Friday, August 10, 2012
Russian Border
Woah. Just a heads up, we're at the final Russian frontier. We've been through the Mongolian border, the weird Russian mid way border and we're maybe 6 cars back from the gate. They are at lunch. Both of us are stressed to the hilt because if we're not processed this afternoon, we will be stuck here until Monday morning! Reality says we will be through this afternoon, but that doesn't stop us being concerned. Today a lovely couple from the Netherlands got turned back in a smart car at the Russian mid way border. They only had single entry visas which they must have consumed. They need to go to UB to get a Russian visa. Woah!!! Ugh. Oh well, the spot tracker will reveal our location as I very much doubt we'll be making any posts from here.
Thursday
Vegimite toast was the breakfast today. mmm. After a good sleep in, we headed into town for the markets. We arrived early which yielded no crowds and no feeling of pickpockets.
The Ulaangom markets had a few cool things, but mostly just cheap chinese rubbish that every vendor is sellling. Cmon people, hand made is the key... and differntiate! It's like in Russia. There will be 6 roadside vendors within 50M of one another, all selling honey and only honey! You can't differentiate on price alone - no one wins there.
Scored the three 'Hattigs' or sashes. They are sooo nice. Not perfect which is all the better. Gold, blue and white! Still not finding any cool gifts for anyone, and because we're not in China it didn't seem appropriate buying them as gifts from Mongolia.
Awesome people use dot points - BAM:
-We decided it would be better weight wise, and cheaper to buy fuel in Russia as opposed to filling up in Ulaangom. We left with two 1/2 tanks.
-We changed virtually all of our Tugriks back into USD at a bank. It took about 15 minutes! Passport scans, numerous weird manual counts of the money.
-We used free WiFi in the town square to check email.
-We paid our road toll (500T) and said goodbye to Ulaangom. Note to travellers, keep a tiny bit of Tugriks left for stuff like this. Borders will take the local currency of either side, and USD.
A left turn after Ulaangom puts you on the A16, it's easy to miss the turn off as you're mesmerised by a tar road. It leads way in the the distance to a long enduring climb to 1980M, all in third/fourth gear. Perfectly straight except for the top bit. About 200M from the top we pulled over to let the engine cool down a bit. The temperature gauge was somewhere between half way and 3/4 which is warm enough for my liking. Within 30 seconds of stopping it was back to normal.
The last few hours had encapsulated everything that Mongolia had been over the past week or so. Like a compressed time sample, we did mountain passes, trees, open grass lands, rocky sections. Brilliant. Even if it meant we took a wrong turn and ended up crossing an epic 2560M mountain pass, complete with clouds. The car was not surprisingly underpowered at this altitude, but as we plateaued and we had a chance to accelerate, did the misfire reveal itself - a lot! 2000RPM took about half throttle to achieve with bellowing smoke. Whilst Cassie was looking at a sign at the pass, I thought I'd check something. This engine has a bit of trick called a High Altitude Compensator which from what I suspect is designed to lean off the fuel as a result of lower available oxygen to prevent oil consumption and smoke. Without the internet I cannot be certain! I had a look just above the injector pump at this bit of gear (or what I thought was it). It had a pressure actuator which even when
adjusted one way or the other, still didn't result in any improvment. Oh well, who really cares. We descended the other side of the pass and by 1500M the problem was gone.
Local mining had changed the course of the road, after heading the wrong way up a valley, we got directions from one of the miners.
After leaving the mine site, we drove beneath the powerlines - always a safe option. At one point the road was eroded by about 1 foot. Sick of back tracking, we edged down it. Oh well, it made for some fun video. The natural (if not infuriating) process of roads dividing left us on a single track where there were six previously. It opened onto a piece of brilliantly flat desert ground. We drove for maybe 15 minutes in one direction, then a turn, then thirty minutes to where the A16 should be, then about another 30 back. The route did have us cross several little river crossings, but in reality they were more like large puddles with a tiny current in the middle.
Our last stint on the A16 lead us to 'Bokhmoron' which was maybe 20KM south of where we wanted to be, but it was supposedly linked to another town via a 'road', so we chose to stick with this route instead of finding our way directly north on no roads. We weaved our way through the fenced suburbs to a road which was heading in our general direction. We turned a few swampy corners and the huge, single stream of river revealed itself. Nope, can't cross here.
Our second attempt of leaving the town was met with dense bushy shrubs scratching the car, some marshy mud, and a distinct dead end. DAMMIT! Another 15 minutes wasted.
After the third attempt of leaving the town, we followed some tracks through the rocks in hope of crossing the set we needed. It was too rocky to drive off the tracks, so every KM was spent with our eyes pealed trying to locate these elusive tracks. We did find some, but they were seldom used. At least they were heading in the direction we wanted. We were elated to reach the river marked on our map, but only after crossing two streams, did the remaining six streams reveal themselves. It was time to wade the remaining 6 streams. They were flowing fast, but clear of debris. With only an hour or two of good daylight left, I chose to wade them in what I was wearing as opposed to using the waders. Stupidly I was carrying our brand new video camera in my hand, in hindsight I should have put it in a waterproof case. Thankfully I didn't drop it or fall over. That, and my boots are still sopping wet, but it's ok. Cassie drove maybe four of the streams like a trooper, but the last two
I chose to drive. I don't say that like a wanker, I just didn't want any accident to be on her conscience... that and she hates river crossings even as a passenger, so as a driver they are torture. I put the video camera down on a rock maybe an inch higher than the rest and waded back over. We crossed without incident and although the shallower bits were caught by the camera on the other side, the deepest bit was captured by our dash camera. It was lucky I put it on the rock, because the footage revealed the water washed around the camera... that was close.
After our epic river crossing we were not treated to a road on the other side for quite some time. Once we found it again, we were worried at what the next two rivers on the map represented. I was concerned that there was no fuel where we were so if we had to go back it meant crossing the epic river again. We were down to two 1/4 tanks of fuel which is about my limit mentally. Thankfully the last two rivers were ok. One was two sandy islands and one was more like a green, sometimes swampy depression in an otherwise arid landscape.
The road did the ol' disappearing trick for the last time. Fed up with this we just set course for a waypoint and drove straight towards it, only dodging big rocks for what felt like half an hour. That would be my tip to future travellers, don't worry too much about following maps. Just set a waypoint way in the distance and let the land reveal a route. The roads are way more intuitive than the map is accurate.
After the nightmare that was navigation today, one ray of hope was the promised valley. A steep cutting which when we found it would mean the point at which we could no longer get lost as it went all the way to Tsagaannuur. We found it and it lead us to the most amazing fairy tale grassy valley. Sheer grey/brown gravel cliffs terminated in a bouncy soft grass valley floor complete with a crystal clear stream maybe 1M wide. In fact, we suspect it's the valley pictured from 07:45 to 11:30 in episode 5 of Long Way Round. The only thing missing was the fairly new looking power line which runs through the valley. Don't worry, you'd hardly notice it when you come here.
The kids in this valley are wise to the 'travelers passing through will absolutely stop and give us lollies' trick. At one stage, we drove sooo quietly and sure enough, little bright dots on the horizon would emerge from Ger's and run towards the road. Seriously 300M away! They are like mosquitoes in their tourist detection skills! Future travelers be sure to bring a big bag of lollies.
Among the 50 kids that waved us through the valley only one was naughty. He threw a rock at the car! It was just fortunate that the one he picked up was only big enough to throw about half the distance between us. I'm not sure if he'd do it again, as he got the shock of his lifetime when I yelled at him! I guess that's how we all grew up. He looked maybe 14-17 and is the single piece of beligerence we've seen at all in this country. This will no doubt disappear in our memories as it's only the tiniest of the experiences otherwise brilliant in this country.
One thing I noticed when we handed the children lollies, is that they have such rough hands, like rocks are their only toys! Maybe they are all rock throwers ;-)
It's been impossible to camp because of the proximity to everyone else. We didn't have the energy to entertain anyone whatsoever so we drove as far as we could and camped. Even then, five minutes later two guys arrived on motorbikes. We just peeked through the shades, nothing more - sorry guys.
Unable to sleep we sat up around 3AM and made dot points of what happened on Thursday. It's amazing to think this was just one day. Without the hopelessness of ab-circle-pro commercials to drone us back to sleep we had cold milk and biscuits and watched our videos from the day. Our plan for today (Friday) is to cross the border, find a good camp spot in Russia and rest. Thursday was immensely difficult and stunning all at once.
PS. I think the Long Way Round guys had to go south of the lake, and not cross where we did. Obviously nothing has changed with the route. The A16 is only passable by 4WD and preferably with about 10 of them.
Right now it's 8AM and we're itching to go to the border. We're running a backup of our laptop at 0730 in case it gets confiscated through some paperwork catastrophe which is about my only fear right now.
The Ulaangom markets had a few cool things, but mostly just cheap chinese rubbish that every vendor is sellling. Cmon people, hand made is the key... and differntiate! It's like in Russia. There will be 6 roadside vendors within 50M of one another, all selling honey and only honey! You can't differentiate on price alone - no one wins there.
Scored the three 'Hattigs' or sashes. They are sooo nice. Not perfect which is all the better. Gold, blue and white! Still not finding any cool gifts for anyone, and because we're not in China it didn't seem appropriate buying them as gifts from Mongolia.
Awesome people use dot points - BAM:
-We decided it would be better weight wise, and cheaper to buy fuel in Russia as opposed to filling up in Ulaangom. We left with two 1/2 tanks.
-We changed virtually all of our Tugriks back into USD at a bank. It took about 15 minutes! Passport scans, numerous weird manual counts of the money.
-We used free WiFi in the town square to check email.
-We paid our road toll (500T) and said goodbye to Ulaangom. Note to travellers, keep a tiny bit of Tugriks left for stuff like this. Borders will take the local currency of either side, and USD.
A left turn after Ulaangom puts you on the A16, it's easy to miss the turn off as you're mesmerised by a tar road. It leads way in the the distance to a long enduring climb to 1980M, all in third/fourth gear. Perfectly straight except for the top bit. About 200M from the top we pulled over to let the engine cool down a bit. The temperature gauge was somewhere between half way and 3/4 which is warm enough for my liking. Within 30 seconds of stopping it was back to normal.
The last few hours had encapsulated everything that Mongolia had been over the past week or so. Like a compressed time sample, we did mountain passes, trees, open grass lands, rocky sections. Brilliant. Even if it meant we took a wrong turn and ended up crossing an epic 2560M mountain pass, complete with clouds. The car was not surprisingly underpowered at this altitude, but as we plateaued and we had a chance to accelerate, did the misfire reveal itself - a lot! 2000RPM took about half throttle to achieve with bellowing smoke. Whilst Cassie was looking at a sign at the pass, I thought I'd check something. This engine has a bit of trick called a High Altitude Compensator which from what I suspect is designed to lean off the fuel as a result of lower available oxygen to prevent oil consumption and smoke. Without the internet I cannot be certain! I had a look just above the injector pump at this bit of gear (or what I thought was it). It had a pressure actuator which even when
adjusted one way or the other, still didn't result in any improvment. Oh well, who really cares. We descended the other side of the pass and by 1500M the problem was gone.
Local mining had changed the course of the road, after heading the wrong way up a valley, we got directions from one of the miners.
After leaving the mine site, we drove beneath the powerlines - always a safe option. At one point the road was eroded by about 1 foot. Sick of back tracking, we edged down it. Oh well, it made for some fun video. The natural (if not infuriating) process of roads dividing left us on a single track where there were six previously. It opened onto a piece of brilliantly flat desert ground. We drove for maybe 15 minutes in one direction, then a turn, then thirty minutes to where the A16 should be, then about another 30 back. The route did have us cross several little river crossings, but in reality they were more like large puddles with a tiny current in the middle.
Our last stint on the A16 lead us to 'Bokhmoron' which was maybe 20KM south of where we wanted to be, but it was supposedly linked to another town via a 'road', so we chose to stick with this route instead of finding our way directly north on no roads. We weaved our way through the fenced suburbs to a road which was heading in our general direction. We turned a few swampy corners and the huge, single stream of river revealed itself. Nope, can't cross here.
Our second attempt of leaving the town was met with dense bushy shrubs scratching the car, some marshy mud, and a distinct dead end. DAMMIT! Another 15 minutes wasted.
After the third attempt of leaving the town, we followed some tracks through the rocks in hope of crossing the set we needed. It was too rocky to drive off the tracks, so every KM was spent with our eyes pealed trying to locate these elusive tracks. We did find some, but they were seldom used. At least they were heading in the direction we wanted. We were elated to reach the river marked on our map, but only after crossing two streams, did the remaining six streams reveal themselves. It was time to wade the remaining 6 streams. They were flowing fast, but clear of debris. With only an hour or two of good daylight left, I chose to wade them in what I was wearing as opposed to using the waders. Stupidly I was carrying our brand new video camera in my hand, in hindsight I should have put it in a waterproof case. Thankfully I didn't drop it or fall over. That, and my boots are still sopping wet, but it's ok. Cassie drove maybe four of the streams like a trooper, but the last two
I chose to drive. I don't say that like a wanker, I just didn't want any accident to be on her conscience... that and she hates river crossings even as a passenger, so as a driver they are torture. I put the video camera down on a rock maybe an inch higher than the rest and waded back over. We crossed without incident and although the shallower bits were caught by the camera on the other side, the deepest bit was captured by our dash camera. It was lucky I put it on the rock, because the footage revealed the water washed around the camera... that was close.
After our epic river crossing we were not treated to a road on the other side for quite some time. Once we found it again, we were worried at what the next two rivers on the map represented. I was concerned that there was no fuel where we were so if we had to go back it meant crossing the epic river again. We were down to two 1/4 tanks of fuel which is about my limit mentally. Thankfully the last two rivers were ok. One was two sandy islands and one was more like a green, sometimes swampy depression in an otherwise arid landscape.
The road did the ol' disappearing trick for the last time. Fed up with this we just set course for a waypoint and drove straight towards it, only dodging big rocks for what felt like half an hour. That would be my tip to future travellers, don't worry too much about following maps. Just set a waypoint way in the distance and let the land reveal a route. The roads are way more intuitive than the map is accurate.
After the nightmare that was navigation today, one ray of hope was the promised valley. A steep cutting which when we found it would mean the point at which we could no longer get lost as it went all the way to Tsagaannuur. We found it and it lead us to the most amazing fairy tale grassy valley. Sheer grey/brown gravel cliffs terminated in a bouncy soft grass valley floor complete with a crystal clear stream maybe 1M wide. In fact, we suspect it's the valley pictured from 07:45 to 11:30 in episode 5 of Long Way Round. The only thing missing was the fairly new looking power line which runs through the valley. Don't worry, you'd hardly notice it when you come here.
The kids in this valley are wise to the 'travelers passing through will absolutely stop and give us lollies' trick. At one stage, we drove sooo quietly and sure enough, little bright dots on the horizon would emerge from Ger's and run towards the road. Seriously 300M away! They are like mosquitoes in their tourist detection skills! Future travelers be sure to bring a big bag of lollies.
Among the 50 kids that waved us through the valley only one was naughty. He threw a rock at the car! It was just fortunate that the one he picked up was only big enough to throw about half the distance between us. I'm not sure if he'd do it again, as he got the shock of his lifetime when I yelled at him! I guess that's how we all grew up. He looked maybe 14-17 and is the single piece of beligerence we've seen at all in this country. This will no doubt disappear in our memories as it's only the tiniest of the experiences otherwise brilliant in this country.
One thing I noticed when we handed the children lollies, is that they have such rough hands, like rocks are their only toys! Maybe they are all rock throwers ;-)
It's been impossible to camp because of the proximity to everyone else. We didn't have the energy to entertain anyone whatsoever so we drove as far as we could and camped. Even then, five minutes later two guys arrived on motorbikes. We just peeked through the shades, nothing more - sorry guys.
Unable to sleep we sat up around 3AM and made dot points of what happened on Thursday. It's amazing to think this was just one day. Without the hopelessness of ab-circle-pro commercials to drone us back to sleep we had cold milk and biscuits and watched our videos from the day. Our plan for today (Friday) is to cross the border, find a good camp spot in Russia and rest. Thursday was immensely difficult and stunning all at once.
PS. I think the Long Way Round guys had to go south of the lake, and not cross where we did. Obviously nothing has changed with the route. The A16 is only passable by 4WD and preferably with about 10 of them.
Right now it's 8AM and we're itching to go to the border. We're running a backup of our laptop at 0730 in case it gets confiscated through some paperwork catastrophe which is about my only fear right now.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
There's a road!
Cassie:
Today has been a bit adventurous. First of all in the morning we found ourselves not lost, but shall we say not exactly on the right path towards the town of Baruunturuun. These roads are so confusing. You'll be on what is essentially the "main road" or the "highway" which is just a series of dirt tracks then gradually, bit by bit without you even noticing you'll be turned and heading in the wrong direction. Well, that happened a total of about three times today. The first one was a doozy. I was driving at the time and we ended up going down dirt tracks that literally would end, I'd keep driving, hoping that they would start again and sure enough we'd see something that started to resemble a road again. Some bits were a bit hairy and it really tested me and nerves. At one point when I was getting to my wits end I blurted out "Where's the .......... road!?". Well, today really pushed me. This country is difficult to navigate, even with a GPS. No wonder we've had locals stop us
and ask if they're heading in the right direction. You could spend an entire day going in the wrong direction, end up at a town and realise you've been going south all day when you should've been going west.
This afternoon when we were about 50km or so from Ulaangom, we thought we were deviating off the road we were meant to be on so started heading down another road that ended up being terrible and was getting worse. So, instead of a repeat of what happened in the morning, Graeme just cut across the open grassland (which was rough as guts!) and not before time we saw a road and both said at the same time "There's a road!". Pretty much how you have to navigate at times. We did that maybe three times today as we found we were heading in the wrong direction.
We past a fellow traveller today. Not long after we came out of the middle of nowhere and found the real road again this morning, we came across a lady from the US cycling to Ulaangom. What a goer. Just after I was thinking, far out, that was some difficult off-road driving earlier this morning, really tested my nerves and skill, here she is just happily cycling along with the sun beating down on her. We asked if she needed any water or other provisions but she just said, you know what, there's only about 40km or so to the next town so I think I'll be ok thanks. She only had maybe two litres of water on her if she was lucky, and it was a hot day today. But she just wasn't perturbed, just cruising along.
Anyway, we made it to Ulaangom today. Had a bite to eat, tried to find a hotel but couldn't find one with wifi so couldn't be stuffed, figured we may as well camp rather than not only have no internet but risk no hot water to boot. It's been a huge day and we're both exhausted. Graeme's up on the roof of the car at the moment because the bottle of brake fluid we had in one of the boxes has leaked. Apparently the lid came off. How a screw top lid comes off I'm at a loss. These roads are rough but we've been on rougher, tougher roads in Russia without this happening. Ironically, we even checked all of that yesterday and just commented on how great it is that everything in the boxes has held up so well and hasn't leaked. It seems we spoke a day too soon. It's also leaked onto the car so hopefully Graeme can clean it enough so that it doesn't corrode the paint. Ugh. Some days are very tiring.
Another thing that's a bit of a pain in the neck is the back doors are letting in a lot of dust. More than ever and we can't figure out how on earth so much is getting in. Literally everything in the car has a fine coating of dust on it. It's frustrating as hell and we've been sneezing a lot these past few days because of it. We drove on much dustier roads in Russia and didn't have nearly this amount of dirt in the car. Ugh again. All I can think of is that all the rough roads we've driven on have simply shaken the back doors to crap or the seals need replacing.
We've camped just outside the town and will re-enter it again tomorrow. We need to go to a bank to change the currency. Hopefully we can change it into Euros. You can't exchange Mongolian, Kazakhstan or Russian currency outside the country. Bugger. Fingers crossed we can change it tomorrow. This is the last town large enough between here and the border where we have any hope of doing this.
I realise I sound like I'm complaining a lot in this post but sometimes you just have to get all of this stuff out so you can build a bridge and get over it. We've really loved our time in Mongolia. I'm only complaining because it must be past my bedtime!
Not long now until we're back in Russia. We certainly haven't rushed through Mongolia which is nice. We've spent time taking pictures, taking in the serenity and exploring the towns we came across. Even still it's only taken us about a week to get through it. There really hasn't been much to see this side of Mongolia because it's very dry and barren. The population seems to have thinned out since Moron. We've had the most awesome camps through Mongolia, even though tonight's one isn't very glamorous as it's near the town's cemetery and tip. Nice. Not sure what the locals were thinking with the placement of these two things literally side by side.
We're aiming to be at the border by Friday which will be easily done from here, even if we spend some time in Ulaangom tomorrow. I'll be sad to say goodbye to Mongolia but am so glad that we've had the opportunity to spend time in such an amazing country.
Today has been a bit adventurous. First of all in the morning we found ourselves not lost, but shall we say not exactly on the right path towards the town of Baruunturuun. These roads are so confusing. You'll be on what is essentially the "main road" or the "highway" which is just a series of dirt tracks then gradually, bit by bit without you even noticing you'll be turned and heading in the wrong direction. Well, that happened a total of about three times today. The first one was a doozy. I was driving at the time and we ended up going down dirt tracks that literally would end, I'd keep driving, hoping that they would start again and sure enough we'd see something that started to resemble a road again. Some bits were a bit hairy and it really tested me and nerves. At one point when I was getting to my wits end I blurted out "Where's the .......... road!?". Well, today really pushed me. This country is difficult to navigate, even with a GPS. No wonder we've had locals stop us
and ask if they're heading in the right direction. You could spend an entire day going in the wrong direction, end up at a town and realise you've been going south all day when you should've been going west.
This afternoon when we were about 50km or so from Ulaangom, we thought we were deviating off the road we were meant to be on so started heading down another road that ended up being terrible and was getting worse. So, instead of a repeat of what happened in the morning, Graeme just cut across the open grassland (which was rough as guts!) and not before time we saw a road and both said at the same time "There's a road!". Pretty much how you have to navigate at times. We did that maybe three times today as we found we were heading in the wrong direction.
We past a fellow traveller today. Not long after we came out of the middle of nowhere and found the real road again this morning, we came across a lady from the US cycling to Ulaangom. What a goer. Just after I was thinking, far out, that was some difficult off-road driving earlier this morning, really tested my nerves and skill, here she is just happily cycling along with the sun beating down on her. We asked if she needed any water or other provisions but she just said, you know what, there's only about 40km or so to the next town so I think I'll be ok thanks. She only had maybe two litres of water on her if she was lucky, and it was a hot day today. But she just wasn't perturbed, just cruising along.
Anyway, we made it to Ulaangom today. Had a bite to eat, tried to find a hotel but couldn't find one with wifi so couldn't be stuffed, figured we may as well camp rather than not only have no internet but risk no hot water to boot. It's been a huge day and we're both exhausted. Graeme's up on the roof of the car at the moment because the bottle of brake fluid we had in one of the boxes has leaked. Apparently the lid came off. How a screw top lid comes off I'm at a loss. These roads are rough but we've been on rougher, tougher roads in Russia without this happening. Ironically, we even checked all of that yesterday and just commented on how great it is that everything in the boxes has held up so well and hasn't leaked. It seems we spoke a day too soon. It's also leaked onto the car so hopefully Graeme can clean it enough so that it doesn't corrode the paint. Ugh. Some days are very tiring.
Another thing that's a bit of a pain in the neck is the back doors are letting in a lot of dust. More than ever and we can't figure out how on earth so much is getting in. Literally everything in the car has a fine coating of dust on it. It's frustrating as hell and we've been sneezing a lot these past few days because of it. We drove on much dustier roads in Russia and didn't have nearly this amount of dirt in the car. Ugh again. All I can think of is that all the rough roads we've driven on have simply shaken the back doors to crap or the seals need replacing.
We've camped just outside the town and will re-enter it again tomorrow. We need to go to a bank to change the currency. Hopefully we can change it into Euros. You can't exchange Mongolian, Kazakhstan or Russian currency outside the country. Bugger. Fingers crossed we can change it tomorrow. This is the last town large enough between here and the border where we have any hope of doing this.
I realise I sound like I'm complaining a lot in this post but sometimes you just have to get all of this stuff out so you can build a bridge and get over it. We've really loved our time in Mongolia. I'm only complaining because it must be past my bedtime!
Not long now until we're back in Russia. We certainly haven't rushed through Mongolia which is nice. We've spent time taking pictures, taking in the serenity and exploring the towns we came across. Even still it's only taken us about a week to get through it. There really hasn't been much to see this side of Mongolia because it's very dry and barren. The population seems to have thinned out since Moron. We've had the most awesome camps through Mongolia, even though tonight's one isn't very glamorous as it's near the town's cemetery and tip. Nice. Not sure what the locals were thinking with the placement of these two things literally side by side.
We're aiming to be at the border by Friday which will be easily done from here, even if we spend some time in Ulaangom tomorrow. I'll be sad to say goodbye to Mongolia but am so glad that we've had the opportunity to spend time in such an amazing country.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Choco Pie
Graeme:
Responses to comments:
Chris - Indeed. And I think we have seen some Yak's, but only maybe 10? To make it relative, we'd have seen 500 horses and 1000 cows and 1500 goats/sheep. I'm not sure what the crops are to be honest. Some are ground vegitables like potatoes I suspect, with heaps of yellow canola I think as well.
Anonymous - Yeah pretty much, I read somewhere that it's important not to refer to them as Yurt's in Mongolia. Something to do with Russia... they really don't like the term. Check that fact however, it was probably written on an Internet.
Kerry - I really look forward to getting that book. Thanks heaps.
Scenery today has been for the most part really arid. If my map is to be beleived, where we are now is popular farming in the winter (lots of Winter Camps). It's evident with heaps of animal shelters, but no population to be seen. Passed maybe ten cars and overtook one?
We walked around Tsetserleg today for about half an hour today. We were looking for somewhere to dispose of our rubbish, buy a lemonade to replace the one consumed last night, and get a drop of fuel. We were greeted by the town policeman who wanted to check our passports, but seemed satisfied with our international driving permits. We visited a few shops, bought some bread and some choco pies... with complimentary lollies. The choco pies are like thicker wagon wheels but not as wide or as dense... quite nice indeed as I'm about to down my second. As we were leaving the store, we noticed the very same policeman flogging a young man over the back with his batton. The young fellow must have been giving him lip because he didn't run away, but willingly accepted more beating in exchange for attitude. We saw the young fellow later and gave him a nod with much kudos for fighting 'the man'. He was quite chuffed, as his friends were also impressed by his beating. One of the stores h
ad a internal celling about 5 foot high. It goes without saying that my entrance into the store bent over like a hunchback made the shopkeep crack up mid call.
We got a fill of diesel which was pumped by hand! Was probably the most expensive fuel so far, but they certainly earened it. They also took our rubbish which was grand.
A song that's been in my head for at least the last 24 hours is 'So you win again' by Hot Chocolate. Was Tom Jones in Hot Chocolate? It kind of sounds like him, but I wouldn't bet money on it.
Yesterday and today we've been asked for directions... from locals! Well, Mongolia locals, obviously not local locals. It makes us feel a little bit normal by not intuitively being able to navigate here. On the other hand, Oisin Hughes, a guy who rode his motorbike half way through Mongolia tells a story when he was being carted by truck. The driver would drive through the night, stop every hour, turn off the lights, wait for his eyes to adjust, get his bearings and continue again. How mind blowing is that?!
The last two days, the kilometers have just crawled by. We'd be averaging 20KM/Hr with stops. It's fine when the scenery is stunning, but when it's pretty 'samey', you just want to get to something more interesting. It's also crazy windy at our camp tonight which means no bugs. Mongolia doesn't seem to be plagued with bugs which is terrific. We parked next to some cool man made rock formation which does look kind of green, so it may indicate a water source?
Tonight we've realised that we will arrive at the Tsagaannuur border Sat/Sun which we assume is when it's closed. Can anyone confirm this? It just means we'll spend a bit more time at Ulanngom. We are dying to get to markets to get some coloured sash's. I wanted to get one for the car in UB but the markets were soooo far away and the public transport downright dangerous in all it's forms. I was hoping to get at least two; one for the car to get dirty, one to stay perfectly clean so the contrast between them would be Mongolia! Sounds like a very authentic souvenir but I'm running out of dirt and mud to get on it! Oh well, hopefully Ulanngom markets will yield some as it would be horrendously embarrassing to have to buy them online when we return. I'm surprised that they are not readily available. I asked in every store today, nope. They are everywhere, tied to bridges, trees and monuments - and I can't even find one!
Cassie's been feeling good all day, so thank you for your well wishes.
Position: 12-08-07 18:19:33 +0800 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=49.57727,95.8754&q=49.57727,95.8754&z=16
Responses to comments:
Chris - Indeed. And I think we have seen some Yak's, but only maybe 10? To make it relative, we'd have seen 500 horses and 1000 cows and 1500 goats/sheep. I'm not sure what the crops are to be honest. Some are ground vegitables like potatoes I suspect, with heaps of yellow canola I think as well.
Anonymous - Yeah pretty much, I read somewhere that it's important not to refer to them as Yurt's in Mongolia. Something to do with Russia... they really don't like the term. Check that fact however, it was probably written on an Internet.
Kerry - I really look forward to getting that book. Thanks heaps.
Scenery today has been for the most part really arid. If my map is to be beleived, where we are now is popular farming in the winter (lots of Winter Camps). It's evident with heaps of animal shelters, but no population to be seen. Passed maybe ten cars and overtook one?
We walked around Tsetserleg today for about half an hour today. We were looking for somewhere to dispose of our rubbish, buy a lemonade to replace the one consumed last night, and get a drop of fuel. We were greeted by the town policeman who wanted to check our passports, but seemed satisfied with our international driving permits. We visited a few shops, bought some bread and some choco pies... with complimentary lollies. The choco pies are like thicker wagon wheels but not as wide or as dense... quite nice indeed as I'm about to down my second. As we were leaving the store, we noticed the very same policeman flogging a young man over the back with his batton. The young fellow must have been giving him lip because he didn't run away, but willingly accepted more beating in exchange for attitude. We saw the young fellow later and gave him a nod with much kudos for fighting 'the man'. He was quite chuffed, as his friends were also impressed by his beating. One of the stores h
ad a internal celling about 5 foot high. It goes without saying that my entrance into the store bent over like a hunchback made the shopkeep crack up mid call.
We got a fill of diesel which was pumped by hand! Was probably the most expensive fuel so far, but they certainly earened it. They also took our rubbish which was grand.
A song that's been in my head for at least the last 24 hours is 'So you win again' by Hot Chocolate. Was Tom Jones in Hot Chocolate? It kind of sounds like him, but I wouldn't bet money on it.
Yesterday and today we've been asked for directions... from locals! Well, Mongolia locals, obviously not local locals. It makes us feel a little bit normal by not intuitively being able to navigate here. On the other hand, Oisin Hughes, a guy who rode his motorbike half way through Mongolia tells a story when he was being carted by truck. The driver would drive through the night, stop every hour, turn off the lights, wait for his eyes to adjust, get his bearings and continue again. How mind blowing is that?!
The last two days, the kilometers have just crawled by. We'd be averaging 20KM/Hr with stops. It's fine when the scenery is stunning, but when it's pretty 'samey', you just want to get to something more interesting. It's also crazy windy at our camp tonight which means no bugs. Mongolia doesn't seem to be plagued with bugs which is terrific. We parked next to some cool man made rock formation which does look kind of green, so it may indicate a water source?
Tonight we've realised that we will arrive at the Tsagaannuur border Sat/Sun which we assume is when it's closed. Can anyone confirm this? It just means we'll spend a bit more time at Ulanngom. We are dying to get to markets to get some coloured sash's. I wanted to get one for the car in UB but the markets were soooo far away and the public transport downright dangerous in all it's forms. I was hoping to get at least two; one for the car to get dirty, one to stay perfectly clean so the contrast between them would be Mongolia! Sounds like a very authentic souvenir but I'm running out of dirt and mud to get on it! Oh well, hopefully Ulanngom markets will yield some as it would be horrendously embarrassing to have to buy them online when we return. I'm surprised that they are not readily available. I asked in every store today, nope. They are everywhere, tied to bridges, trees and monuments - and I can't even find one!
Cassie's been feeling good all day, so thank you for your well wishes.
Position: 12-08-07 18:19:33 +0800 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=49.57727,95.8754&q=49.57727,95.8754&z=16
Monday, August 6, 2012
Gershina
Graeme:
Gershina is one name we're testing for our car. Car in Russian is Machina, and Ger's are a nomad's house in Mongolia. It's our nomadic house car! Technically it's probably spelled Gerchina. I feel decent names just happen organically, so we'll see how this fits.
I just jumped under the car to refill the front diff but to my suprise, it's most certainly full. erm. Not sure what happened there, I obviously misread the oil level. It must have been perfect body temperature because I couldn't feel it, and what I saw on my finger I assumed was just residue from the filler hole. And the oil doesn't look contaminated either. I think the breather may be blocked, or it's just closed off at the moment because the bolt came out with a little bit of back pressure. What a mystery! Oh well, we now have 4L of front diff/gearbox/transfer case oil! I'm really not worried at all.
Cassie fit right in at Moron ;-) We had lunch at a hotel which was scrumptious. Cassie had stirfry lamb and rice, and I had 'Fried Pepper Meal'. Terrific. Opposite was an auto shop where we bought the oil and wiper blades from. Three gents inside were watching the olympics. I think it was an early heat of a hurdles event. A USA lady won by a fair lead. We were all joyed in some kind of 'yay, someone won, it doesn't matter who'. We talked about Mongolia's medal tally and Australia's and told them we watched the wrestling the other night on TV between a Mongolian and a Korean with much enthusiasm as if rooting for our own contendor. They invited us to sit and watch. We hung around for a minute but were eventually on our way.
After lunch and several stunning mountain passes later, we stopped by a river for a swim. The water was alright, but now we're all washed - awesome. Ulanbator aside, 90% of Mongolians are soooo excited to meet us.
Today yielded another example of the 'general direction' navigation rule. We veered right at a fork in the road when in hindsight should have been a left. We drove for maybe 30 minutes and ended up at the same place that the other road went. Another weird element is the fact that if there is no road, you need to just drive there. As you can tell from our location, we're within 10 minutes of a small town. We approached it from one side, but needed to leave on the same side, just further over... so we just drove straight. It's a foreign concept for us, but it's totally cool here. Same with our camp site, we saw a saddle in a mountain, so we just drove to it. Our altitude is 1917M - Our highest yet. Cassie is feeling a bit queasy which is sad. There's nothing I can do unfortunatly, so I'm just trying to keep busy and not get in her way. Hopefully it will pass soon.
PS. She's feeling much better. We've kept a 500ML lemonade in our fridge to sip if we feel crook. Well, Dr. Graeme saved the day, she's had a burp or two and now feels on top of the world. Warranty not included.
Cassie:
Thanks to Graeme for the update on my wellbeing, burps included. I'm sure you were all thrilled to bits to read about the details.
Today has been yet another wonderful day in Mongolia. Haha, yes moronically Graeme thinks I fit in well at the town named, Moron. Everyone has been genuinely warm towards us. In the town of Moron I waited in the car at one point and people would look at the car as they were passing by and as soon as our eyes met I would smile and there would be a quick and warm smile in return. At one point a Mongolian guy about our age stopped us in the street, all smiles. All he wanted to do was shake each of our hands then he continued on his way down the street. All the kids we've met are so cheeky! Today there were three boys on two horses, maybe ranging in age from 9 - 12 (totally guessing) and they were clearly meant to be hearding their family's livestock. But as soon as they saw our car approaching down the road the horse that had two boys on it trotted into the middle of the road and blocked our way. As we approached I grabbed the video camera because these kids were playing chicken
with us! Haha awesome! When we got to them we stopped and they were mounted up on their horse giggling away like little urchins. We were in the game so moved the car to the left and they blocked our way. To the right, they blocked our way. Haha classic! After that they moved off to the side of the road. The car was in a muddy patch so Graeme lit up the back wheels and spun mud everywhere and they were laughing and carrying on, loving the "horse play" - 'scuse the pun, honestly none intended. Ahh, such innocent fun.
Lunch in Moron was indeed tasty and I refuse to believe that's what made me feel ill a moment ago. The menu had some funny sounding delights on it, aside from Graeme's "Fried Pepper Meal" which turned out to be stir-fry pepper beef, there was also "Chicken with Tricky". I wasn't game enough to order that, even for a laugh because Graeme was already ordering a weird sounding thing. I thought at least stir-fry lamb with rice is a good fall back, worst case I could just eat the rice. Anyway I really want to know what "Tricky" is. There were a few other things on the menu that were a laugh but I can't remember them. Sorry, you just had to be there for the giggles. The beverage menu did have the staples of hot or cold water specifically.
Position: 12-08-06 18:55:00 +0800 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=49.54531,98.66463&q=49.54531,98.66463&z=16
All roads lead to joy
Sitting in the front seat of the car, trying to recount today. It's all been one beautiful blur.
We started early as we had a terrific sleep last night. I'd say it's a combination of a cool night and blocking out the light with our solar shades. We've been reluctant to use them because it's a 10 minute ordeal each day to put them on or pack them away. In Mongolia however, we figured we didn't need visibility out the rear and side windows, so as a result we've been leaving them on. 90KM of our drive today was brilliant tar. It also happened to be when it was pissing with rain. We made hay while the sun shone. We did 280KM which suggests to me that 200KM is a comfortable expectation in Mongolia. We had a lengthy lunch complete with coffee's beside a silent highway.
In response to Tom's comment about how it's about time we did some 4WD'ing, well... today it all got a workout. I am at a loss as to how cars are traveling this route. When I say route, this is most certainly the main road - It's the A0902. Sections today had us a foot deep in sludge and slosh... for usually around 100M at a time. My only explanation is that they know the sections that snake around the mountains, whereas we're just taking the largest route, usually straight through the guts of it.
Two sets of children made up the roadside vendors today. The first set were two sisters (maybe 8,6) and their brother (maybe 2!). They were selling milk no doubt fresh from the cow in plastic coke bottles. They didn't have lids, so if a big batch of raw milk didn't appeal, the fact the 2yo was sucking on one of the bottles made us confident in our 'nope' decision. We gave them 500T for the privilege of taking thier photo. The second set of vendors were two brothers, perhaps 8-9 had a jar of some kind of dark berry. They were quick to climb on the car and as children do, they effortlessly asked if they could have our tin of pringles? Nah. OK, how about the mobile phone? Um, nope. Camera? Nope. What about that camera?. No. Here, have a bag of lollies. They climbed off and were on there way. I got some photos of them too, but I had the wrong lens on, so I was about 3M outside the passenger door shooting across the cab at them hanging in the window talking to Cassie.
The front diff is weeping oil around the back side where the pinion gear enters the housing. There is maybe 8 bolts on here and about 6 of them were oily. Not suprisingly, the ones that were not weeping were tight enough, the ones that were weeping could use a full turn tightening. I suspect this has fixed it, but we now need some differential oil. If we were stuck, I'm sure engine oil would do the job, but I think we'll just leave the hubs unlocked until we get to stages where we absolutely need 4WD. We could backtrack all of 5KM to a town and no doubt get some, but Moron is about 100KM away and a lot larger, so we'll get some there.
We watched a car today traverse a staggeringly technical section which criss-crossed beneath overhead lines. He went back and forth, turning around heaps in this front wheel drive car. TWICE we returned to our car to go and help him out of what seemed like a dire situation (motionless with mud and water above the front spoiler), but when we'd look back, he'd somehow got it moving again. They came over, offered us some assumed alcohol from a big 10L yellow plastic container which was politely declined. Out of astonishment, they gestured 'we just came over to say hi'... YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO CROSS THAT?! We get the impression they were just out for a drive as they stopped and chatted to another car down the road, obviously in no hurry.
We were treated to a sunset that defies words. That really is all I can say about it.
Dinner was bacon, eggs and tomato. Ohhhh how good it was. We've not had that meal in ohhh so long.
We took 250 pictures today which sounds absurd I know. To make things worse, that was just the still camera! Half the problem with viewing photos on laptops, is I don't know if the exposure of the photos is correct. Tilt the screen one way, they look too bright, tilt it the other way and they look dark. I can only hope some of ours turned out ok.
I'll probably post this tomorrow night now, as it's nearing 10PM and it's pitch black outside. Good evening.
Position: 12-08-05 20:57:05 +0800 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=49.46608,101.4185&q=49.46608,101.4185&z=16
#END
We started early as we had a terrific sleep last night. I'd say it's a combination of a cool night and blocking out the light with our solar shades. We've been reluctant to use them because it's a 10 minute ordeal each day to put them on or pack them away. In Mongolia however, we figured we didn't need visibility out the rear and side windows, so as a result we've been leaving them on. 90KM of our drive today was brilliant tar. It also happened to be when it was pissing with rain. We made hay while the sun shone. We did 280KM which suggests to me that 200KM is a comfortable expectation in Mongolia. We had a lengthy lunch complete with coffee's beside a silent highway.
In response to Tom's comment about how it's about time we did some 4WD'ing, well... today it all got a workout. I am at a loss as to how cars are traveling this route. When I say route, this is most certainly the main road - It's the A0902. Sections today had us a foot deep in sludge and slosh... for usually around 100M at a time. My only explanation is that they know the sections that snake around the mountains, whereas we're just taking the largest route, usually straight through the guts of it.
Two sets of children made up the roadside vendors today. The first set were two sisters (maybe 8,6) and their brother (maybe 2!). They were selling milk no doubt fresh from the cow in plastic coke bottles. They didn't have lids, so if a big batch of raw milk didn't appeal, the fact the 2yo was sucking on one of the bottles made us confident in our 'nope' decision. We gave them 500T for the privilege of taking thier photo. The second set of vendors were two brothers, perhaps 8-9 had a jar of some kind of dark berry. They were quick to climb on the car and as children do, they effortlessly asked if they could have our tin of pringles? Nah. OK, how about the mobile phone? Um, nope. Camera? Nope. What about that camera?. No. Here, have a bag of lollies. They climbed off and were on there way. I got some photos of them too, but I had the wrong lens on, so I was about 3M outside the passenger door shooting across the cab at them hanging in the window talking to Cassie.
The front diff is weeping oil around the back side where the pinion gear enters the housing. There is maybe 8 bolts on here and about 6 of them were oily. Not suprisingly, the ones that were not weeping were tight enough, the ones that were weeping could use a full turn tightening. I suspect this has fixed it, but we now need some differential oil. If we were stuck, I'm sure engine oil would do the job, but I think we'll just leave the hubs unlocked until we get to stages where we absolutely need 4WD. We could backtrack all of 5KM to a town and no doubt get some, but Moron is about 100KM away and a lot larger, so we'll get some there.
We watched a car today traverse a staggeringly technical section which criss-crossed beneath overhead lines. He went back and forth, turning around heaps in this front wheel drive car. TWICE we returned to our car to go and help him out of what seemed like a dire situation (motionless with mud and water above the front spoiler), but when we'd look back, he'd somehow got it moving again. They came over, offered us some assumed alcohol from a big 10L yellow plastic container which was politely declined. Out of astonishment, they gestured 'we just came over to say hi'... YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO CROSS THAT?! We get the impression they were just out for a drive as they stopped and chatted to another car down the road, obviously in no hurry.
We were treated to a sunset that defies words. That really is all I can say about it.
Dinner was bacon, eggs and tomato. Ohhhh how good it was. We've not had that meal in ohhh so long.
We took 250 pictures today which sounds absurd I know. To make things worse, that was just the still camera! Half the problem with viewing photos on laptops, is I don't know if the exposure of the photos is correct. Tilt the screen one way, they look too bright, tilt it the other way and they look dark. I can only hope some of ours turned out ok.
I'll probably post this tomorrow night now, as it's nearing 10PM and it's pitch black outside. Good evening.
Position: 12-08-05 20:57:05 +0800 +0000
http://maps.google.com/maps?&ll=49.46608,101.4185&q=49.46608,101.4185&z=16
#END
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Waoww!
d. The height of the grass just hides it from view. Although we'd done a lot of reading to prepare us for this fact, there's nothing quite like having 6 tracks in front of you to choose from, and just having to relax to the idea that they'll all get you there.
I think I can sum up navigation here. Firstly, I don't have the skill to navigate this place without a GPS and secondly, general direction is usually good enough. If it looks like you've missed a left turn, over the next 10 splits in the road, if you keep taking the left fork, you'll end up where you wanted to be.
We do have two GPS's, one physical map and three digital maps, so I'm not too worried about getting lost. If the US government disables GPS, then it might be slower going ;)
I was surprised to see fields growing crops, occasionally with fences.
We're camped atop a small hill, but sheltered on three sides by grassy hills and rocks.
We're staggered at how many Ger's there are. Atop our hill top lookout we can count more than a dozen. They sit so effortlessly in the landscape, like they are meant to be here. The scene is so idyllic that I can't pretend to capture it. It's a utopia!
One last thought to finish my post. I sat up on the rocks after dinner overlooking the valley. It felt weird somehow but I'll try and explain. Everything looked picture perfect. Like in a National Geographic magazine, or on TV. It looked that perfect that it doesn't feel real! Why doesn't it feel real?!
We zip through these countries. 'Ohh, isn't that nice, lets take a picture' You look back a few days later and pat yourself on the back - excellent photo... but it feels like we're a bit disconnected from the environment. I've heard of photographers refer to this disconnection as part of the game. They can be in a war zone, capturing something horrible, but can return seemingly unfased. This I suspect is the curse of the camera. Has anyone else struck this?
Our car is the perfect example of that will to disconnect from our environment. It's geared to provide an environment completely separate to that of it's surroundings. It's warm, it's dry, it's soft and quiet. Sitting out on the rocks, they felt hard, the wind was cool, the sounds of livestock evident. We'll retired later to some TV. See what we're missing? The exposure!
Hmm... we have a lot to learn.
Cassie:
I was a bit relieved to be leaving Ulaanbaatar today if I'm honest. It's a rough city with lots of crazy traffic, but thankfully the people we spoke to individually were really lovely. There was a staff member at the hotel who spoke a bit of english and she took us under her wing and spoke english with us every chance she got. I get the impression the people who speak english in this country like to practice it every chance they get. It makes me feel bad that I can't speak their language! The Mongolian language to my ear has the lovely sing-song cadence of many Asian languages with a hint of Russian sounds mixed in. A bit difficult for me to get my tongue around the correct pronunciation.
Driving the dirt roads today hasn't been as taxing as driving dirt roads in Russia and at points they've been just as rough if not more so. Not sure why it's more enjoyable. Perhaps because there's no traffic to worry about? Perhaps the scenery is calming? The drive through this country is going to be slow going. We average probably between 30 - 40km/hr. But in a strange way that's ok. So long as we're completely through Russia before the temporary import for the car runs out on 22 September, I'm a happy camper.
Another wonderful thing to know about this part of Mongolia is that the air smells like lavender. I found the plant that I thought had the fragrance, crushed some in my hand and sure enough it smells like lavender. The only resemblance this plant has to lavender is the silver foliage, other than that it's entirely different. The fields are full of this gorgeous little plant. In areas that have this plant in abundance the air is thick with the scent. Isn't lavender meant to be a relaxing scent in aroma therapy? Perhaps that's why I'm feeling so relaxed here!
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