Toilegt – Mörön

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 until 7:30am.

After a quick breakfast I headed out from the camp, although there was a very friendly Mongolian guy who’d had a bottle of vodka for breakfast, and wanted to help me pack the bike.  I was getting tipsy just by standing next to him.  The final assistance he provided was to help me put my jacket on, and insisted he zip it up for me.  Slightly awkward, but once he was done helping, he collapsed on the step and waved me goodbye.

The sun was shining, the road good, and I was making great progress until I saw a group of cars stopped in the middle of the road in the distance.  At first I thought maybe it was an accident, but as I got closer, I saw almost a dozen people dancing on the road.  In front of the cars, a river.  On the opposite bank of the river, the scene was repeated.  The rain the previous night had caused the river to swell and rise, and it was now rushing past, far too deep to cross.
I found a lady who spoke a little English, and asked her if there was any way around the river. Her answer “no way. wait, maybe few hours”

Well that changed the plan for the day, there was nothing to do but join the party.

After twenty minutes, it seemed the river had dropped slightly, although still too deep and fast for me, and one of the cars managed to drive through to the other side, to an enormous cheer from both sides.  The next car that attempted to cross went in too fast, water over the roof and stalled mid river, sliding sideways, I thought it might be over for them, but one of the guys got out of the car and a row rope was thrown, pulling the car to the other side, now immobile and full of water.
A few large 4WDs crossed successfully, and then another car got stuck mid river and towed out.  This scene repeated itself every 20 minutes or so, a car getting stuck and both sides of the river now had a collection of cars with their bonnets up and engines being pulled apart.  I watched as a lady pulled the air filter out of her van, wrung it out and scooped water out of the airbox with a sardine can.

A couple of nomad farmers had now appeared on their farm bikes and were now waiting with me.  A few minutes later a small truck appeared and the farm bikes were lifted onto the tray.  They were about to cross when one of the guys gestured to me, indicating I too should put my bike on the truck and save waiting around for hours until the river was low enough.  The truck driver wasn’t sure and wanted to know how heavy the bike was, but once that was determined to be ok, the other bikes shuffled about, making space for me and the bike.  Five guys lent a hand and we all lifted the bike up onto the truck and crossed to the other side.
Once there, five more guys helped lift the bike off and I then helped the farmers with their bikes, much lighter and three of us handled them with ease.

Back on the road, only two small creeks to cross and after an hour I was back in Mörön.  I returned to the same hotel I’d use previously and they were happy to see me, giving me a much nicer room than last time,  even with functional plumbing!  Although it was on the top floor, up 9 flights of stairs.

The rest of the day has me doing visa administration, along with fixing the left indicator that was accidentally ‘dismounted’ in the man handing of the bike onto the truck.

In the evening I took a walk around the sad town of Moron. For the capital of the aimag that is home to such a beautiful lake and national park, the town of Moron is a sorry old town.  The town square abandoned, the park overgrown with weeds and an old soviet statue.  The streets dusty or muddy and the buildings falling to bits.  That said, the people are friendly and the food in the restaurants has been good, so it is not all bad, but it certainly isn’t pretty.