Thursday, July 27, 2006

Mongolia Day3, 4 & 5- Drive to Bayanhongor and Shargaljuut Valley

A brand new day...


Back on the road again... Stopping at a Police crossing. These are supposed to stem illegal goods from being transported across Mongolia.

Time for a break and some lunch. Michiel stretching our after being stuck in the van for the last 3 hours.

We finally reached our start point. from here on it's all pedel power.

Time setup camp for the night.

Setting up the bikes for the next day.

Day4: Today was our first on the bike. It was great to finally be able to get pedalling especially after the last couple of days in the van. Rarely have I seen so much blue sky, it was a picture perfect day to start our ride. Mongolia made us feel very small when we rode down the river valleys with the mountians towering over us and the seemingly endless miles of track ahead of us to the horizon. Towards the end of the first day was to be a real struggle for me, we rode to an altitude of 2500 metres (the last couple of km's were quite an ascent), and the effects of altitude had quite an effect on me. By the end of the day i was beat, as i think all of our were, we barely touched our dinner, we were was just too tired to eat. Needless to say it was a early night for all concerned. What did the rest of the trip hold for us... gosh, this was our first day.

Breakfast to help energize us for the day ahead.

A quick breifing on th route we intend to take over the following days.

The class photo.

After our first big climb.

Sadly though I was suffering from the effects altitude (2500mtr), and really struggled.

Michiel cooling his heals at the end of the day.

Day 5: Breaking camp

A few running repairs for Cal.

Finally the end of the day as the storm clouds came in.