110 days of off road to Central Asia

Great to see those places again.
I would sure like to go back to spend more time in the Altay.

Great pictures Seb.

We continued in the Altay, in the direction of Mongolia:



The views are stunning...













Time for a break and to enjoy the view... again...



By that time Phil and Felix decided to continue without us, as Phil's forks were leaking and he needed to get some spare parts send to him in one way or another. Kim and I decided to continue our original plan(s) and to maybe meet up with them later, or not. You never know what can happen while on the road, no? We said our goodbyes, the guys left and we thought we would never see them again...

In the meantime I was aware that everything was moving much slower than usual, but it felt as if my head was filled with cotton balls….
I tried to sleep, but all I could think was: 'why the hell doesn't this place stop spinning!!'
I was glad the alcohol left my body after a few hours and will never again take Russian 'medicine'! :eek1

Loving the report and pics. Check every morning for updates. Just amazing this part of the world. Thanks so much for sharing with us that will never see it any other way.

I just got caught up with the report. Great Narrative and beautiful pictures.

I'll be here till you are tired of writing.

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/9CrKN_Ot4XttRdbRkn3YrdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3POcAUqmPM8/TTXxdQFAUSI/AAAAAAAAXtY/3___YSB85ow/s288/P1040673.JPG" height="162" width="288" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/105133432232392762779/MotoTrailer?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">moto trailer</a></td></tr></table>

Thank you all for the comments, so let's continue the trip!

So, we're getting closer and closer to the border between Russia and Mongolia, and later today we'll reach the border and finally enter the "mystical" Mongolia.

But first some more nice shots from the Altay... can't get enough from that place!





Mongolia is just behind the mountains...







But we'll first spend the last night in a Yurt in Russia. Actually it was an old Baboushka that tried to make a living by selling food and milk and stuff. So we asked if we could stay for food and sleep and she agreed. We only had to pay for the food though... ;-)





Next day we finally made it to the border!
The Russian border is quite chaotic as you need to go to Immigration that is a few hundred meters before the actual border and there's no sign, so everyone passes it and when it's finally your turn and you don't have the exit stamp, you need to go back all the way to get it...

This is actually the border of Mongolia, just a big red fence and that's it. The customsbuildings are a few kilometers further...



When you arrive at the customs and thus the actual border, you need to pay to get the bike decontaminated... yeah right. You pay and that's it.



The actual crossing is pretty straightforward. You just need to fill in a few documents and that's it.

We wanted to take the northern route, but because it had rained so much the last days, the rivers were way too high and we were not even allowed to take the northern route, we were turned around and had to take the southern one.

Damn... all the hotels that we booked are non-refundable! So what now? All our plans are worthless....! We're goin to die here... all those evil people...

Hahaha... no, nothing of this is true or even real! I just couldn't help myself since we met a few people who had every single day planned, booked and looked up for when traveling on a bike...

We arrived in Ulgii and decided to get some fuel and look for a place to sleep. We got invited (but had to pay) to some guy at his home. As we prefer paying some local and staying at his home rather than a hotel or so, we were more than happy to go for it. Most of the time we camp or try to stay at less convenient places, at peoples home and stuff. It's always great for new cultural insights and you never know what might happen... but you really need to go miles from your comfort zone for this. Anyway, we stayed here:



The oldest daughter took us to the communal shower, as they had no running water at their home and we needed some kind of corporal washing for ourselves.



We wanted to see and enjoy the Naadam Festival, but there was some sort of animal disease going round and so no Naadam for Western Mongolia at this time. this was a big bugger as I really wanted to experience this, especially the horse racing. I had this dream of riding on the bike between them when they're racing on all those horses... boys will be boys, no?!

And so we continued our journey eastwards...



The "highway" or southern route, with very detailed signs of where to go:



Soon came the first watercrossings:









Now and then we had to stop to get some more desinfected... I doubt it really helps but we had a nice chat with the guys maning these places and always offered them some cookies. We never had to pay for this service, some other travellers that we met were asked money...



Later that day we met Igor and Penny, two New Zealanders going from NZ to The Netherlands, 2-up on a Beemer. A few months later thay would come and stay for a night with us in Belgium...



We went for a day to the Naadam Festival in Khovd, but the horse racing was the day before, so the day after we left again.



Funny thing is that during our stay in Khovd we met up again with Phil and Felix who arrived there day after us and left the following morning again.

Kim having a go at some "junkfood", actually i was fresh orange juice and
shashlik:



We continued our journey through the sand and big emptyness...









Some camping in the middle of nowhere... as we prefer it!

Oh this next part is gonna be good. Mongolia

simply breathtaking!

Really enjoying your report, great pictures! How far did you carry your new "fender ornament"?

Great Report..........The Photos are outstanding.........I just love the expressions on the little kids faces sitting on the bikes

Just hang on, there's a better one coming!

I think that one day they will build a real road here...

Well actually I first intended to carry it all the way home. But after a few hours I started to notice that the head was damaging the bike so I kept it for two days and then we gave him/her a new last resting place:





We found ONE shop on our way and we needed water, the only thing they had were small bottles so we had to rearrange some things, but we managed to get some supplies:



Tyre wear was also still acceptable, but they needed to last all the way back to Barnaul and for that I was not sure if they would hold. We use Mefo Explorers as I like the tyres, they're not super good in anything but they will do almost everything and they last "forever", a long time. For previous trips we also used them and we always got 12 to 16.000km out of them, you could use them longer if you would not ride too aggressively or not to much offroad.



The rear axle was also starting to 'sweat' so this was something I would closely look after a few times a day.







In the meantime my shoes are also rapidly deteriorating... But it's not exactly shopping paradise there so I had to keep them till I could somewhere replace them.









Notice the truck?





Some more camping. Sorry for the camping pictures, but I just hope that people would camp more and spend less time in (dull) hotels when travelling.



The places are just great and unbeatable for the views and the peaceful atmosphere...This is way better for bathing than any hotel!



An hour later we got some company from two boys on horses that were passing through. We changed 'horses' for a while and everybody was happy!





We arrived at a rather big river crossing and so I had to first walk it to see if we could make it.





I was confident enough that we would make it, but halfway the river the engine stalled and dead. Nothing. Don't know why, as I had plenty of room for the airintake, so I guess it would be more about thermalshock and that this was the reason why the engine stalled. The water is really not deep enough to enter the exhaust or the airintake... The mongol came to help me to push the bike out, that is I was pushing to get over and he was pulling to go back... :huh
In the end we did get the bike back from where I started but just with a dead engine.



So, the option to cross would be like this:



Something I didn't really fancy. There was a track longing the river and according to the tracks in my gps, there was a chance that there would be a bridge in about 70km. A local confirmed this that there should be a bridge further along the track... and so we decided to follow the track and see where it would bring us.



At first when we saw the bridge in the far distance we were relieved, until we figured that there was something wrong with the picture...



Let's have a closer look...





Yep, the last part is missing... So there was no way to cross it!



What to do... what to do?!
(@Laouen, specially for you a cliffhanger... )

This is just an awesome pic!

I can imagine, what true biker could bear the shame of taking the Bongo Bus across?

ROFL, INDEED!!!!

Obviously we couldn't cross the bridge, so we had to find another way. Luckily 6 km further there was a brand new one in concrete.













It was time to get the tent up but in the middle of the steppe this wasn't too easy with all the winds. So we rode untill we found some shelter, a place for the sheep. Everything smelled like sh#t for at least a few more days, but if the wind gets too strong we just can't sleep...



We arrived at this river, without knowing it would be this beautifull. Problem was that when looking at the map I thought we would camp at the riverside and have some rest, but there was just no way to camp here and have a swim...





While we are taking pictures of Mongolia, the Mongols are taking pictures of us...

was going to use a sports toe protector on my boots ,found this

http://tufftoeboots.com/

Wow