Frozen Turds in the Gobi....

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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 more desolate, small tufts of dry grass, and no animals now, but we did actually see a herd of wild gazelle in the distance today. The gravelly road is getting more sandy as we head south and the corrugations are playing hell with our bikes and our bodies. I’ve discovered ‘numb-nob-syndrome’ today. We had two punctures and a broken rack also. We saw no vehicles today, only the trans-Mongolian trains with the drivers honking at us as they passed. The carcasses of cows, camels and horses reminded us that we were far from a water source out here.

A little dis-spiriting was the fact that when we set out this morning we saw a mountain to the south where we were heading. As we set up camp, we could still see that same mountain, still to the south, but a bit closer.

Total Miles: 7541.58 Todays Miles: 40.07 Average speed: 7.7 Time on bike: 5:11


Day 148, 26th October

Tsagandörvölj - Ulaan Chatsay in Uul Range

I’m writing this in my tent at 7pm, it’s dark, it’s cold, the others are in their tents farting away, it’s The Mongolian Philharmonic out here! We’ve been on the road for a week now and only covered 280 miles. It’s really hard going - in fact, the hardest, monotonous cycling I’ve ever done. Last night was cold, today it’s overcast, so it may be slightly warmer tonight? The Gobi is testing us to the limits. We had thorn problems today. Those bloody peanut-sized seeds covered in thorns which are meant to stick in animals feet punctured our tyres to f***! Rory had 4, Scott had 2, I had one, Toby was lucky - except that his rack bolts sheared. Each time, we had to stop and wait for each repair to be done. And each time we did this, we got cold again. With no-where to shelter we arranged our bikes in a semi-circle as a makeshift windbreak, and shielded ourselves from the biting wind. The end of October and we are sitting in the Gobi desert repairing our bikes!

We passed though a village of four houses today, though, and were invited in one house for tea and an array of nibbly-things. One nibbly-thing was a block of goats-cheese that had to be broken into pieces with a hammer! The people in this part of the Gobi are from an ethnic group called the Khalkh, and are much darker skinned than the people to the north. When we camped, the landscape consisted of a flat plain of near desert, hardly anything was growing at all - a totally barren landscape with only a railway running through the middle of it to remind us of civilization.

Finally today; a word about toiletary procedures in desert conditions. If you are squeamish, then stop reading now. As any long-distance cyclist knows, one of the pleasures of finishing a cycle trip in extreme climates is, that you’re doing ‘solids’ again after a few days. When on the tour, though, you don’t want to go stepping into someone elses bum-porridge during the night whilst relieving yourself. So, we came up with the idea that the four of us would either walk north, south, east, or west 100 paces from the tents, and then do our duties. This worked quite well, with one exception one morning when we set off and Scott rode through someones turd! We often wondered how long these little messages stayed intact and frozen on the desert floor, or did they make a tasty tid-bit for some stray and starving animal, or…. No, I won’t go there! Sweet Dreams…

Total Miles: 7576.42 Todays Miles: 34.83 Average speed: 7.9 Time on bike: 4:22

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Photos

Trans-Mongolian Highway
Andy on State Highway 1, looking for the nearest motorway service area with a flushing toilet and velvet tissue paper.

Mongolian Hells Angels
Whilst sitting by the road eating nibbly-things, this couple just turned up, smiled and stared at us for 20 mins, then left. Our debut as Mongolian street-theatre!

Wild Horses
Lots of horses in Mongolian, and camels. Photo: TOBY

Camels
I spy with my little eye something beginning wit 'C'.

Comments

[Mark]

Ah yes, bum porridge - a Mongolian delicasy ;)

[Yathi]

Keep goin!!
Hey Bikepacker, You are doin what I always wanted to do. feels like a Dejavu. Good luck to you and ur buds and yes good luck further down the road.

[larry lagarde]

I thought the American West was desolate
I rode from Yellowstone National Park to the Grand Canyon on a solo, unassisted bike trip. There were times when the scenery was desolate and brown but your photos of Mongolia look like photos from the Mars lander. It sounds like an incredible journey you're making. When you're done, I'd love to publish some tips from you for the benefit of all the long distance riders and bike tour dreamers that visit my site. Respectfully, Larry Lagarde World-Class-Bike-Trails.blogspot.com Urging bicycling for recreation, commuting, health and a better future.

[sambot]

Hello!
Hello there moblogger/travelblogger! I'm a graduate student at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, USA. As part of my Master's Thesis, I am researching the concept of travelblogging and moblogging in the hopes of constructing a unique service geared toward the moblogger/travelblogger's distinct community. Of note, and maybe just to put us all at ease, this is not a money-making thing... nope, it's a crucial part of my graduate research that I hope you can participate in! I've constructed an online survey that should only take about 2 minutes to complete. Any input that you could provide would be of great help! You can take the survey at the following address: www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=15302763533 Thanks so much for your help! Blog on! Sam P.S. If you have any questions, comments, or difficulties with the survey, please feel free to send me an email at [e-mail]. P.P.S. Oh... and I promise, any and all of the information that you provide will go directly toward my research. I will never, ever, ever share your information with anyone else. Again, thank you so much!