July 16th, 2024

​Across the Gobi

After Altai the gaps between water supplies got bigger. On the stretch heading out of Altai two guys were stranded with their truck broken down. They had rigged a shelter from the heat with scaffolding they were carrying, but their water supply was finished.  I had a moments hesitation before handing over one of my 1.5 litre bottles. I had encountered so much generosity on the road it was impossible to refuse. In that instant my camp out possibilities were reduced to one. I had to reach water on the next day.

The ger camp that night fortunately had a small store of drinks for sale. My dehydration level had crept up, it took 3 litres of fluid before the raging thirst subsided. With the resupply I knew I just had to get as close as possible to the next supply point, Darvi. The night didn’t play ball and I was taught a brutal lesson in the power of Gobi Desert storms. With the wide plain offering no shelter and a wind funnel between two mountain ranges stretching for 200 kilometres, the wind could play havoc.  With my tent flattened to the ground, everything was initially sandblasted. The rain quickly followed. The only option was shelter under a culvert in the road. An uncomfortable night huddled in my survival blanket. Plus side I was safe and warm.

With another storm on its way through, I took shelter in a small cabin in Darvi and set about camping out for double meals in the restaurant that flooded with patrons with each bus load heading to Nadam festivals around the country. Also flooding the road was a convoy of support vehicles for the huge “Silk Way” rally which had just come down through the Russian border. The Lada lead driver had several support vehicles. Fortunately the rally route itself was out on the fringing dirt roads.

From Darvi I had 400 kilometres of pure Gobi. I had opted to cut off the highway heading south through the huge Kushuutin coal mine. The road turned immediately to corrugations and bog.  The storms had sent volumes of water down from mountains, the road had the appearance and surface of a stream bed. A front end loader was struggling to make a path to allow the trucks stranded at the top to move down. More than once I paused to consider turning back. The climb continued at a slow grind.

At the top, I was rewarded with the view down a magnificent valley.  Far across the other side huge walls of cut coal faces towered over the tiny industrial settlement. I raced down into the valley to another pleasant surprise, the road turned to good seal, a path to the Chinese Border for the huge convoy of coal trucks camped down the valley. Another huge bonus was the 5 day Nadam festival holiday which kept all those trucks off the road.

I celebrated the end of that day with a downhill swoop into the tiny village of Tseleg - where a small boy was able to show me to a “hotel”. Sharing the hotel was a family and after breakfast the two sisters crowded into my room to show me photos of the local Nadam festivities, and their climb of the nearby sacred mountain, covered in deep snow. 

Next day was all climbing, I stopped for lunch at the second summit (a few metres short of Mount Ruapehu height at 2795 metres). The campsite for the night was protected by an ancient circular rock corral. My water worries were also alleviated by a fast running stream carrying snow melt from the recent storms.

The last long desert stretch landed me in the small town of Uyench, and this morning I had the company of a young boy riding the 42 kilometres to school in Bulgan, my rest day destination before crossing the border back into Chinas far west. My young friend left me with a promise that in 5 years time he will have achieved his dream of becoming an engineer.

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The climb into Khushuutiin Mines was a challenge

Safe campsite in ancient rock stock yard

Gnarly Gobi mountains

Fast ride down a valley with fresh snow melt water

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Lunch stop between climbs

Climb to the height of the highest mountain in North Island New Zealand 2795 metres

Gobi ger camp

A quick ride to school across the desert

Sacred mountain at the entrance to Bulgan