Author: Daniel

  • Somewhere to Khovd

    Somewhere to Khovd

    The target today was Khovd. We woke up to a unsurprisingly amazing morning yet again! I’ve never seen this much blue sky before. Paul’s knee was slowly getting better every day. We packed up the bikes and headed off. Lots of livestock as normal. I would say to pay close attention to the signs, but…

  • Uvs Nuur to Nowhere!

    Uvs Nuur to Nowhere!

    The next day was a boring and frustrating (for me at least) one. In hindsight it was good though as it gave Paul’s knee more time to heal. We’d been in touch with Dam and his brother by text message telling us to wait till 10am and they’d pick us up. So we patiently waited…

  • Uvs Nuur to Ulaangom

    Uvs Nuur to Ulaangom

    The next morning was great, I was hoping for a lovely sunrise but there were a couple of low lying clouds on the horizon which was a bit of a shame, but still a lovely start to the day. Paul and I had a chat about what to do. His knee was sore and swollen…

  • Altan Els to Uvs Nuur

    Altan Els to Uvs Nuur

    Apart from rolling out of bed a couple of times due to the slope, I had a good nights sleep. Paul wasn’t watched by an Eagle again as he performed his morning routine so the day was off to a good start. We got back on the tracks and headed towards Ulaangom. The surface varied…

  • Bayantes to Altan Els

    Bayantes to Altan Els

    Once again, another great night’s sleep hidden up behind a hill. It still felt bizarre just being able to camp anywhere. Paul ate more of his baby sick food I can’t be too hard though as I broke my trusty plastic spork and had to bribe him with hot water for his coffee so that…

  • Sharga to nr. Bayantes

    Sharga to nr. Bayantes

    Every night we camped was great. Most nights there was a breeze which cooled it down a little to be bearable and the silence was amazing. We never had any dew or rain of any type so everything was always packed away nice and dry which is always good. Nothing as bad as packing up…

  • Murun to nr. Sharga

    Murun to nr. Sharga

    We left Moron the following morning after a sausage and egg breakfast at the hotel. I don’t know what it is about Mongolia but whenever we had a meal in a cafe or hotel, you don’t get knives. It became a bit of amusement as I’d have to get my Gerber knife off the bike.…

  • Erdenet to Murun

    Erdenet to Murun

    We woke up, went through the morning rituals and faffed around for a bit. It was raining so we weren’t in any rush to get going and in the end it worked out well as the rain stopped and the roads started to dry up in the heat. We’d locked our bikes up the night…

  • Irkutsk to Ulan Ude into Mongolia

    Irkutsk to Ulan Ude into Mongolia

    We managed to leave our luxury of the Marriott in Irkutsk on Wednesday morning. The Marriott is a great place to stay, not cheap by Irkutsk standards but the staff were great, a real fun bunch. A young girl, Arina took a shine to Paul and was always full of smiles and happy conversation. Paul…

  • Asia – The beginning

    Asia – The beginning

    Being employed and having limited time off does restrict your big trips somewhat, however with some careful planning, mostly by Paul, we managed to get 3 weeks this year riding our own bikes, mostly around Mongolia. Paul and I did Iceland back in August 2013 for a few weeks. We get on great, sure there…

  • New Hyperpro Suspension

    New Hyperpro Suspension

    The standard suspension on the X Country isn’t the best.  I may not be a pro, but no matter what adjustments I did to the damping on the rear I could not stop the bike from bouncing all over.  Perhaps it’s my weight since I’m around 10 stone or perhaps it’s just rubbish suspension.  The…

  • Ukraine … again – The End

    Ukraine … again – The End

    Well, the final entry now and it’s a bit boring. I had booked the Monday off work at the last minute due to Touratech Kassel getting my tank bag in, also the thought of all that way in 2 days wasn’t appealing.A 9am departure saw my following the GPS to the border. It was uneventful…

  • Ukraine … again – Part 8

    Ukraine … again – Part 8

    As I said, the rest of the time there, until Friday afternoon anyhow, was just sightseeing. I did have a smile at these pigeons, they’re normally flocking everywhere as people feed them breadcrumbs, however one day it was pouring down and they all sat in a square on some bricks under a tree. There are quite…

  • Ukraine … again – Part 7

    Ukraine … again – Part 7

    Wednesday, Thursday and half of Friday were spent locally in Truskavets. Although the town isn’t very big there was enough of it for me to explore. Onto this fancy water then. “Naftusia” as it is known is special water that’s come up through the rocks I believe. However it does go via a laboratory to make…

  • Ukraine … again – Part 6

    Ukraine … again – Part 6

    Final update for today was just people watching. Old men playing chess, old women just relaxing and a naughty little boy nicking the coins from the fountain! A bus home (Almost got on the wrong one to Kiev!) and I was home about 2 hours later. Some dinner and bed. Wed, Thu and Fri were…

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