Sibirsky Extreme 2012 - The Toughest Ride of Them All

There was one more foto on the way to Tsengel:

WOW!

its normally a stunning part of Mongolia,but with the drenching rain, I decided to err on the safe side and head towards Olgiy. We could have lunch there, regroup and replan our route.

By the time we got to Olgiy we were all totally soaked. We made our way to restaurant oddly called the Irish Bar, which seemed to have nothing of an Irish bar about it.

The waitress certainly wasnt Irish



While the rain howled down outside, we stayed put in the restaurant. For over 4 hours.

When it finally eased, we went down to the bikes, and were met by a man offering accommodation and somewhere to dry our soaking wet clothes. It was now almost 4pm. It felt wise to accept the offer. We followed him through the streets of Olgiy to his compound where we haggled over the price of a room before accepting it.

But she was a reminder that there are stylish women all over the world, no matter what the geography or economy or culture.

And of course, you guys always find them.

Not only the rain was the reason we were soaked...

keep on riding

fantastic report. Thanks for taking the time to share this with us all.

I must protest...is that not whiskey I see on the shelf behind Rod?

Sure and she's Irish, laddie, she's from the east of Ireland....County Olgly! And that is a bottle of Dewars on the shelf behind the big fella. And the bottle next door says "Crown Royal". Whether there's aught or naught in the boxes marked Chivas and Seagrams behind these I know not. 'Tis a heluva RR this one is. Almost lured me off my beloved tarmac, you have. Awaiting your next tempting post!

Yup, thanks a bunch for this OUTSTANDING report!!! It's greatly appreciated.


Just saw some diff pix of Mongolia...interesting but not nearly as upbeat as yours

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2012/12/mongolias_nomads.html

Happy New Years to all of you. May the coming year be even better than this one. Thanks so much for the entertainment of following this and other ride reports.

No, I don't see any Bushmills.

Thanks for the fantastic RR. Happy New Year to all and best wishes for great riding adventures in 2013.

Happy New Year you wild wanderers! Long may you roam the world's tracks!

(Rod)I probably won't put this very well but will have a go. IMHO much of one's mindset is weather and location driven. When you wake up on a beautiful morning in total silence apart from the birds, and open the tent flap to a knockout view ....how could you wish to be anywhere else, but when you've taken off soaking gear the night before having pitched in the rain and wind, and wake up in the rain to put on cold soaking boots yet again it'd take a better man than me to paint that smile on and not question my motives and choices.
But then when you find yourself riding towards that big blue patch and feel the first of that glorious warmth on your clothes. Man!...how good is that.
Maybe the contrast is what makes it great too....but all you guys know this. blah blah. I just want to thank you all for the RR. What I am really appreciating is all the little tips and bike info you sprinkle in. Man I have really learned alot. You guys are actually figgin funny too. Thanks Pat O'Brien

When I rode the circumference of Australia (missed the record by about 5,5 months) I met someone who said the record was now (in 2005) 7 days. Record held by a Brit, former SAS soldier, who didn't speak much, but had said he wished no one ever tried to beat his record because he had gone far beyond what was sane, let alone safe. The circumference on the A1 (the highway that sort of follows the coast all around Australia) is 17.000km. Also at that time the Northern Territory didn't have speed limits on their highways, which I understand they now have.

With a first view, i thought this rock was a crocodile

I'd forgotten B had this pic too and was going to post it myself. Of course it wasn't a croc...it was the fearsome Mongolian Pirahna shoal which we only managed to put off by sending the smelliest team member in first-It was close call most times who'd be nominated.

The Journey from Tsengel to Olgiy was appalling-it bucketed down with rain constantly and as W said we were all totally drenched. W had a nasty off coming out of a washout and we were all gad to get to Olgiy.
The Mongolian idea of creating an Irish bar is to get any cafe, and put the words "Irish", and ...yes you guessed it " Bar" above the door. No shamrocks, no Paddy music, no Irish beer...just the usual Chingis (Genghis as the West would have it) beer and mildly monotonous mutton menu. Alliteration...don't ya just love it.
It's bizarre but it got us through the door.

When we've said we were drenched, the staff had to repeatedly mop round our chair legs as the pools of water accumulated from our draining gear, and once we'd had something to eat none of us had much appetite for onward travel that day.

W however had fallen victim to a particularly virulent form of the previously mentioned "Beaver Fever" and was driven to push on towards Irkutsk where Erection Airways were waiting to whisk him to Moscow for some horizontal gymnastics. He had the crazed look of the truly horny.

Our soon-to-be host came in to the bar looking for suitable prey and found.........us. He had a piece of card with the same message in several languages and it ran something like;
" I have comfortable lodgings for a number of guests with hot shower and good food"....that was all we needed and we took the bait straight away.
The accomodation when we got there was a shared room with a low central table where 4 of us could bed down on the floor-B understandably wasn't too keen but as it was the only game in town we all decided to take what was on offer. It was ridiculously cheap.
We have yet to be shown the "hot shower" and I seriously question its existence, and the lavatory was a low ..i.e waist/breast high rectangle of mud-brickwork in the corner of the yard-with what in Africa is called a "Long Drop".
This a was adjacent to a sometimes busy lane outside the curtailage of the property, but standing having a pee when people are walking past is something I found difficult-not to mention the smell-dear God!. Without going into too much detail, any more serious function was delayed until a more opportune and less ...."social" location.
Not sure if the team have some pics of the yard or the room. Guys?

I found me a pal.

<a href="http://s1283.beta.photobucket.com/user/rodcurrie/media/Russia2012076_zps08517d05.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.advrider.com/advrider-photobucket-images/images/r/rodcurrie_Russia2012076_zps08517d05.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"/></a>

Later in the day as we'd arranged to have a meal provided too the family started work. Here getting milk.
<a href="http://s1283.beta.photobucket.com/user/rodcurrie/media/Russia2012075_zps6f767564.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.advrider.com/advrider-photobucket-images/images/r/rodcurrie_Russia2012075_zps6f767564.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"/></a>

When the meal arrived it was almost inedible gristly mutton -mostly bone with (as I remember but one of the guys will correct me) macaroni or buckwheat, and bread. I can eat most things and wouldn't be put off by bollocks or the like, but this was pretty grim. I think P & B just declined the meat and ate the accompanying bits .

Such is the variance of travel and you just need to notch it down to experience and hope the next meal will be a goodie.

So looks like everyone got a good soaking of rain. Anyones gear kept them 100% dry (minus pants from water crossings)? Did KLIM/gortex stand up?

Great report btw!