A late start to the day to get a big breakfast at the nearby restaurant – much appreciated.

Fairly standard fare.

Not so standard – the fried bread particularly good.

I was pleased, anyway. (Rachel’s photo.)

Down the valley we went to join the Orkhon again and follow its left side towards Kharkorin and a rest day. All the traffic seemed to be on the other side of the river – we soon found out why, having to negotiate a number of washed out stream beds where the road was no more. This made for some interesting riding, and occasional pushing. Unusual signs of flash flooding down this stretch. Between these bits the riding was good, with occasional climbs up around cliffs; the headwind started to nag a bit, but did provide some cooling.

Happened upon some Bronze Age deer stones.

A ford of the Orkhon was marked on our maps, but keeping an eye out for that was fruitless – the river was too high. Approaching town, various monuments and tourist facilities started to appear across the river – but we had to find our way around a sandy section of river flats.

Stopping on the approach to the bridge waiting for the others, I was beckoned from quite some distance to a collection of vehicles on the river bank. A delightful family group (five vehicles, at least twenty people of all ages) travelling west from Ulaanbaatar were finishing up a large lunch and plied us with masses of food. Just as well we didn’t have far to ride, as a hot meaty soup, milk tea, peaches and candy were offered and gratefully accepted. A few of the family spoke varying degrees of English, so communication was more satisfying than usual – our Mongolian language ability still woeful. Some of the younger of the group had a go at riding our loaded bikes – went well enough, although the power of hydraulic brakes was a little surprising to them!

Waving farewell as we rode across the bridge to Kharkorin.

A few kilometres later we were at our guesthouse, where we stayed in another ger, and looking forward to a big meal. Unfortunately that was to be the end of our bikepacking in Mongolia – as we wanted a rest day to look around Kharkorin and none of us wanted to ride into the traffic of Ulaanbaatar in a few days’ time. That meant we left a few days riding on the table, which was only regrettable in hindsight – there were plenty of other things to do, both activities and all the tasks of packing to leave.