Born in Shillong, a small hill station in the rather obscure part of North East India. Met friend and companion from Bergerac, a rather distinguished small town in the South of France renowned for it's fine wines. Me, a little weary of my stint as Jockey beaming down dribble through satellite radio and him of his yearly business forays into India. Sharing a healthy passion for the outdoors and outdoor living we turned talk to do. A hike here, a trek there and we soon took up the challenge of a long nourished desire; travel to the high plains of Mongolia.

I have never cycled long distance before but I knew that was the way I had to make my journey. Apart from the sheer physical challenge of it, we are convinced cycling is one way of paying our ecological debt while also making the best of the places we pass. Cedric is a rather strong cyclist who's made rounds of both the Pyrenees and the Alps. A perfect coach for me when we faced our first steep climbs in the Northern Wilds of Thailand. We went through Thailand, Laos and were rerouted to Vietnam after a slight skirmish with guards at the Boten border who denied us entry despite our prefect visas. Finally in China we faced more obstacles like my bicycle getting stolen with all my bags attached in the town of Gejiu. The police were great and I did get some stuff back, the story which shall be narrated below along with more pennings of what happens along the road to Mongolia. Also these pages have shifted from blogger as the great firewall of China seem rather unkind to blogspot posts. Old posts available at www.muddyruts.blogspot.com.


All accounts and pictures from Cedric and Pearly

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