Best route across Mongolia
 

Can anyone suggest the best route across Mongolia- north, south or middle. I have good experience on dirt roads but am a little concerned about river crossings by myself as a solo female. Would appreciate any input- thanks!

Hi Pat, I'm planning at London > Vladivostok trip and will be crossing Mongolia solo also. I don't have any good info on the roads / water crossings yet (I'm leaving mid-march so have more time to research) - but if you find anything could you please share it with me? I'm worried about water crossings myself also!

Cheers,
Mark

Same here.

Planning on leaving Germany in Mai, so Mongolia somewhen June-ish?
Please share Information you might come across.

Otherwise, in travelblogs I read, most guys found riding buddys on the road. So rivercrossings and other off road sections became easier…

there are reports about the different routes, but you can´t be sure about the conditions. Rivers swell within hours. If you can´t find a good spot for crossing, wait for a truck and for a little amount they´ll take you backpack.
I really don´t recommend to cross Mongolia solo. sure you can do it and some people did it, but I was happy to have met two friends in Barnaul at the biker bar. It´s not so exhaausting to pick up your bike if you have time, aand you will have to pick it up alot of times. Or repairing flat tires is more fun with help.
We rode chinese tracks, and I guess those will be tarmac by now.
Nonetheless mongolian roads can and will be challenging at one point.
My tip would be: take a rest in Baarnaul, haave a steak and a brew in the biker bar and see if you can find some companionss for Mongolia. That worked for some people. Be careful on the wayy to Olgi (there are some scammers on the road), ride directly to the blue wulf gercamp, don´t stop and you´ll be safe.
Tryy and get info in Olgi, and decide on the spot, as the conditions can change very quick, and there is always the option to turn around and chose a safer route. Enjoy, Mongolia was one of the most challenging bur also the most beautiful, marvellous and nicest places I have visited.

Hi Kurvenfieber, can you explain more about what kind of scammers there are? Always good to know. Thanks

Sorry for the late response.
Well, there are some reports about some bugs on the road tying to get you to sleep at their house. And you will be robbed...
Those people are Kazakhs living in that area.
They really tried hard to push me off the road with their car in the town of Olgi while I was looking for the blue wulf ger camp (which is a perfectly safe place).
They try to invite you, they are standing on the raod side waving for petrol, they drive aside you in their car an try to stop you, and for putting up confidence they are often accompagnied by children. Do not trust them, don´t stop until you are safe in the ger camp.
We waved nicely and rode on. In Olgi it was quite agressive, and I had to keep all my senses on my bike and pace, that was really scary. Once I stopped in front of blue wulf, they vanished. But just to give way to the next scammers in a car, A guy with a woman and a small child. And it was obviously the guy who tried to rob a swiss pushbiker, who knocked the front teeth out of this guy mouth, he still had no front teeth. Itold him that I knew who he was, and if he didn´t want to lose the rest of his teeth, he should move the f...k on. Which he did with a burn out.
As soon as you are on the road out of Olgi towards the east, all is good: nice people (although they tend to come really close and have no feeling for "mine and yours". But on a very adorable level. I recommend to take some food and camp as much as possible, we were always safe and welcome to set up camp whereever we wanted (out of sight we thought, but there were alway horseback riders showing up for looking who we were, share a cup of tea or some other stuff with them, you´re probably camping on their ground ;-))
I really had no better campspots than in Mongolia, not to camp would mean to miss the point ;-)
cheers
Herbert

P.S.: we were observed by some greedy guys in two cars when we started out of Olgi, we had to shop in the supermarket, just two of us went in. On the way out, I missed the right way due to a malfunction of my GPS, which was a big luck, because we ended up in some suburbs with only small paths for pedestrians and bikes! They couldn´t follow an lost us. That was scary too.

Thanks for the info! Didn't expect that in such a place like Western Mongolia, but I guess wherever people can make money they will try in various ways.

But it sounds like it will be easy to recognize these people, just like in other places.
However, it is annoying to travelers who are more vulnerable, like cyclists.