Netherlands to Mongolia..and back
 

I'm scratching up a plan for a ride from NL through ether Turkey etc or Ukraine and into Kazakhstan, eastern Mongolia, then loop up around Lake Baikal. Then hoof it home back to the Netherlands. To use as much time in Kazakhstan and Mongolia, I want to come home as fast as possible.

What would be a reasonable time to expect to be able to get from Irkutsk back to Western Europe? Also how many Kilometers? 8000km? I'm mindful of the sheer distance and the less than ideal road conditions ( though i understand most of this to be sealed) will take a toll on the body. There's going to have to be more than a few rest days in it too...
Would two weeks be too ambitious?

8000km won't get you anywhere :-)

I did Sweden-Russia-Mongolia-Russia-Sweden last summer. 16-17000km was the total distance. The distance from Sweden to the Mongolian border was about 5500-6000km. I travelled in Russia in a van and in Mongolia on my KTM. The drive through Russia took about a week to do (early morning to late evening every day).

I did the trip in 7 weeks. Of those I spent about 15 days in the van(russia) and 17-18 days on the bike(mongolia).

In Russia you can travel twice the distance compared to Mongolia because of the road condition. The slowest road in Russia on my trip was the road between St:petersburg and Moscow. Try to avoid that one if possible.

Good luck with the planning!

Cheers Spakur.

The 8000km was refering to just the return leg from Mong. to NL :thumbup1:

Your figure of 16-17,000km total distance rings about right with my idea of 20,000-23,000 to take the lower route via Turkey, Turkmen. etc. Thanks

Anyone else with similar experience?

Give it 2 weeks.
 

Hi mate,

I have just written an article on your subject for my blog....

Mongolia and back part 1

After my drive to Mongolia I exited the country through the northern border (towards Ulan Ude), went to Irkutsk to do the 'validate the visa in passport' thing and came home to the UK that way. The roads were fine. Only short sections not covered.

I would say give yourself 2 weeks to get home, not just the time driving but also to allow for mishaps. I had a rock through my windscreen, hit a deer, bust suspension and turned away from the German border because my car looked like s##t!

Let me know if you need anymore help.

DB