28th June 2014     24’C       228km sand, mud Mörön – N49°27.726 E97°38.003 I returned to the same petrol station to fill up this morning, which pleased the two attendants immensely. They were very happy to see me again. Riding out of Mörön was the usual challenge of trying to find the correct track, and I took the wrong one on the first attempt. It was a very nice, warm morning and I had brilliant views over the valleys and into the distant mountains. As…

27th June 2014        9-18’C      140km  (50M by truck) Toilegt – Mörön A good night’s sleep in my ger, although as it rained heavily all night, the floor was completely wet in the morning.  The heavy rain would have unforeseen consequences later in the day, as I was yet to discover.  I stepped out into a puddle next to the bed at 4:45am to see the sunrise, but it was nothing special compared to the previous morning and I returned to the warm bed…

26th June 2014       6’C       24km (mud, thick sticky mud) It was very cold last night. I got up at around 2am to activate a heat pack, and stuffed it into the sleeping bag with me, which made the rest of the night much more pleasant, apart from cold toes. I woke up when I noticed the left side of the tent glowing bright red. Quickly unzipping the tent revealed the sun rising, burning in the sky over the lake. I rushed to…

25th June 2014       12-25’C       166km Mörön – Hatgal – Lake Khovsgol After the huge day riding yesterday, I had a bit of a lazy morning, waking up at 7am.  The hotel didn’t serve breakfast until 9am so I took a short walk around town to kill some time.  It seems in Mongolia that nothing happens in the morning until 9 or 10am, one hotel I stayed at didn’t serve breakfast until 10!  Maybe this is due to the winter darkness and carries…

24th June 2014     8-24’C       269km Terkhiin Tsgaan – Mörön As usual I woke early for sunrise, although the first task of the morning was to relight the fire in my ger, as it had burnt out overnight and I was fast asleep and hence didn’t restoke it when I probably should have at 3am. So I quickly started the fire and jumped back into bed until the ger warmed up sufficiently to get dressed. Once packed and back on the bike, I headed…

23rd June 2014              12-21’C           307km Karakorum – Tsetserleg – Terkhiin Tsgaan There were no curtains on the window of my room, so I was awake with the sun, at 4:45am. I had told the hotel that I’d have breakfast at 7:30am, so I had bit of a long wait, without Internet access. Breakfast was ordinary, despite the staff being exceptionally friendly. I was asked to park my bike outside the front door of a gur, inside was…

22nd June 2014          14-27’C         360km Ulaanbaatar – Karakorum I left the Amarbayasgalant Hotel early this morning, after 11 nights, the longest time I’ve stayed in a single place for months.  I was looking forward to getting back on the road, especially solo, but it wasn’t to be. Mick and I had agreed that we’d ride separately and meet up later in a few weeks at the border to Russia.  Different agendas, different timing and differing accommodation requirements (I prefer to…

21st June 2014     12-21’C       110km Ulaanbaatar – Chinggis Khan Statue – Ulaanbaatar I decided to have a short ride today, a warm up, since I had been off the bike for 10 days.  So I headed out to the mammoth Chinggis Khan statue for the day, and back to UB for the evening. The ride out there was uneventful, and as I rounded a hill, the huge statue appeared, Chinggis Khan astride his horse, facing towards China and ready for battle. The Mongolian…

19-20th June 2014 Gachuurt, Ulanbaatar The weather turned a little foul today, with rain almost all day, turning the ground to a muddy mess and boxing the children up inside.  Table tennis was one of the entertaining activities keeping the small hands active, and when the bracket holding the net to the table failed, I spent a little time fixing it back together with some timber offcuts from the yesterdays work. Then it was back to the kitchen, chopping vegetables for the lunch meal.  Potatoes, carrots, cabbage, turnips…

I spent most of the day today in the kitchen, chopping cabbages, garlic, carrots, capsicum and a big piece of beef that I didn’t recognise. The volume of food that eighty small, but strong, children can eat is phenomenal. When it came to serving up time, I had the wool pulled over my eyes a number of times, with kids telling me to load up their plate, or to put extra plates of food on the table for ‘invisible’ friends yet to appear. It was a little like…