September 22

It was a fairly cold night sleep, the overnight temperature was not exactly what we anticipated.  We got away fairly late mainly due to the day's reluctance to warm and finally reached the small town of Tshair about 20km away.  The kids took a liking to our bikes, which was more annoying than fun as they're not too delicate with the equipment.  Eventually, a small restaurant opened and we got (more) noodle soup and buuz.  One of the girls could speak a little bit of English and she wanted to keep the phrase book after spending ages flicking through it, she even asked if we were carrying any extras with us?  Even though it is a fairly useless book, we agreed to send it to her once we finished the trip.  Over lunch we planned a route which we hoped would be the warmest as well as the easiest for getting to Russia once we were finished riding in Mongolia.  It would take us through a long valley in the central mountain range via a secondary road (according to the map anyway).  To this stage we were on primary roads and they already left a lot to be desired.


After lunch, the road was a dramatic improvement and the lack of wind made a huge difference.  Again, navigation was difficult and we luckily met some hunters who told us the way we were heading was into the hilly section, advice was to follow the other road in another direction which you could see in the distance.  Half way to the road was a few gers where we decided to camp.  Gers are impressive, cooking is done on the central stove which warms everything quickly, most have solar cells and satellite TV.  We were given salty milk tea, not the best tasting drink but a hot drink nonetheless.  We watched the father round up the animals while the mother and daughter milked them, an operation that works very well and efficiently.  They were intrigued with us, our clothes, bikes, tent, sleeping bags, portable cooker and the spaghetti we ate for dinner.


Spirits were definitely higher with this new route plan and more favourable conditions we had today.

Hopefully going to the same place

The pests

Finally, a bridge!