The skies cleared overnight, I woke to the sounds of munching outside my tent – surely the others weren’t up already and eating so close. Poking my head out, we were surrounded by breakfasting yaks! By the time I got out the door, they’d dispersed somewhat.
Heading back to the track, with some indications it might be a bit rocky.
It was more than twenty kilometres of rocky descent – good fun, but not quick.
Some big ger camps broke up the green.
Holding pen which was mostly fenced by rocks.
I was surprised to suddenly see a scrawny wee fox running across the track – the only one we saw.
Valley starting to widen a bit now.
Unusually, we met a group of four bikepackers – we’d only seen a lone bikepacker, days ago, so far. Even more unusually, they were from Bengaluru – we enjoyed sharing stories of past and current trips. We were pleased to hear the route was about to get smoother for us. We may have couched our stories of just how rough things were about to get for them – especially as half the group was on skinnier-tyre gravel bikes.
A good spot to pause and watch bikers, Priuses and cattle go past.
Too easy.
More large ger camps around here too.
Here began one of the most fun sections of mountain-biking of the trip.
The track suddenly became cross-country-esque, twisting, climbing and dipping through a series of small hills. I had a ball trying to chase down a LandCruiser that had earlier passed us – almost caught it too.
We turned east, missing the town of Chuluut, and found the faint track through a small basin before struggling up the steep exit onto a plateau between rivers. With storm clouds gathering to the north, it seemed a good time to lunch before we got soaked.
Making a concerted effort to outrun the storm, unsure where we thought we would hide, good progress was being made down into and out of the next valley. That is, until a passing Prius (what else?) passenger waved us down and promptly rushed around offering us hot milk tea and cheesy yak treats. Yum!
Unfortunately the couple were camera shy, but here’s the milk tea.
Not so camera shy.
The rain did catch us eventually, but having donned rain gear it amounted to nothing.
More cyclists! We had a bemusing conversation with a German cycle tourist on a very heavily loaded and skinny-tyred touring bike, travelling with his teenaged daughter (didn’t hear a peep from her, she didn’t look in the least bit amused). I struggled to comprehend how they were doing this route at about twenty kilometres per day and how they could carry enough food to make that possible. We were surprised to learn there was a store, recently opened in an old school, just ahead.
We found a few gers around the old school building, and were promptly invited into one of them. The son and daughter of the women whose home this was, and their children, were visiting from Australia and Austria for the summer so there were some interesting chats and accents for being in northern Mongolia. Alongside the normal tasty food and tea offered, Swiss chocolate was a new one!
Not really needing anything, we got a few things from the store – as such things are welcome sights in the middle of nowhere when travelling such distances and are to be supported. Out of one valley and into the next, it was the biggest climb of the day – but a piddling one really.
Still, worth stopping at the the ovoo.
A steeper, faster descent than earlier in the day.
Back to the flat lands heading for a larger river than we’d seen for a while.
Soon after getting near it, we turned off the road to find somewhere to camp by the river. Unexpectedly, it was somewhat in flood – but we found a campsite where we got dealt to by silent mosquitoes. Dinner became rushed as another storm approached. Heavy rain drops and the crack of thunder sent us scurrying to eat in our tents. Soon we were surrounded by cracking thunder and lightning – easily the closest I’ve been to such an explosive display for a long time, if ever. It eventually passed and we were all unscathed – an exciting end to another grand day.