to Mongol Els Ger: from snow to sand dunes

October 10, 2016

“I can’t get into my low gear” Rachel says, 10 km out of town. There are icicles hanging off the bracket. Pierre has frost in his beard, all our fingers and toes are cold.

During the night when we have to get up to use the bathroom it seems there's an unusual light outside. That’s because everything is covered in a layer of snow. In the morning light it doesn’t seem quite as bad though, the dusting is light and the sun is trying to break through the dark clouds. A little sun on the road makes the snow melt.

We ride out again with Pierre, our plan is to join forces to Ulaanbaatar (check Pierre's blog http://ducielaudessusdelatete.fr/2016/10/15/13-octobre-larrivee-a-oulan-bator/). The meltwater on the road and the below zero air temperature gives us some trouble, water spraying down our fenders freezes and creates icicles on the bottom brackets and derailleurs. Pierre’s pulley wheels freeze up, our shifting cables that run below the bottom bracket freeze up and we cannot shift. We have to stop several times to clear the ice. Fortunately the road does not freeze up and get slick: we can ride.

The first fourteen kilometers out of Karkhorin we go south-east, then there is a junction where we turn north-east towards the capital. It is a cold day, we are all struggling to keep our fingers and toes warm. During a long downhill we shiver. The landscape is the more of the same with rolling hills, yet different today with a layer of snow covering everything.

The temperature rises just below freezing once the sun manages to come out, then drops again below when it hides behind a cloud. There are no towns today, but we expect some accommodation at the sand dunes that attract quite a few tourists. After the junction where our “Central Mongolia route” joins the “Southern Mongolia route” are shops and restaurants. Just a little further we see a herd of camels and four Gers side by side that don’t quite look like herder Gers (too clean). They are tourist Gers, nicely furnished with sheet vinyl on the floor and three beds and a stove inside. It is low season so we have no trouble negotiating a good price, twenty thousand for the three of us. There is no food though, the guys running the show now do not seem interested in cooking for us. They do get our stove going though, a little wood and then a big pile of dung that glows on the fire. Our Ger warms up quickly.

We drop our gear in the Ger and first ride out to see the dunes behind us. Across a half kilometer of frozen prairie with snow patches everywhere we cycle to the sand dunes. They are not very tall, but pretty with a thin dusting of snow covering the ripples in the sand. At one time these dunes appear to have been covered in birch trees, many stalks are still standing, but most of the wood is now being used to heat the Gers. Not many live trees left. We walk up to the top of one of the higher dunes, enjoy the scenery and take lots of photos.

Then back to our Ger, more dung on the fire and cooking dinner. We share a meal of instant noodles with added potato, carrot and mushrooms. A large can of mixed fruit from the Philippines for dessert.

As expected the Ger cools off rather fast when our fire dies down. Still a lot better than being out in a tent though.