At the beginning of the summer three germans (friends of my sister's MARMOT coworker) asked me for the help with russian train/ tickets etc. That germans were going to cycle through russian Altay mountains to the capital of Mongolia - UlaanBaatar. In a few weeks I've decided to join them.
I've met them first time in Mowcow airport and after 3 days in transsibirean train we arrived to Bijsk. Then about 700 km of very good paved road to the border (There are a lot of traffic at the first ~200km - so I recommend to use road through Altaysky, Shebalino or Tuenta villages). We rode along the wide and strong rivers of Katun and Chuya rivers, through the steppes, mountains and rare highland forests...
At the 9th of August we've arrived to the russian customs - Tashanta village. As it's not allowed to cross this border by bike/ on foot, we ordered a taxi and in a few hours found ourselves in Mongolia. Steppes, filled with the flavour of wormwood, mountains, rocks and small white dots - gers. Roads are quiet good (with roofing slate-like waves) earth roads and there are always several possibilities - you can choose between at least 5 parallel roads. People are very friendly and hospitable: cowboys (goatboys) were usually offered to try to ride their horses...
In a few days we've passed the highest pass at our trip - 2650 m and arrived to the town of Ölgiy. We stayed in Blue Wolf Tourist and hired a jeep to make radial trip to the National park. After a few hundred kilometers we've hired another jeep - public bus. There were 25 persons on the 13 seats - that's, definitely, the most strong my experience at this trip. After 12 hours of the mongolian bus torture we've arrived to Altay town and camped not far from the airport. It's incredible, but that driver continued driving to UlaanBaatar without a stop for sleep. Main road to the capital leads to the east through the deserts, but we've decided to take northern way.
Then we cycled through the Uliastay, Tosotsengel and Tsetserleg villages. After the Kharakhorin town (ancient capital of Mongol Empire) Peter's broken his rear hub and we had to make his hub absolutely steaf - he had to spin the pedals all the time. Nevertheless, we arrived to UlaanBaatar at the 4th of September. I railed back to Moscow, Peter - flew to Frankfurt, while Christof and Walter hired a jeep to visit Gobi desert. Then they are going to go to Beijing by Train - Walter'll fly back and Christof is going to travel for another 10 monthes.
We've met a lot of Mongol Rally crap cars, going from London to Moscow.
Statistics: We were riding for a 34 days and cycled 2533 km. Time of cycling - 163.5 hours with average speed og moving is 15.5 km/h . There were about 900 km af paived roads, 1600 km - waved earth roads. Total climb is about 32 km.
Why am I writing this? Maybe, some of that guys we met and you are woundering, what have happened with that crazy germans - We've arrived to UlaanBaatar. Feel free to email me:
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