Day 147, 25th October Tsomog - Tsagandörvölj (30 miles south of) The days are passing quickly and the knowledge that we are slowly heading south into warmer climes is keeping our morale up in this desert land. Last night it was “Bastard-Freezing”. All my water froze solid, good job we are keeping enough in pots to warm up on our stoves each morning. I have to shake the ice out of my tent this morning, and it lay there on the Gobi like thin pieces of glass, not melting, even though the sun was up! The landscape is becoming more and [View Full Entry]

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Day 145, 23rd October 20 miles north of Choyr - Otsol Uul (nearest peak) It wasn’t as cold as I expected it to be last night, a frost was on my tent though. The sun rose swiftly and melted the ice immediately causing my sleeping bag to get wet. I also didn’t sleep well last night because trucks were circling the tents, in curiosity I suppose. Being out here in the flat desert at night, the thought has occurred to me that a speeding truck will inadvertently run into one of the tents. What are the possibilities of that then? After [View Full Entry]

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Day 142, 20th October Ulaan Baatar - Khooltyn Davaa Nothing more has put fear into our hearts more so than crossing the Gobi Desert on our bikes. We’ve heard stories that the road is non-existent, there is very little water, and we could get frozen to death. Still, four crazy guys on bicycles keeping the tran-Mongolian railway in view shouldn’t have much of a problem - we could still flag-down a train if we ran into serious trouble…. Couldn’t we? After the usual amount of arsing about and last minute things to do that should have been done in the previous [View Full Entry]

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Day 136, 14th October Ulaan Baatar We’ve booked seven night stay in UB to get our Chinese visas sorted out and to generally repair our aching, worn-out bodies. After a shower I took the stinking bandage from my knee which had been there for well over a week. It had healed well despite the constant movement, so I left the wound to breathe. I washed my reeking clothes in a basin, the water turned black! - and when they were dry, went off to do some shopping at the state department store. I’m finding UB to be a city with no [View Full Entry]

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Day 133, 11th October Darchan - Salcheet - Buruunharaa Awoke to a glorious sunrise over the valley. A dog from the nearby ger came to visit the tent, I threw him some food and had a friend for life. Then, a huge flock, or herd, a sheep came towards our tents munching away. It was like a tsunami wave approaching, a munching mass of hungry grass-nibbling mouths. As they came closer and closer, we began to fear that they would just march straight through our tents, oblivious, leaving just the frames standing. This didn’t happen, but as they past the munching [View Full Entry]

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Day 131, 9th October Kjahta - (MONGOLIA) - Sühbaatar Woke after a good sleep with a slight hangover. After a breakfast of bread and cheese we left the hotel for the border a few miles away. It was another lovely day, with no wind this time. The road down to the border passed what seemed to be deserted shacks built on dusty ground. Up on the hill to our right was a big military encampment with watchtowers and the likes. The dusty road continued south and passed a new paved road that went off left to the new border crossing building. [View Full Entry]

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Day 128, 6th October Ulan Ude - Ivolginsk - Datsan Was up early packing the bike, had breakfast with Scott and checked on the other guys, hangovers from hell had descended on them. At twelve we assembled at the Lenin head for a photoshoot that didn’t materialize - it’s a good job really considering the state we were in. Tobes looked as rough as hell and we had to wait another hour till he was ready, then, we were off, out of the city on an overcast day. As soon as we left the city we were surrounded by grasslands and [View Full Entry]

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Day 125, 3rd October Ilbinka - Ulan Ude Today, personally for me, I’ve done 100 days cycling, and 25 days resting! That’s a lot of miles from Stoke on Trent, not just a trip to the shops. It was really cold last night and I awoke to a layer of ice on the inside of my tent and a damp sleeping bag. What the hell are we doing camping in the wilds of Siberia, as winter approaches with a vengeance. We took our time getting ready and waited for the rising sun to dary out our tents somewhat. Then set off [View Full Entry]

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Day 123, 1st October 2001 Murino - Tanhoj - Babuškin White Rabbits! Or, so they say in the part of England I come from for good luck on the first day of every month - we need it! Didn’t have too much of a brilliant sleep but was warm, though. Was up early, made a cuppa, and packed up. Rory and Tobes decided to try and make cheese on toast on an old piece of metal they found while I stood around getting cold, and then freezing cold! I told them I had to leave and made a move because I [View Full Entry]

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Day 121, 29th September Irkutsk - Šelehov - Shamanka There was a discussion this morning and the result was that Scott has decided to stay another day or two in Irkutsk. He still wasn’t feeling that well, and Kathryn had been trying long-distance Reiki on him too. I think, that in all reality, he had a promise from one of the teenies from the uni? Anyway, we all packed and went round to the Brit Council for our send-off, a TV company wanted to film us and to do a short interview too. I used the internet before I left and [View Full Entry]

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