to ride. We set off north east and back into the national park. The track is nice and firm and quite curvy. This cairn is piled with Ibek horns. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4427/...646242ab_b.jpgGobi Loop-61 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4394/...184d18ce_b.jpgGobi Loop-59 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4356/...8294eaee_b.jpgGobi Loop-62 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4416/...8d4a95a4_b.jpgGobi Loop-58 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
After the National park you are back our in the semi desert with so many options!!! We stopped at this animal water station to clean up our pasta dishes from last night. There are a few Ger camp along the way.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4423/...3c71ba40_b.jpgGobi Loop-64 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4386/...f433d8d9_b.jpgGobi Loop-65 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4429/...d1c3d9be_b.jpgGobi Loop-60 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We stopped in Bulgan town for gas as it was easier than the jerry in the truck, diesel, cold beer, and a bit more water. It is 14 km more to Bayanzag or the Flaming Cliffs. There have been a huge number of dinosaur bones and eggs found here ( most are in the Museum of Natural History in NYC) . We had been told it was windy there and the driver had called someone who spoke English to see if we really wanted to go there or just back to DZ and shorten the tour to 2 days. We said we wanted to at least check it out. The guys are pretty tired and another 100 km off road at this point would be a challenge. We blasted across the very flat steppe and in the distance you could see these small red formations. We thought is this it. It is not until you arrive there that you can appreciate the beauty and geology. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4432/...9de27920_b.jpgGobi Loop-66 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4426/...b7193f9b_b.jpgGobi Loop-67 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4414/...a2bfaf28_b.jpgGobi Loop-69 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
It was very windy up on the ridge, but the driver suggested we go around and down to the base of the cliffs. We did this down a steep hard mud road and around the base of the cliffs, but the best spot seamed to be near the place where we entered.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4352/...469ffea9_b.jpgGobi Loop-89 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4345/...4ddec07c_b.jpgGobi Loop-90 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4345/...4028540b_b.jpgGobi Loop-70 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr It was still gusting and since there was mostly sand it was a challenge to find a spot to peg the tents. In fact our tent was secured with rocks on each peg we thought until a bit gust tried to blow it away. We moved to more solid ground and the pegs held much better. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4437/...f76c20dd_b.jpgGobi Loop-73 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We cooked up a big beef stew with couscous. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4345/...05c90a3e_b.jpgGobi Loop-74 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The driver is a bit of a big man and when we saw him heading up the steep cliff for what we thought was to see the sun set we all B lined up there. The sun set and the light on the cliffs was amazing, but he had really gone up there for cell coverage!
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4394/...4b9060c5_b.jpgGobi Loop-71 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4434/...1b929a99_b.jpgGobi Loop-72 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4421/...461191c0_b.jpgGobi Loop-75 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4423/...bfb6c4ca_b.jpgGobi Loop-78 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4393/...a239cab4_b.jpgGobi Loop-79 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4421/...bc376539_b.jpgGobi Loop-81 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4406/...7dee4944_b.jpgGobi Loop-76 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
As soon as the sun went down the wind died down. This was except for about 5 min of hard gusting wind and heavy rain just as we were getting ready for bed. This meant a hasty retreat to the tents, but it was literally over in minutes and there was no wind for the rest of the night. We had a calm nights rest in the silence and a beautiful sunny morning for a leisurely breakfast.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4405/...0aa6f971_b.jpgGobi Loop-86 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We set off back around the cliffs and then up the less steep slope to get back up to the plain. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4422/...0d5cf479_b.jpgGobi Loop-85 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4366/...eb71f9f9_b.jpgGobi Loop-91 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4405/...32f90313_b.jpgGobi Loop-92 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
It is 90 km to town and this is directly across the steppe. There are literally dozens of parallel tracks at times. We came across a few ger camps too.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4377/...f1a3fde1a1.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-10 at 18.20.19 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4414/...f848424b_b.jpgGobi Loop-98 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4336/...2aa08d23_b.jpgGobi Loop-93 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4417/...81bb88ce_b.jpgGobi Loop-96 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4372/...0d22d127_b.jpgGobi Loop-97 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Three day tour of the Gobi https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4354/...588c9d70_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-10 at 18.17.47 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Arriving back to the hotel we were very happy to have a long hot shower as we has sand everywhere. We even had some camel races in the dining room.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4489/...b3193daa_b.jpgIMG_9674 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4508/...2b2ebab4_b.jpgIMG_9677 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr It is Sept 10 and we have 4 days to be at the Chinese border. There are 2 choices 650 km on a track north east to the nearest pavement at Shainsand on which it will be sandy and washboard when not. This could take 3-4 days. This is still 214 km from the border. The other option is 1010 km on the paved road north then south to Sainshand and this will be an easy 2 days. Orvar is still not well either. We all opted for the easy route as no one wants to risk the time line for China. This means we have a day here and the guys decided to go out and do the loop thru Dungany Canyon again. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4412/...05e293e1_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-14 at 17.30.30 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4466/...f65eb0cd_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-10-09 at 18.43.03 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4491/...3df552f7_z.jpgScreen Shot 2017-10-09 at 18.43.38 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4513/...a5c2d748_b.jpgMongolia to border by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Today is a warm sunny day for making miles! We headed out just after 930, gassed up, and aired up the tires. Then it was 300 km north to Mandalgovi and with a very flat boring view.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4350/...4b69d8f2_b.jpgFILE0635 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4371/...1ca4cde0_b.jpgFILE0644 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4461/...e1d95978_b.jpgFILE0662 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We saw a lot of camels along the way. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4474/...fae2b121_b.jpgFILE0640 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4423/...ff222dee_b.jpgMongolia to border-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Speed control Mongolian style. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4510/...74e0e67b_b.jpgMongolia to border-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4332/...86c5d9d2_b.jpgMongolia to border-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We stopped here to cook up some lunch and then rode another 230 km to Zuunmod, which is where the UB bypass road cuts over to the south bound road. It is then 25 km across. The only issue was the train crossing was blocked off just before the south road and there were dozens of trucks waiting. They had a detour on the dirt along the train tracks back 5 km to the next under pass and then another 2 across to the highway.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4335/...4840f1d6_b.jpgFILE0668 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We arrived back to the highway at 415 and we had 185 km south to the next town of Choir. Sunset was at 710 so we had to press. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4486/...5850799b_b.jpgFILE0673 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
There are a few “hotels” here on the GPS, but several do not exist, one looks like a by the hour place, and one though 2.50$ a person is just too dirty. Riding around in circles in a shitty town after a very long day in failing light sucks!
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4429/...727e0aa8_b.jpgFILE0677 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Finally we headed in the dusk to the other side of town and found an actual hotel. It is clean, but there is no hot water. There is however a very good restaurant about 5 min walk away just on the highway. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4360/...191d7353_b.jpgMongolia to border-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We had not a bad night in the end despite the questionable comfort of the beds. It was cold and we snugged under 2 duvets. We had bought some fruit, yogurt, and muesli for breakfast and and ate in the room. We had only 227 km to go today to Sainshand, which is the capital of the region and a fairly large town.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4473/...81d7e106_z.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-14 at 17.28.28 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We knew there was at least one decent hotel with hot water. This puts us within striking distance of the Chinese border for day after with only 215 km. The road is straight and the scenery unchanging flat desert. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4501/...e9f22252_b.jpgMongolia to border-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4427/...52fe8431_b.jpgFILE0687 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Arriving to the town we can spot the hotel as it is on the hill above everything else. It is full of Taiwanese tourists. They do not serve food from 2-4 and so we walked into the town to the other hotel we considered and we had a very good meal there. There is quite a monument on the hill across from the hotel.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4357/...5f6f2303_b.jpgMongolia to border-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4490/...c579be00_b.jpgMongolia to border-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4414/...00db3bdf_b.jpgMongolia to border-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4491/...006e1617_b.jpgMongolia to border-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4413/...1502be60_b.jpgMongolia to border-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We will stay here tonight and then be in Zamin-Uud tomorrow. The plan is to be at the Mongolian border post at 8 am. We hope this gets us to the Chinese side by 9. Here we will meet our guide Tony, driver Mr Tang, and “the fixer” they have hired thru the customs broker to smooth the process of getting the bikes into the country. We were told we may have a medical check up for our Chinese drivers licenses, and we are not sure how long all the other bureaucracy will take. We spoke on Skype to Jah from Ride China today and he personally dropped all our paper work off at the border last week. Tonight we have some cold beers and a few episodes of Fargo session 3! Thanks to Trevor our media director. |
There was howling wind most of the night, but it was fairly calm in the Morning. Mongolian hotel breakfasts are always a challenge. Getting coffee can be impossible and today we had to bring our own Nescafe. The eggs if you are lucky are warm, but the weird hot dogs they serve never are. There is also often a side salad, which is not really a breakfast food. We are slow to get out today since we only had 215 km to go.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4388/...b20bdb93_z.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-14 at 17.28.48 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4363/...b57653dd_b.jpgFILE0688 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr The wind is a bit gusty, but mostly behind us. The terrain is again desert, but with a few more low hills curves at the end of the day. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4510/...15a425ca_b.jpgMongolia to border-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We arrived to Zamiin-Uud and about 7 km before the town the road is diverted to a deepish sand road for about a km before it turns back into a 4 lane paved road. The hotel choices in this town are all pretty bad. The town itself is a dump. We finally decided on one “on” the train platform for price and a second floor room. Several placed were floor 5 & 6 and stairs only. Since the GPS did not show a road to the hotel we had a nontraditional access as Dan said…thru the parking lot, across the plaza, (Dan thought he could trick us into following him), down the train platform to the front of the hotel. We then rode down the side of the building to find a parking lot and a maze of sand back streets would lead us out to the main street.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4433/...bcb6fe91_b.jpgFILE0723 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4441/...5407b8b4_b.jpgFILE0725 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4444/...9c963033_b.jpgFILE0734 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4459/...d99d34fc_b.jpgFILE0739 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4489/...218c50de_b.jpgFILE0743 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4479/...3e473c01_b.jpgFILE0750 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The trains were incredibly noisy and they almost continuously blared their horns. It did stop for a few hours in the middle of the night and so we did get a bit of sleep. All the hotel in this town only have hot water after 8 pm?? We were up and out by 730 for the 3 km ride to the border. We had gone about 5 blocks and found the road blocked with metal gates from all directions and manned by the army.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4399/...bd7f41e1_b.jpgMongolia to border-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4421/...8a5761e4_z.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-22 at 21.25.39 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4341/...cc8a0399_b.jpgIMG_9715 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr There was a line of jeeps that we had seen last night at least a km long. These are the transport vehicles for all the Mongolian passengers from the UB train. You can not walk or take public transport across the border. You must hire one of these guys to drive you to the Chinese side. Here they load up on supplies and then bring this stuff back. |
We talked to the guard and they said the gate opened at 8. They initially wanted us to back track thru the town and around to the other road to our right. After some cajoling they finally agreed to let us thru just after 8.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4448/...fe2e4dba_b.jpgFILE0755 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Next you show your passport at the gate to the guard for exit to no mans land. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4438/...aebb5ff2_b.jpgFILE0759 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Then you ride 2 km to the actual border zone. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4433/...738f7772_b.jpgFILE0762 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We passed the first building, which seems to be a new border control hut under construction and then thru the X-ray scanners. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4508/...2f6f7359_b.jpgFILE0764 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4439/...265571d4_b.jpgFILE0765 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Keep these reports coming, Dan seemed to be enjoying riding the camel a bit too much in the hotel lobby :censored::cool4:
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Quote:
Serious rug burn on the great toe! :oops2: |
From here you ride 300 m and head to the small booth on the left that all the truck drivers are running over to. Here you hand in your slip of paper with the 3 entry custom stamps and show your passport. After this the agent gives you one stamp.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4356/...56875fde_b.jpgFILE0775 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4332/...bfdb4a8a_b.jpgFILE0777 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4343/...246d6ab7_b.jpgFILE0782 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Then the Quarantine guard will then walk over to you and he gave us a stamp with out even looking at any of our luggage. Then you pull ahead 100 m to park under the covered customs area. Here an officer took our TVIP paper inside and when he came out he said you can go and walked away. The next guard came up to us and said we needed to go to a second booth just ahead on the left. Here a very nice lady who spoke English said we needed to show the TVIP. She marched out and tracked the other guy down to get the papers. Here she did the cancellation of the TVIP, checked out passport and moto registration. She then stamped the passport with the exit stamps and the last stamp for the paper exit slip. Fastest border in a long time 33 min! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4507/...c796ec90_b.jpgIMG_9686 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4395/...6dd89cc0_b.jpgIMG_9687 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4485/...172a1d74_b.jpgFILE0785 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4514/...6acf9b67_b.jpgIMG_9693 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The last step is to show your passport at the gate to the guard for exit to no mans land.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4410/...7ef9731f_b.jpgFILE0796 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Here you ride 3 km and there is even a stop light part way. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4484/...d3a49316_b.jpgFILE0800 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4360/...d5c8c3ee_b.jpgFILE0808 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4392/...7255be77_b.jpgMongolia to border-15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We were waved around the car wash of toxic spray and spuge wash pit. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4420/...ba0776fb_b.jpgIMG_9698 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
In 200 m you arrive to the gate to China's border zone control area. The guards checked our visas and told us to wait as some one would come. They also asked Orvar “What is a Sweden?”. They get very few bikes coming thru this border as most foreigners transit in the south west of China.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4460/...24592651_b.jpgFILE0810 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4417/...30f3da3d_b.jpgFILE0813 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4377/...fc739155_b.jpgMongolia to border-16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr An hour later we were still waiting and we got out our chairs and a snack. There is a ton of action with vehicles coming and going. Many of the jeeps had “too many” people in them and the guards would make them get out and wait for another jeep or private car to get into to cross the border. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4445/...af19073a_b.jpgIMG_9701 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4508/...f0514648_b.jpgMongolia to border-17 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Killing time! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4484/...70cd17bc_b.jpgIMG_9695 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4401/...c5772d95_b.jpgIMG_9697 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
At the 2 hour mark we were getting pretty anxious. Finally the guards came out to talk to us. They stopped a car headed to China with a Mongolian guy in it who spoke English and who asked us for the phone number of our guide. He then stopped a Chinese driver headed north and asked him to use his Chinese cell to make the call. That started the ball rolling and a few minutes later we could see Toni waving from the immigration hall 200 m away and then the guards let us thru.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4396/...a8c9e2ae_b.jpgFILE0819 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4410/...49b789db_b.jpgFILE0823 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We parked at the immigration hall and we met the guide Toni, the driver Mr. Tang, the local customs agent/fixer, and the senior police officer who probably was “paid” to streamline the procedure for us. The officer directed us into the immigration hall, asked us to fill out the tourist info cards, and then ushered us to an open agent for our entry stamp. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4363/...881366cb_b.jpgFILE0827 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Then we went back out to the bikes and were told to follow the policeman to the quarantine area about 200 m away around the right side of the immigration hall. We arrived and parked. We did not even have enough time to get off the bikes before the senior officer had talked to the quarantine officer and he said “ you are done with quarantine”.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4478/...e9bd0470_b.jpgFILE0833 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Next you ride 100 m to the customs inspection. The officer asked Dan what he had in his luggage..clothes, tools, computer, parts…After this there was a discussion between the guide, the policeman, and the customs officer. Our guide said to us “do you all guarantee that there is nothing bad in your luggage?” Like drugs, weapons, or meat. We said YES. Then they did not search anything at all. You then pull ahead 100 m and park under the cover. The customs fixer than steps in and get the process started to import the bikes. He was back in 10 min and we were told to ride around and park by the rainbow! Here we unloaded all the personal gear that was not in the panniers and put it in the driver’s van. The bikes will stay parked here until they clear customs today or tomorrow. All our paper work was submitted 3 days ago, but it is now after 12 on a Friday. The customs office is not technically open on Saturday, but they are making an exception. So we “ may “ get them tomorrow. In hind sight since we were at the border yesterday and the guides were there for 3 days we should have been advised to cross yesterday! Especially as today if Friday!! This error then will cause a cascade of issues…. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4409/...6ea4dd05_b.jpgFILE0839 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4372/...4b831d79_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4373/...c5ffc73a_b.jpg |
We then all hoped in the van for a 20 min ride to the hotel. We got cleaned up and went for lunch in the place closest to the hotel. We had amazingly delicious Bbq chicken rice bowls. Finally delicious food with flavor and spice. Well flavor that is NOT GOAT! We have all obtained VPN’s so we can access simple things like google and gmail. We had a team meeting over dinner and some excellent Chinese food ordered by our foody driver Mr. Tang.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4457/...488ce029_b.jpgIMG_9703 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4363/...6844ee04_b.jpgIMG_9702 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4436/...b91f089e_b.jpgErenhot China-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr It is amazingly quiet in this town and most of the vehicles are electric. There is little “traffic” and the drivers are orderly. We went out for a walk to the main square where they were groups of people dancing and lots of families out strolling. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4453/...0fc02805_b.jpgErenhot China-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4356/...832be431_b.jpgErenhot China-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4356/...d1c64d39_b.jpgErenhot China-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We had a very quiet night with our room on the inner courtyard. We had our first “Chinese” breakfast, which for us is a weird combination of steamed buns, pickled vegetables, and boiled eggs. No coffee of course. They only drink hot water in the north of China. Not even Tea is served here. We had some time to kill as we had not heard from the customs agent and we went over to China mobile to get some SIM cards. It is really only useful for texting for us as North American phones support only E and you can barely open Wikipedia with that. To get a SIM card in China you must register with your passport! Our good luck today was at a place that served fresh beef noodle soup near to the hotel. We westerners managed to eat all the garnish before the soup came and had to ask for more! There are rules here. You do not start eating until they have put 4 dishes on the table. We have a lot to learn.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4485/...71b610fa_b.jpgErenhot China-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr There was a shop opening across the street and at an auspicious hour they let off a bucket load of fireworks. Then it was back to the hotel to check out before 2 in the hopes that we will get the bikes today. |
We are getting a bit concerned since we will have a very long way to go leaving this late in the day. Again Ride China should have known and suggested that arriving on a Friday was not ideal. This was picked at random and we could have easily arrived the day before. We sat about the lobby and at 230 we got the call the bikes are almost done.
At 3 they called back to say we could come and get them so we loaded into the van and headed to the secure border zone. At first the guards did not want to let us in, but after passport checks, some phone calls and discussion they said we could go as long as the same number of people left with us. It was awesome the customs broker agreed to work on Saturday for us. We drove in and got the bikes and Toni said “ lets get out of here before someone changes their mind!” https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4509/...f2b9869a_b.jpgFILE0847 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We are outside the border control zone and the bikes are now officially in China!! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4341/...54a67581_b.jpgErenhot China-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4498/...93e64c6e_b.jpgFILE0870 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4414/...09e4ee6c_b.jpgIMG_9707 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The next order of business was to drive across town to the Drivers license office next to the police station. They are also closed on Saturday, but one of the officers agreed to come over and open it for us so we could be given our Chinese drivers license and so he could check the VIN numbers for the Chinese Plate (this is really just a laminated card representing the license plate). They can make you do tests and eye exams, and even visit a doctor and so we are not sure what to expect. All he did was check the VIN and take a photo of each bike. The only potential problem here is Orvar is too old to drive a motorcycle in China and we held our breath until he was given his license. The only snag was one of the digits on Sara’s VIN number was incorrect. The officer could have said come back Monday, but he let it slide!!! Again we were like the IKEA ad “start the car” get out before they change their mind!
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4509/...8d443898_b.jpgFILE0874 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4464/...97766ac9_b.jpgIMG_9729 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4513/...75c3e19a_b.jpgIMG_9730 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4443/...678a9b86_b.jpgIMG_9731 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Now were went back to the hotel to gear up and headed out for our 35 days tour thru China. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4441/...112ec38d_b.jpgErenhot China-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
It was now after 4 pm and we had 349 km to ride to Wulanchabu/Ulanqab and it gets dark at 1830. This is to try and keep to what we now know is an overly ambitious itinerary. (If we were to do it again, we would have skipped the trip to Beijing and used those 6 days to add rest days or shorten long days on the rest of the trip)
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4485/...9b6d6ce3_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-22 at 21.27.49 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr These cameras will be everywhere!!!! BUT they are for front plates only :) https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4496/...5daf0ee2_b.jpgFILE0887 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Leaving the city there are several km of dinosaur statures. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4455/...bbcfd763_b.jpgErenhot China-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4341/...e5e02106_b.jpgErenhot China-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
About 50 km out there is a police check point where you must get off and walk over to the office where they take a photo of your passport, Chinese plate card, and Chinese drivers license. There are a lot of officers here with big guns. The place is high tech and each officer has a iPad like device to scan Chinese ID cards. Now to get onto the G55 toll highway.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4514/...ff2c6994_b.jpgFILE0924 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr All major roads here are user pay and toll. Bikes are illegal on the highway here. At the first booth there were no other vehicles and they could see us coming for 400 m and so the guy in the booth was out and blocking the lane. We had been told by the guide to go to the far right lane and “ride there”…He did not specify before this that we would need to hide behind the van and stealth our way to storming the gate. He did not say that you just ride and don’t stop if they come out…they will not do anything to you, but must make some attempt to stop you as they are constantly watched by CCT. I’m not sure if we knew this ahead of time we would have agreed to this, but there is absolutely no way you can get anywhere here if you do not use the highway system. Our itinerary would be impossible. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4463/...40b02ae0_b.jpgFILE0927 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr The first toll attempt was thus an epic fail. We backtracked and then went about 5 km to the next entrance and had much better luck now that we knew the game. The guy did still hop out of the booth, but he was not quick enough to stop the first bike and once one is gone they do not try to stop the rest. The only issue was the sun was so low in the sky and blazing in our eyes that Trevor who was the last bike did not see the gate (that the rest of us went to the right of) and it nearly took him off his bike. The terrain here is like the south of Mongolia of course we are in “inner Mongolia” and it is mostly flat semi desert. There was however some sand drifting onto the pavement at times. We had made it about 200 km and the sun had just set and it was now 10 degrees and we all needed to put on a few more layers. Now we had 140 km to go still in the dark. It is a bit more hilly as we go farther south and east. There have been almost no other vehicles on the road and this was true until about 60 km from the city. The traffic in the city center was a bit hectic, but sedate compared with Tehran. |
We finally reached the hotel at 9 pm riding in the dark day one. We managed to find a decent Chinese Bbq/grill place and again our driver ordered up some interesting and delicious food.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4479/...041a6181_b.jpgIMG_9723 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4467/...f2d09cf5_b.jpgIMG_9725 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Chinese hotels are interesting and different. Only some are “available” to receive foreigners. When you check in you must pay a cash deposit that is up to twice the room rate, but usually less and 100 RNB (20$). Because we checked in “late” or after 6 we had to pay more for the rooms as well. Breakfast is included about half the time. The cleanliness of hotels here is below NA standards (its hard to have clean carpets when you use a broom and not a vacuum). The general wear and tear is evident from the about of use they see. It is not unusual to have your breakfast in a dining hall half filled with stacks of piled up furniture for example. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4509/...1c209b63_b.jpgTo Beijing by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
This morning we did have breakfast in the hotel and paid about 5$ for the buffet. They did have Nescafe and at least a few food items we could identify. Today we will try to get back on track with our itinerary. This means 486 km from Wulanchbu/Ulanqab to the Great wall at Mutianyu to get back on schedule and make up for getting such a late start yesterday. This will not be achievable in day light!
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4351/...aa87a445_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-22 at 21.33.15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We were out of the hotel by 845 and to our first Chinese fuel station. Getting fuel in some districts especially in a city can be challenging. We pulled up to the pump and the women refused to put gas into the tank of a motorcycle. We had to park in the designated motorcycle parking and then fill a old dented leaking rusty kettle with a rubber tube attached to the spout with 4.5 L of gas at a time. This is so stupid and gas is dripping all over the place. Not to mention that you have to refill the kettle numerous times for each bike. Apparently on the highway (where motorcycles are not allowed they will refuel with the pump…..go figure). We needed 11 refills for the 4 bikes and so this took a while. We had 3 litres left from Trevor’s gas as he went first and put it into Dan’s jerry can. The attendant started yelling at us and said that if we did not stop doing that she would not sell us anymore fuel. You need a special permit in China to fill a jerry can. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4339/...87c20d16_b.jpgTo Beijing-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4371/...cc517c17_b.jpgTo Beijing-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4361/...8e097bf0_b.jpgTo Beijing-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4484/...b1db08e5_b.jpgFILE0932 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We managed to get back on the highway with no issues today and past 4 tolls today. They are so much easier when they are busy and especially with large trucks as we can pull up along them and pass on the far right. Today only one girl tried minimally to stop us at one exit gate. This is a bit stressful and Dan and I don't feel all that great about breaking the rules, but how else can you get around when the choice is roads that are “toll highway” or secondary roads with lines of trucks.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4507/...b5ee4f2c_b.jpgFILE0982 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr "Don't Try Fatigue Driving" https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4474/...5abf433d_b.jpgFILE0994 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We stopped after 100 km for a rest and met some Chinese bikers doing the same toll gate running as us. It is very convenient at every service center on the highway there is a “boiler room” to get hot water to make coffee, tea, or a noodle soup. They all also have free bathroom and usually a buffet restaurant. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4485/...6fb4779e_b.jpgIMG_9736 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4458/...675a1581_b.jpgIMG_9735 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Snacks!?? https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4448/...3a586e7c_b.jpgIMG_9732 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
After lunch at one of these places we still had 140 km to go at 130 or 3 hours according to the guide to get to the Great Wall. The scenery gets even more hilly as you get closer to the capital. There is more and more traffic as you approach Beijing.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4458/...87836915_b.jpgTo Beijing-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4348/...ebe8fafa_b.jpgTo Beijing-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4400/...14b4db62_b.jpgTo Beijing-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We had to stop for 30 min at the police check so our driver could get a permit to drive inside the Beijing city limits. You have to have special license plates to drive in the city center. The police on the road and here at the check did not even give us a second look, which seems strange since we are not allowed on the highway. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4505/...b1b62d50_b.jpgFILE1014 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We had views on the distant hills of the Badaling section of the wall that is about 50 km from the center. This is where we think the guides made their next mistake. We drove right past the Badaling section of the wall (which I think is the nicer), “because the itinerary said so”. If we had changed plans here we would have avoided the rest of the issues of the day (almost missing seeing the wall, issues getting gas, and driving in the dark DAY 2). They did not communicate to us actually how far it is to access the Mutianyu wall and how long it would take to go so few km.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4511/...dbf76990_b.jpgFILE1021 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We had to go into the 6 th ring road and then back out 50 km on the very busy windy secondary road to the Mutianyu section of the wall. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4434/...7d04ec88_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-22 at 21.36.28 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4506/...275cb4d8_b.jpgFILE1027 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr Huge group of Harleys!! https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4488/...d7c5efff_b.jpgFILE1042 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We arrived to the parking at 420, changed, and rushed over to the ticket office to buy wall tickets, shuttle tickers, and gondola tickets…..35$. You then have to walk 400 m to the bus that drives you up and drops you 300 m from the gondola station.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4496/...526883b6_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4453/...1035d732_b.jpg https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4386/...9eac174c_b.jpg Then you walk up the stairs to get there gondola. Time is marching on and the last Gondola down is 6 pm. We finally were on the wall at 5 pm and so after all this riding to get here we had 45 min visit. We did have very few people and a beautiful evening light. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4449/...945c29bb_b.jpgGreat Wall-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4448/...905186de_b.jpgGreat Wall-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4416/...7391b321_b.jpgGreat Wall-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4508/...fb5c93bd_b.jpgGreat Wall-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4421/...51e12b33_b.jpgGreat Wall-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4365/...b73048b2_b.jpgGreat Wall-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4478/...6f9d96ea_b.jpgGreat Wall-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4418/...515139a3_b.jpgGreat Wall-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4349/...41eff4c4_b.jpgGreat Wall-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4486/...80f3fc24_b.jpgGreat Wall-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4504/...77a31c04_b.jpgGreat Wall-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4485/...825d9e5f_b.jpgGreat Wall-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4412/...64d2c2d9_b.jpg https://youtu.be/AK9p3LaOX1k https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4496/...a9e7cbf9_b.jpgIMG_9756 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4498/...d98824e9_b.jpgIMG_9763 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4500/...a406d35e_b.jpgIMG_9769 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4495/...7674751f_b.jpgIMG_9773 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4506/...01c58d8f_b.jpgIMG_9740 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4449/...4e0a7cde_b.jpgIMG_9751 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Looking good as always, whats with the crazy gas fill up situation? What do they think will happen if you put gas straight in the tank? Strange people indeed :thumbup1:
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I know insane! Leaking dripping kettle being carried thru the station
From my ADV RR explained by a Chinese rider and I quote " The gas station staff explained, "refueling with aluminum cans is for safety.". The motorcycle exhaust pipe / engine is hot, the pressurized gasoline if directly pumped into the fuel tank, afraid of splashing oil on the exhaust pipe / engine to cause a fire... There may have been many unfortunate accident!" :oops2: To be honest this was the worst station. I Tibet they have good jerry cans that poured well and held 10 L. You still had to register each time with the police to buy gas and then fight the local for a can. Getting gas for 4 bikes could be 20-60 min! SP |
We got the last of the gondolas down, but had to wait 20 min for the bus to go down again. Its rapidly getting dark. The initial plan had been to ride another 60 km to a hotel near Honda at the 5 th ring road of Beijing and stay 2 nights, but that distance will take about 2 hours. We decided to change hotel plans for tonight and stay much closer to our current location. In Beijing city you can gas at the pumps and so this made getting fuel tonight easy. We left the parking at 1830 and had 11 km to the gas station and then 10 km to the hotel in Huairen, which is located between the 5 th and 6 th ring road. They have unique numbering systems here in Chinese hotels.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4492/...d2969c0b_b.jpgIMG_9790 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We had another amazing dinner ordered by Mr. Tang including a very delicious squid dish and a tasty donkey stew. They have these prepackaged dish sets in all the restaurants. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4385/...b5492261_z.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-22 at 21.35.35 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4399/...64993f5e_b.jpgTo Beijing-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The air quality in Beijing is listed as unhealthy, but so far today the ski looks clear! We had another “special” Chinese breakfast at the hotel (included can you believe it) and then set out the 44 km or an hour to Dreamwing Honda, where Trevor has service booked for his valve check etc.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4508/...5fc0a197_b.jpgFILE1050 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4445/...fc5928827a.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-22 at 21.39.34 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4355/...47c9f01c_b.jpgScreen Shot 2017-09-22 at 21.39.22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We had all ordered tires that Ride China arranged for us and they are in the driver’s van. It is not that far to Honda, but took over an hour. We had one storming of the toll gate today right off the bat and then one car accident that slowed the traffic to a crawl for about 4 km. We arrived to Honda and the shop is very nice. They set out to work on Trevor’s bike, but also agreed to swap out all our tires and balance them for a reasonable price. The local tire shop near by wanted double. We are beginning to find out just how expensive almost everything is in China. They agreed to do it for us after we said we would take off the wheels from the three BMW’s. They gave all the guys new wok gloves as well. They also ordered take out lunch for us. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4413/...d8218464_b.jpgBeijing-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4400/...804c3f7a_b.jpgBeijing by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4331/...22605cbb_b.jpgBeijing-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4369/...54828b1b_b.jpgBeijing-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
The hotel is only 2.5 km from here and so we were checked in by 1. Trevor picked up his bike at 530 and all seems well. We had deciphered the Beijing subway map and headed to the nearest station on the Line 14. All along the way walking to the station there are discarded bikes that are part of several share bike companies, but they are piled up everywhere within 400 m of the stations. The official route is down into a sewer “canal” and across some broken paving stones (even on maps.me).
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4475/...ca23a35f_b.jpgBeijing-19 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4447/...58694c47_b.jpgIMG_9811 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr It is about an hour to the center with changing trains and some walking. You must go thru airport like security screening at every station. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4353/...216fb148_b.jpgBeijing-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4483/...ac16f49b_b.jpgBeijing-17 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4448/...34acac0d_b.jpgBeijing-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4418/...744b61e9_b.jpgBeijing-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4404/...246f8d0c_b.jpgBeijing-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
We arrived to down town and went thru another security check point to get near to Tienanmen square to find all the actual access to the square closed off. We are not sure if this is a nightly thing or due to some construction being done.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4385/...c0fb3b1c_b.jpgBeijing-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4498/...978f5b0c_b.jpgIMG_9816 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4363/...7f20d627_b.jpgBeijing-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4471/...e033643d_b.jpgIMG_9825 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr We wandered around the center and found a local place for dinner. It was another hour back on the Metro, but we are getting pretty good at it. It is surprisingly orderly. When you enter and exit the train and when you have to move up the stairs or escalators there is no rushing or pushing. The flow of people walking between he lines is constant, but ordered. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4420/...3cf5d3ef_b.jpgBeijing-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4397/...9771e3e0_b.jpgBeijing-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4447/...7fd8cdd2_b.jpgBeijing-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4506/...10ca44da_b.jpgBeijing-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4432/...80be3164_b.jpgBeijing-15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4473/...a6b71bfa_b.jpgBeijing-16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr |
Truly Amazing
I must say what a great RR and truly amazing.
Going by your request for help find to a new rear shock for the BMW. You must be in Laos now. I hope you have sorted out the problem ok. Just 1 question the older gentleman who is riding in the group is he over 70? Not sure if you were aware but China rised the age to 70 from 60 just last year for the age limit to ride a Motorbike. If you were aware then he is over 70? WELL done that man. Looking forward to you next post which will be still in China. |
Quote:
Yes we are in Laos now for the last 3 days. YSS shipped us a new shock to Luang Prabang and Daniel installed it yesterday so Lulu is back in action. Orvar is 65 and the limit of age for a motorcycle license in China is still 65. But money talks ans he got one anyway. Cheers S&D |
We have a big day planned today and we are up and out of the hotel and down to the metro station at 830. An hour later we were in Tienanmen square. It was packed with tourist of course. We spent a few minutes to take in its vastness even with the crowds. It is pretty hot in the direct sun so you can not hang out here too long.
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4359/...b6cb98fe_b.jpgBeijing-20 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4371/...c54b582c_b.jpgBeijing-21 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4337/...75412ef2_b.jpgBeijing-22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4455/...ed9c5473_b.jpg |
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