OverlandSphere
Overland Travel, Expedition & Adventure Information for 4x4, motorcycle and truck overlanders
Mongolia is a unique country in every aspect; a country often associated with isolation and remoteness, a country with a very extraordinary inimitable stark landscape. It is not all nomads and yak though; due to the recent discovery of copper and gold deposits it is developing at an extremely fast rate. The country that Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman visited…
After the smokey haze of the lowlands we were glad to be climbing into the mountains. These were the eastern reaches of the Himalayas, and we were headed to Juigaihou (or as we called it, GI Joe). A world heritage park, this national park was a series of waterfalls and beautiful azure blue pools cascading down from the mountains. But…
With a perfectly-pitched camp on the banks of the Zavkhan River overlooked by the holy Otgontenger mountain, dinner was underway (tinned sardines despite two hours spent fishing for Taimen giant trout in the river) when we spotted a small army of Mongolians approaching from the South. Sardines off and tea on, the mother and children gathered on a blanket, entertained…
Location: 26° 52′ 22″ North, 100° 14′ 06″ East (Lijiang, Yunnan Province, China) Distance from Sydney: 8,646km China. The Middle Kingdom. Home to the Giant Panda, the noodle, and about 1.3 billion people. It is impossible to approach China without pre-concieved perceptions; many words and ideas come to mind. Awakening super power, industrial power house, communism, proud dynastic history, environmental…
CHINA - The name along evokes a myriad of emotions and images; the worlds largest population, communism, take out food, Chairman Mao, tai chi, the Great Wall, and tea. The country is all this and more. The enormity of the country is as intimidating as it’s history and we feel the three weeks we spent there in 2000 barely scratched…
Location: 47° 54′ 41″ N, 106° 58′ 53″ E, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Distance from Sydney: 10,126km So we’ve crossed Mongolia. Like a mountain climber reaching the peak, Mongolia was our half way mark, timewise for me (3 months of a 6 month journey), and also the greatest challenge in terms of remoteness, roads and logistics. Appropriately, like the top of a…
Location : 47 44′ 27″N, 96 50′ 17″E (Uliastay, Mongolia) Distance from Sydney: 10,597km A mini update, written just after arriving in Mongolia: I’m meant to be trying to finish off the Russian blog right now, but I want to talk about Mongolia instead. It’s our second night in the country, and first night camping. I don’t know how to…
Pete here again: Clearing the bikes through South Korean customs can only be described as an absolute pleasure. A big leather sofa, multiple glasses of iced-tea, an air-conditioned office and English-speaking officers. The entire process was over within less than 2 hours most of which for us was spent surfing the web over their free wi-fi connection. Service with…
Our arrival into the Mongolian capital was of stark contrast to our drive from the border with its rolling green hills, peaceful Gers and scenic steppe dotted with grazing animals. The suburban sprawl of the city creeps up the surrounding mountainsides as we approach to see the haphazard concrete urban jungle before us. We were able to get an extremely…
Jon here: The BAM road is not just about motorcycling skill, it is a real test of physical and mental endurance. It is impossible to portray how tough this route really is, and once finally over it is far too easy to forget the pain each kilometer can bring. To ride it you need pure grit and determination. Mongolia…
Pete here. The only time we’ve had the shower gel out in the last 8 days is to lubricate the tyres for a set change or puncture repair. I’ve never felt as filthy as I did on that last night before we made it to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Everything was covered in sand and mud from numerous falls…
OK, so we had arrived at our destination – Ulaanbaatar – exotic city of eastern mystery, fabled centre of Gengis Khan’s legendary empire, magical destination on the Silk Road. Well actually it wasn’t founded until around 1639 (well after Genghis’s time), it’s never been on the Silk Road (that runs much further south of the Gobi desert) and, to be…
Young Mongolian horseman. He was probably on a horse before he could walk. Leon charms the locals as the crowd gathers And you thought we were mad! This guy was cycling from UB to his home in Austria Andrew asks where the nearest recruiting office is Sorry, but I'm not sure we will have a uniform big enough for you…
Subtle allusion in the title for those of you have read the ‘Why?’ section and they will also get the slight twist on the wording – and you thought this thing was just thrown together! There was a slightly strange mood as we packed up this morning. We would be hitting UB today (unless the roads suddenly deteriorated – which…
Wake as it gets light, untangle myself from sleeping bag liner (ripping it more in the process), peer out of the tent and see if it really is time to get up. Roll around in the confines of the very small one-man tent and drag smelly, dusty riding gear on and emerge blinking into the sunlight to face another day.…
Na ons vertrek uit Kunming zijn we naar het “Stone Forrest” gereden, een UNESCO werelderfgoed site waar een aantal vreemde rotsformaties staan (het lijkt een greet stenen bos, vandaar de naam). Toen we daar aankwamen waren er volop werkzaamheden, ze zijn het park aan het uitbereiden. Wij vroegen ons af waarom, want de formaties lagen alleen in het stukje wat…
Jeff went for Sunday around 17.00 – his was the earliest estimate, mind you he had to go for Sunday really as that was the day we had always been scheduled to arrive. Other guesstimates ranged from late Sunday through to midday on Wednesday! Several people had flights booked out of Ulaanbaatar for early Monday morning, so along with our…
Langaam aan dalen we van het Tibetaans plateau en gaan we verder naar zuid oost China. Het hooggebergte maakt plaats voor groene bossen en rijstvelden. De temperatuur begint ook aangenaam te worden en kunnen alweer zonder alle lagen Goretex. De eerste echte Chinese stad die we aandoen is Lijang in de provincie Yunnan, waar we net buiten het oude centrum…
Basically there are two most commonly used routes from the western border crossing at Tsagaanuur to Ulaanbaatar – the northern route via Ulaangom and Moron ( ) and the southern route via Khovd, Altai and Bayankhongor. We weren’t going to use either of these, we would forge our way by a more central route which would be much quieter in…
I had woken several times during the night to hear rain battering on the ger (much quieter than a tent – but it does still tend to leak in around the bottom a bit), so it was no great surprise to open the door to a damp and misty Mongolian morning. Whilst we were packing up and sorting stuff out…
By Leigh. When people ask how we felt when we broke the world record, we give the usual ‘it was amazing’, ‘brilliant’ and ‘a great personal achievement’ but when we crossed the line in Qinghai province I felt a sense of anticlimax. We had been working to this moment for three years but when we reached this magic mileage there…
By Johno Following a bone-shaking all-dayer to Mount Everest Base Camp the team pushed further into Tibet to face the horror of the Chinese driving test.~ Capitalist Communism We had heard mixed things about the Chinese driving test, ranging from, “Don’t bother with it, just bribe your way out of any document checks” to “It’s a two-hour written test with…
Ger camp near Olgiy We weren’t all that sure what to expect. Jeff just told us some transport would arrive for us around 11.00 and we would be away for around half a day, involving some horse riding, a traditional Mongolian meal and a visit to an eagle-hunter (that’s someone who hunts with eagles, not a hunter of eagles –…
So we all lapsed back into RWM (Roadside Waite Mode). We dozed, read, listened to music or chatted with fellow travellers, waiting for the border to open at 09.00. Waiting at the border At 08.50 the border personnel started arriving, mostly walking from the barracks a few hundred yards down the road – you must have done something really bad…
….bollocks! There was nothing for it but to wait until the border opened on Monday. So we’d better find some food and somewhere to camp. The guards were pretty helpful and pointed us to a shop a few hundred yards down the road. We stocked up on essentials: bread, crisps, chocolate and beer – and set off to find ourselves…
Total mileage: 23,000m Location: among millions of people somewhere in N China Day: about 170? (We really stopped counting a while ago) We’re in China and it’s a mad race. No time for morning Yoga, a chord on the guitar or the comfortable search for the suitable campsite. It’s a rush. Time is money, every minute has a price, every…