Driving the Siberian mud highway at night time

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We gave our poor poor Lada a hard time again after Mongolia on these Mud Highways.

While looking for a campsite off the main road we got stuck in mud and had to digg out the Lada.

Back in the USSR – 2nd release

So we did leave Mongolia after all… After our fast food feast we travelled north (over tarmac – still hard to believe) to Russia again. That bit included a 7.5 hour wait and 500 Russian Roubles bribe at the border to jump the queue. Without the Roubles we would probably still be stuck there. But no, we took a very scenic route through Siberian forest up to Ulan-Ude. Lada was snoring happily in her green motherland and we found another perfect camping spot on the way.

Now Ulan-Ude is interesting for many reasons. One of them is Lenin’s head. From a very far distance not that impressive, but actually the world’s largest copy of Lenin’s head!

What else does a city need? Answer: Hoegaarden!

Ok, so the place was mostly special as our last stop before turning left again. No denial, the GPS points towards the west… We are now officially on our way back home. Yes, that hurts. Some 10.000 km left to go. But the first day was beautiful. More forest, a stop at Lake Baikal (it’s big! even in cloudy weather!), pretty little villages with wooden houses and locals selling the best strawberries in the world on the TARMAC road. Perfect.

Last night we arrived in Irkutsk, another friendly place with lots of churches, cathedrals, pretty sites, some more Lenins, a smelly river, car repair shops and a Subway sandwich branch. Again, just what we needed. From here on it’s further west again to Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk, Omsk etc to Moscow (admittedly the only city we ever heard of before this trip). We will keep you posted on our way. For now we can report Baltika number 8 is definitely the best in the range. Cheers!

Mongolia!

We made it! Last night one car, one motorbike and three foreigners rolled into Ulaan Bataar (the capital also known as UB). The contrast could not be more extreme: from the tranquil and remote emptiness of the far west regions to the capitalist explosion that the capital city brings. But after some 1900 kilometers we could only appreciate the fast food nation that served us French fries and burgers. Also that hot shower after 14 days of camping was a rather welcome treat. So what happened? Well, we took Mongolia the long way around. Special it was. Maybe we should have paid more attention when travelers and guidebooks explained the condition of the Mongolian ‘roads’. Typical feeling for understatement as all we got was dirt tracks in different sorts and varieties – usually of the confusing and deteriorating kind. We basically spent the last two weeks in first and second gear, cheering loud when our Lada got to the top-speed of 20 km per hour. Now, for our friends on the island: kilometers count as slightly less than miles. Our Dutch friends know they would prefer the traffic jams on the A1. But then this gave us the opportunities needed to fully take in the monotony of dust, sand, rocks and mud on the tracks. Hour after hour and day after day. We should have learned from our last night camping in Russian Altai (so beautiful we have to go back there), before crossing the Mongolian border: that sandstorm was a warning. So was the thunder and lightning that went on and on…

Russian thunder near Mongolian border:

Sandstorm on its way:

Saying that, the western provinces are beautiful, with mountains and views so stunning that even the Dutch highlands can’t compete. The area of Bayan-Olgii is predominantly Kazakh, and the coolest thing was stumbling across a ger (nice side effect of driving ve-ry slow-ly) witnessing some old style nomadic traditions. Eagle hunting is one of those, where the birds are caught when they are young, fed well and tied to a heavy stone in order to break the animal’s spirit and train it for hunting on wolves, foxes and Ladas. An impressive sight anyway, albeit somewhat cruel perhaps.

Eagle hunting:

After more sand and dust we got a taste of the Gobi desert of Central and South Mongolia. Proper dry stuff. The scenery changed to flat steppe and sand tracks, the temperatures rose again, the lakes on the GPS map had evaporated and the few nomads that tried to make a living here have left for fortune in the city after the heavy winters a few years ago – leaving a completely deserted place scattered with carcasses of animals (we like to call it ‘dead horse valley’ for very good reasons) and the occasional empty vodka bottle. The good thing, of course, is that we could pitch our tents virtually anywhere and get a quiet night sleep under an impressive (did someone say romantic?) sky of stars and the Mongolian full moon.

Dead horse valley:

Hiding for the sun:

Puting up a tent in an afternoon storm:

Mongolian moon:

Also the few locals we met on our way were so friendly it hurts (especially when they keep offering you fermented mare’s milk…). Plus, the Mongols have an interesting way of dealing with vehicle breakdowns. While we were just about to start enjoying our race through the sand, motobiker Edde’s battery decided to give up. While trying to get the thing going again, a truck with a Mongolian family pulled over. Their solution to the problem? Well, first one walks around the broken object a few times, laughing and commenting on those funny tourists and their ideas of a holiday. Next one gets the rest of the family to sit down and watch those tourists trying to work out the mechanics. When that takes a while one has a look at the broken object, sits down again, says nothing but laughs and waits until the tourists disappear again together with the sunlight of the day, trying to pushstart the broken object and roll it down a hill. Fortunately the next aimag capital (one of those provincial settlements) was within reach and provided very helpful police forces that pushed the bike to the nearest repair family. Needless to add, we spent hours on the roadside helping out local truck drivers to repair their damaged or flat tires. But yeh, hospitality is great here.

Lunch stop:

Closer on the way to UB we stayed over in a ger camp to visit the Erdene Zuu Khiid monastery, one of the most important Buddhist places in the country. We witnessed a ceremony with humming little monks, and got a touristy souvenir market for free with it. Most important of all: the place comes with what us Westerners would call a road. TARMAC! ASPHALT!

Oh Yes! (where tarmac starts and trouble ends?)

We had to celebrate this important event in style with a bottle of decent red wine (produced in Kazakhstan) and another pack of instant Chinese noodle soup. Rather unfortunate, we discovered fairly soon that this road was being reconstructed, and we had to continue our way through the dirt to get to the capital. So that brings us to the joys of the burgers and French fries. Just in case we get fed up with that, we might head north to Lake Baikal in Russia for a bit. Find out soon…

Campsites:

Mongolian ‘roads’:

Mongolian views:

Driving movies Mongolia

Some movies we took while driving in Mongolia

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Like a man driving a Mercedes

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Floating islands

Strange floating islands we saw in an oasis in the Gobi desert.

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We are going to Mongolia

From Kazakhstan we entered Russia and we are now officially in Siberia. We are staying in Barnaul, one of those big Russian towns no one ever heard of.

It will take two days through the Altai Mountains to get to the Mongolian border and from there a week or two to get to Ulan Bator (capital of Mongolia) – this depending on weather, road conditions and our Lada. There will be no internet cafes between here and Ulan Bator so for the next three weeks this blog is likely to go silent. But we will be back……

Last check-up and repairs to the Lada before entering Mongolia. 14.000 Kilometers of poor road had its toll.

Our campsite in Russia before Barnaul between farm fields, little flies and loads of nasty biting mosquitoes.

Here some Kazakhstan campsite pictures.

SY in three weeks.

Crime and Straf

In the city where Dostoevsky once lived, David is getting ‘Straf’ (Punishment) for making a left turn where it is not allowed. The “we don’t speak Russian” method (and we hardly do) seemed helpfull and we were allowed to drive off without any payment. Leaving behind a frustrated policeman with a half filled-in form.

Kazakh non-styles

It is an empty land and the drive from the south border to the north was warm, dusty and a bit boring after Kirgyzstan although it had its charms. We had two more campsites before arriving in Semey, Russia’s former nuclear testground. This is our last stop before entering Russia and we got our supplies for Mongolia, the end of this week, ready!

An empty land

On a mosquito infected campsite David is longing for an Amsterdam beer… or is it a beer in Amsterdam?

Kazakh style

Our last Stans stop before entering Russia and Mongolia… It all started exciting, with the easiest border crossing ever and a great first night camping near an impressive canyon in South Kazakhstan (GPS coordinates upon request). We were joined by eagles in the sky and scary big insects on the ground but no human creature to be seen for miles across the horizon. That’s because all the human creatures were busy driving their posh landcruisers across the dirty streets of Almaty. During the day at least, because at night the streets turn into large rivers due to all the rain. Impressive too, but different. But we got our last visa sorted (for Mongolia) and met up again with white van couple Phil and Angie and with motobiker Edde – which makes the expensive expat lifestyle in this city much more bearable. Today hopefully back into nature, heading northeast to the Altai republic and via Semey across the Russian border for some radioactive rebooster. More on that later…

Some pictures of our campsites

In the middle of nowhere:

Time to move on: