After another relaxing mini-holiday at Oasis during the heaviest rain we have seen in Mongolia, we loaded up the bikes in sunshine and steered south towards the Gobi desert after a lunch of spaghetti bolognese. Our plan was to get a taste of the Gobi by riding a six day loop. The ride out of Ulaanbaatar first took us east and then south. Slowly the country changed from green hills to green plains to brown featureless plains. The riding was easy as there is a paved road all the way to the point at which we turn west, Choir. We also had a strong tailwind which made the journey a bit quieter on the ears as a buffeting wind can sound like a steam train in the motorcross helmets. About 20km short of Choir we stopped in to look at an old abandoned Soviet air force base just off the road and in the middle of nowhere. The base is complete with abandoned apartment blocks used to house hundreds of people, an old MIG fighter plane on a pole, abandoned hangers and lots of derelict buildings. We have a look around and get some photos. Some Mongolian families have set up house in the ruins and eye us off carefully as we poke around. We ride towards the abandoned hangers in the distance and are followed by a Mongolian on a motorbike with a little girl who warns us off lingering too long. Not the friendliest
welcome, but Matt gives the little girl a toy koala to try and break the ice to no avail. We decide to ride on and find a spot for camp amongst the endless flat plains. Our idea is to find somewhere out of sight off the main road and railway line that we have been following all day, but this proves to be a little difficult due to lack of anything bigger than a large rock to camp behind. We spot a hill about two kilometers past the old air force base and look around there in the process finding an old Soviet bunker. We are tempted to explore inside, but goats have beaten us to it and left and thick trail of droppings into the dark depths of the bunker. We look around a bit more and find a huge hole near the bunker that was used as the source of soil to cover it. Thanks to the Soviets we had a perfect place to camp in the base of this hole out of site of anyone. We have a dinner of pasta and fall asleep to the sound of half-hourly coal trains on the train line and the occasional truck rumbling by. Alan.
After another relaxing mini-holiday at Oasis during the heaviest rain we have seen in Mongolia, we loaded up the bikes in sunshine and steered south towards the Gobi desert after a lunch of spaghetti bolognese. Our plan was to get a taste of the Gobi by riding a six day loop. The ride out of Ulaanbaatar first took us east and then south. Slowly the country changed from green hills to green plains to brown featureless plains. The riding was easy as there is a paved road all the way to the point at which we turn west, Choir. We also had a strong tailwind which made the journey a bit quieter on the ears as a buffeting wind can sound like a steam train in the motorcross helmets. About 20km short of Choir we stopped in to look at an old abandoned Soviet air force base just off the road and in the middle of nowhere. The base is complete with abandoned apartment blocks used to house hundreds of people, an old MIG fighter plane on a pole, abandoned hangers and lots of derelict buildings. We have a look around and get some photos. Some Mongolian families have set up house in the ruins and eye us off carefully as we poke around. We ride towards the abandoned hangers in the distance and are followed by a Mongolian on a motorbike with a little girl who warns us off lingering too long. Not the friendliest 
welcome, but Matt gives the little girl a toy koala to try and break the ice to no avail. We decide to ride on and find a spot for camp amongst the endless flat plains. Our idea is to find somewhere out of sight off the main road and railway line that we have been following all day, but this proves to be a little difficult due to lack of anything bigger than a large rock to camp behind. We spot a hill about two kilometers past the old air force base and look around there in the process finding an old Soviet bunker. We are tempted to explore inside, but goats have beaten us to it and left and thick trail of droppings into the dark depths of the bunker. We look around a bit more and find a huge hole near the bunker that was used as the source of soil to cover it. Thanks to the Soviets we had a perfect place to camp in the base of this hole out of site of anyone. We have a dinner of pasta and fall asleep to the sound of half-hourly coal trains on the train line and the occasional truck rumbling by. Alan.
No comments:
Post a Comment