Day 15-17. “The Transit” and new stage “Mongolia”.
At night a mechanic arrived from Novosibirsk. He started to work on Christian’s bike in the morning until nightfall. He got it fixed! :0). Some parts in the engine were loose…
The next day we said goodbye to Vladimir who was a great host. The best place I have stayed so far. We made our way to a dog farm in the mountains. “Anatoly” is breeding and training sled dogs. He enthusiastically gave us a tour, presented his dogs and things in general about sled dogs, technical background and competitions. Fascinating guy who is really passionate about his dogs.

 

We continued to a remote camp in the mountains – Kujus camp. It is a beautiful valley with a nice small waterfall nearby. The last kilometres were nice off-road tracks.
In the evening we got soup and a nice BBQ.

The following day was challenging…

On our way back from the camp to the main road leading us south I got my first flat. 36 degrees and stressed but we managed to change the tube. The UHD was burned/molten and the rim really hot. After some kilometres the spare tube failed. A small rift in the inside – strange – but it looked liked a faulty tube from the start. At a fuel station I contacted Vladimir. He promptly came with his car and brought spare tubes with him. We inserted the tube quickly and continued on our way south to Kosh-Agash. The scenery was great and the roads twisty. We arrived in Kosh-Agash in the dark and when we entered the city I got my 3rd flat…
We checked in into a primitive road motel and I decided to fix the 3rd flat in the morning…

The next day we changed quickly the tube (“training” is paying off…). We arrived at the Russian/Mongolian border at noon. Leaving the Russian side was quite fast (1.5 h). Entering Mongolia was also fast but we arrived at lunch break and spent a hour at the fence. At the border we met Cedric from Switzerland who joined our company to Ölgii. He is on his way to Japan and want to cross Mongolia.
After the border we bought som kind of insurance for our bikes. In the next village a “fake police” checked our insurances, while some guy tried to advertise his accommodation to us…

It was amazing finally to drive in Mongolia. All was fine until my engine suddenly stopped. I rolled 2 km downhill and couldn’t get the bike started again. Luckily I had my tow rope with me and Cedric towed me 13 km into the next town “Ölgii”. In Ölgii a car tried two times to cut our way and wanted to stop us. I read about it in some forums. There these guys lured people to some expensive ger camp. One traveler was even robbed… We ignored them and luckily got away without an accident.

We arrived at the “Blue Wolf Ger Camp” in the early evening. I was deeply frustrated with my motorbike. Two days nonstop problems despite good preparation of the bike… I hoped it’s just a problem with the spark plug…

To be continued…

Note: Sorry for the delay – not so many wifi-spots and the days in Ölgii were demanding. But exciting things happened. Stay tuned.