Mongolia, motorbikes (nearly) and horsing about

After pitching up in Olgii, in Western Mongolia for the first couple of nights we met an English dude Iain who had bought himself a horse which had unfortunately bolted in the first couple of days. Undeterred he teamed up with a couple of Belgian lads who were the proud owners of a very old and beaten up Ural sidecar:



The three of them set off into the morning sunshine on their two bikes with Marty and I wondering if we'd ever see them again. Sorely tempted to join them, we had a look around the market to see if we might bag ourselves a sidecar for the 1500km trip to UlaanBataar.


I've got to admit though, even after the Enfield experience of India these bikes did not fill me with confidence, so we hedged our bets and headed out into the wilds with a French couple - Clementine and Vincent to have a wander around the steppe on horseback for a few days.

We pitched up at a ger camp (ger: traditional felt tent) and organised with Alexan the chief of the camp to rent some horses for a week. The next morning Pinbot and Ulana who would be our guides for the next week arrived and off we jolly well went. NB Pinbot and Ulana were the nicest guys, they took us up glaciers, under waterfalls, galloping across the plains, into innumerable ger camps for gallons of salty butter tea and platefuls of miscelaneous meat, over camels, under goats, and always always with massive smiles on their faces laughing with us and sometimes at us every step of the way.


Horse trek, Mongolia


The horse farted


A ridiculously beautiful sunset.


Up a glacier Mongolia


More horsing about



Sand dunes and rock formations, Mongolia


Shoeing horses


Clementine, moi and Ulanua our guide


Cooking dinner on the steppe













Clementine, Holly, Vincent


A sad soggy goodbye


Hitch-hiking to Hovd, the next town on from our patch of wilderness, we got picked up by 4 British lads in 2 cars on the Mongol rally. We stopped at the motorway service station for some grub...


We made it to Kovd the next morning stinking, knackered but happy : )


After a couple of days recuperation in Kovd it was time to head to Ulaanbataar to sort out a Chinese visa to get us out of Mongolia and into Thailand. We spent 50 hours in this little beauty traversing Mongolia East to West. non-stop. 19 people in a 10 seater van. with not an inch of tarmac to help ease the bumps. I can say with all honesty that this was absolutely the worst way to spend two days of my life. NEVER again. probably.