September 23

Another bitterly cold morning; drink bottles, helmets and the tent were frozen solid.  After exchanging some breakfast cereal for some milk we made our way along more rough roads and into the return of the strong head wind.  It was a long day with many, many river crossings but the seemingly endless valley was very impressive.  Can't be sure how many kilometres we rode but it was tough work, no free wheeling here, even the downhills are slow going.  We were getting accustomed to local nomads riding over to us on their horses to do nothing more than look at us and read the phrase book from cover to cover.  We came across a building in the middle of nowhere which was holding an official meeting of some kind.  There wasn't any food or water which was disappointing, but we did get a laugh out of the Mongols trying to ride our fully loaded bikes.


After a long afternoon, we finally saw some gers in the distance and decided to camp there for the night.  After several minutes of confusion, mainly by our presence there in the first place, they allowed us to camp.  It was hard to find a decent spot to set up the tent as it was colder, drier and windier here, plus you couldn't find a square centimetre of ground without it being covered in animal crap.  Dinner was noodles and powdered stock which we mistook for a flavour sachet, I don't think we have ever woken up more times in the middle of the night to drink water.


Our hands were already dry, cracked and bleeding already from the cold and the constant packing and unpacking.  We hoped it wouldn't snow overnight, we could potentially get stuck if the weather changed too much and we didn't have heaps of food or water in reserve.  We thought we were not too far from the top of the pass as it has taken a very long time to get here.  Marty was now using his bike bag as an extra bed covering, a sign of how cold it's getting overnight.

Icy

Inside a ger

Slowly freezing over

Basketball on the steppe

Unsuccessfully attempting to navigate