The adventure begins... Day1 & Day2 - Arriving in Ulaan Baatar and Drive to Bayanhongor

The adventure of Mongolia is about to begin, the training has been completed, our backpacks have been loaded into the van, the bikes have been collected, time to go! There are a huge amount of pics to get through, so I'll be loading them up gradually, so don't forget to come back and see what's new.

Time to catch the flight to Mongolia

The Mongolian country side.

The Mongolian mixed grill.. including some horse of course. :-)

The state run department store.

Down town Ulan Bataar

Our trust russian combi van.

A quick toilet break.

Time to setup camp, our first night under the stars.

Hello from Beijing....

Well I've finally made it to Beijing! The fly over the city was amazing, the lights streched for miles and miles, and set on fire the imaginations of what lay install on the ground. the adventure is truly about to begin.

After my flight finally arrived, we headed out for drink, Coll and Tone are quite the guides, they had it well in hand. After a couple of beers and then a couple of cocktails, mixed with a few games of local dice (one all between coll and tone) I was well and truely ready for bed. We left the bar at 3:30 local time (5:30am sydney time), needless to say I slept soundly.

My firt day started slowly, and we brunched on dumpling and soup, it was a heart meal adn good fuel for the rest of the day. we tracked down a bie shop an hired our trusty steads or was that rusty? Somehow i don't think they would have passed the road worthy back home, but hey when in Rome! It's a great way to see the city, you really get up close and personal to the locals at times. you can see so much more of the city in a day. And with a culture of bike riding through traffic, there was a certain method to the chaos.

Well now that I've freshened up it's time to have think about dinner, gain my trusty guides Coll and Tone will lead the way. Cal and Michiel are arriving this evening to complete our travelling group.

Arrivals in Beijing International Airport

View from my hotel room

Picking up our set ot wheels.

Drum and Bell towers.


Tone and I

On my "Flying Pidgon"

A common sight in parks all around Beijing (and China) a vigorous game of cards.

A few select choices at the Night Markets.

One of the outer walls of the "Forbidden City"

Chairman Moa still keeping an eye on happening in China.

3 Days to go!

We'll the injections have been received, the visa's have been acquired, and the packing has begun... So where are we off too? To our ancestry homeland China and then to the lands of Genghis Khan Mongolia.

The challenge is a Mountain bike tour of Mongolia (Central Mongolia - Arkhangai). The training has been done, the legs are pumped, the heart is racing, time to hit the track! See you all in 3 weeks.

9 Days to go! Woo Hoo.

Agtny bied gazar uz (While horse is strong travel to see places), this proverb will give you a hint where we're headed.

Well not long now to the BIG TRIP... D-Day 21.07.06 is approaching like a frieght train, not enought time to do everything at work so I'm busy prioritising as best as I can, busy worrying about what to take. I'm busily clocking up the km's on the road, I've even got my sister Cal out there too. Well I guess she'd better, she's coming along too. It's time to catch up with our other adventure partners Tone and Coll, "the john dory" is that they've been undertaking a rather intensive training reigme, but i think that might lose the fitness edge on they're 2 weeks break in Thialand. This is our chance to catch up.

Cronulla II

18 Days to go!

My second visa has been received today. All systems are a go!

WWS Round 4 (8 hour endurance).

Well the time has come, WWS Round 4 at Yarramundi (Round 4 Working Week Series). It was going to be a team of 3 but after the late withdrawl of my fellow team mates (Mark and Alastair), it was going to be a SOLO effort. It was going to be a long 8hours. The last time I was here was in Feb 06 to compete in the 4 hour endurance race (with Al).
Check out some of the pictures taken at the event: www.pixelpics.com.au (click on the "RaceTech Working Week Series #4" link and in the race number section enter: 328.
The track configuration was different this time too, the first part involved a long hill climb (that just got longer each lap), then a technical descent, the colminated in a steep drop into a bridge crossing. the next section involved a ascent, then a zig zag section finally leading across the back of the course. this then lead back up to the ramp near the transition portion of the track (half way). this lead back out again. The back half of the course was more to my liking.
You can check out the result: I placed 43 out of 52 in the Solo Male category > http://www.brightorangeevents.com/Racetech%20WWS%20Rd%204%20Summary.pdf

Our Friends from City Bike Depot were out today.

Here we have Chris ready to go.

The transition area and timing gate.

There goes Chris.

A bit of a rest was required after the first two of my 6 laps.

Look, fresh as a daisy... who would have thought I had ridden 57kms xCountry.

My trusty steed, didn't let me down.