Lake Baikal is HUGE.We spent 3 days cycling along it,and finding muddy tracks down to deserted beaches,and thats only a tiny bit of it ! Just the best camping ..... the only problem is believing that the water is not salty!
Crossing the Trans Siberian... .For the usual reasons [an almost manic tendancy to explore unlikely looking tracks ]we found ourselves having to go both over ,and then later,under ,the railway tracks.The line is very busy....there's a lot of wood and coal on the move.China needs its raw materials. Looks like a train may be on the way according to Nic's face?
This is why we had to cross the tracks! And it was all looking vaguely promising before.....[we never learn !!]
A swim.... in Baikal...Very cold! that's why there is no picture of Jon in the sea.
Russian translation.... but we understand... good roads... not so good drivers.
Where are we now? In Irkutsk.....After complete failure last night [a few Russki yazik /language problems and intimidation by scary railway ladies ] today we have got tickets [we think! ]for a train that leaves for Moscow this evening [we think ! ] We get there on the 30th ....4 days time [we think !],at 4 a.m in the morning [we think ! ],with our bikes in the baggage car [which we think there is !]. Wish us luck !
Jill and Janos….of the famous Silent Green Bubu bus. We first met them enjoying themselves trying to get their Russian visa in Tashkent. Then they left before us on much the same route to Mongolia.We caught up with them when we rode into Olgii, in western Mongolia, but we were too knackered to be very coherent! Then we met them again ,twice ,’on the road ‘ in Mongolia. We almost woke them up for coffee one morning…In Ulaan Bataar we finally caught up properly, so good times with food, beer and laughing,….In their green bus (an old Mercedes 208 diesel van) they have been places you wouldn’t have thought they could have. Now they are in Russia on their way to Vladivostok to ship Bubu to Bangkok. Good travellers!
The boys!!!!Up to no good again.. as you can see from the laughter..Thats Gregoire on Jon’s right,and Arnua is the other one.After cycling with them in Syria/turkey,then meeting them during their “resting”phase in Uzbekistan,we cycled together in northern Mongolia for 9 days.They now feel they know us well enough to take the mick out of our “English”,despite the fact that their pronouciation is as dodgy as ever![Yees,it isss!]They spent hours with jon discussing various bike mechanics,and then when we left them still both of them had put their tyres on the wrong way round.[Ask Jon if you want to know the technical details of mud elimination etc].
We stopped to wash and get water at a stream… We noticed something shining in the river!!! Thinking that we had found GOLD!!!!!.... Nic got her hat out and started to use it as a pan.. I thought it was fool’s gold…. but who knows? May be it was gold and we have just thrown a fortune away?
But we have marked the position on a map…..so….next time we are here we can check it out again.
Last day in Mongolia [til next time]….so I took my chance to ‘borrow’a horse from a group of boys.Whilst Jon amused them by being stupid [wiggling his ears etc…this works with me too !] I gave the horse the Mongolian go fast command [which is ‘tcho’ ,like choo choo train],and it went ! At this point I appreciated the skills of Mongolian horse riders;we’ve seen very young boys staying on their bucking horses bareback at speed. When I applied brakes it was as if my brake blocks were worn out….no initial response at all….then slowly,slowly slower.I did’nt dare gallop back…trotting was fine. The next day I could hardly lift my leg over the crossbar. Neither of us can do anything other than cycling these days.
Clickers, clackers, buzzers and whirrers etc.
What is this? Do you remember eating chewy coloured snakes as a child….here is a live one. We have had a few problems with insects and other small creatures. Jon doesn’t much like “creepy crawlies” and includes ants in this category whereas I like ants…always busy doing something and they NEVER give up, no matter how much too big a bit of bread you have put in their way. We had a night in a ger [Mongolian yurt ]where it literally rained beetles, inside as well as outside [like a locust plague….there were piles of them all over town next morning.].We’ve had moths so desperate to lay their eggs at night that we are still finding eggs in our panniers. We have accidently run over loads of different kinds of grasshoppers; sometimes there have been so many, particularly the ‘clacker’ flying ones, that they’vesmacked us in the face, gone down our necks ,got squashed in between sock and shoe….its their own fault, they have no directional flying /hopping skills.
But of course by far the worst is that pointless invention ‘the mosquito’. Woe betide you if you ignore that lightest of tickling sensations. It is a mosquito tip toeing across your face in search of a new drilling site. If you don’t whack yourself and kill it you will have a huge itching sore lump the next day….to go with all your other ones. Being nice to mosquitoes [incense etc]is for wussies…….we must have killed 100’s by now[each]and made adecent dent in the overall population.
The route so far... gives you a better idea of where we are and where we have been.... as you can see China has been crossed off... Its not that there is anything wrong with the country.....its just that we have decided to head home through Russia.... China will wait for another day!.... Our plan from now is..... To spend a few more weeks in Mongolia...have a bit of a holiday!...Then...Cycle to Lake Baikal...may be a bit further, then catch the Trans Siberian Train across Russia. From there head through the Ukraine and the rest of Europe by bike... We hope to be able to see some of the freinds we have met on the trip as we pass through. The picture we have of this part is.... meandering across Europe in an autumnal glow, picking free apples from the road side trees and refreshing ourselves with the occasional beer sitting outside in the sunshine.
A not very clear picture of our route so far across Mongolia. ....sorry ! Other folk do the google map thing but we have'nt advanced that far...we are still at a more primitive level!.This is the "Tourist Map",so it is filled with stuff....whereas the beauty of Mongolia is in its great emptyness .
Yak's.......... Strange beasts........This lot were being driven by horsemen over a steep road pass on a hot day. They were'nt keen ;nobody was enjoying it,hard work. Yaks can make deep grunting noises.Jon has been teasing them by grunting back. When one came rapidly and definitely to see Jon off,he went quietly and quickly "off".......he has'nt tried it since. We call the call the calves 'yakette's',but thats probably not correct.
Mongolian food We are not sure what this meal is called [and since mongolian words are so technically difficult to pronounce its irrelevant ]....but its basically mutton and noodles,and we try and eat it once every cycling day .It keeps us going for hours .
We had been sitting in this tunnel (under the new road that looks as if it will never be finished) to keep out of the rain... we had had the rain chasing us all day.... When we finally got ready to go..... guess what!.... a flat tyre.....
We really do still like each other.......Ahhhhh! [actually we were just practising if we could master the self timer on the camera ]
Hanna and Niels
We had a special evening out in Ulan Bataar when we got here.The head of the Dutch embassy had invited us to call him when we arrived ;he took us to his home for supper with his lovely family . As we never took our camera,this is a picture of his rather remarkable parents. We met the whole family by chance in Western Mongolia.How lucky was that.
Mongolian tea is salty. Many Mongolian lakes are salty. Sometimes the only water you can get for the day is salty lake water…..but at least you can get a swim and clothes wash at the same time.
Camping is easy here! Just pull off the track….find a nice spot and pitch your tent…fantastic.. It is possible though that a Mongolian wind may pick up in the night!! Then your tent will be leaning at about 45% and sleep will be impossible.
Everywhere there are boys on horses….often racing each other across the plains, with much whooping Mongolian stylee! It does look fun and a great way to grow up.
We met these two three times! Once at a Ganz (tea house,) once in a shop and then on the road on their way to shoot something! (probably a grouse type bird, but who knows!) The gun is Mongolian, the bike is a Russian “ISH” and the clothes were made by their mothers…. Lucky lads!!(Nic thinks that they were off to impress the local women in the next village!!...you decide?)
Lake Baikal is HUGE.We spent 3 days cycling along it,and finding muddy tracks down to deserted beaches,and thats only a tiny bit of it ! Just the best camping ..... the only problem is believing that the water is not salty!
Crossing the Trans Siberian... .For the usual reasons [an almost manic tendancy to explore unlikely looking tracks ]we found ourselves having to go both over ,and then later,under ,the railway tracks.The line is very busy....there's a lot of wood and coal on the move.China needs its raw materials. Looks like a train may be on the way according to Nic's face?
This is why we had to cross the tracks! And it was all looking vaguely promising before.....[we never learn !!]
A swim.... in Baikal...Very cold! that's why there is no picture of Jon in the sea.
