Day 31 Tuesday 29th July. Ikhuul northern Mongolia

Dave up first as usual and after making a brew set off fishing again, and miracle upon miracle he caught his first fish. Admittedly it was only six inches long and he had to put it back but a fish is a fish. On balance I wonder whether Pail, Geoff and Dave all caught the same stupid fish six times!!

Good riding first thing and we made excellent progress.

The night before there had been a couple of minor resin periods and there were some puddles in the tracks. Straight away Paul's bike started to misfire and stop. We just waited a few minutes and then he is good to go again. We have not been able to locate this problem now for almost a year. It s most frustrating especially for Paul who has searched and searched for the problem. The only thing we have not checked or changed is the pulse sender unit inside the engine, but none of us really belief that this could exhibit an intermittent problem in the wet that dries out very quickly when you have a hot engine.

We came to a village and Geoff went to the bank to change some US dollars. There were three people in front of him in the queue, and the single cashier was working at doing something with them all the time, however to complete the transactions of three customers took 45 mins!! When it eventually came to his turn the whole transaction only took 5 mins so we do not know what they were doing. Year end reconciliation? VAT? However we eventually turned our $160 into 300,000tsk and we were good to go and buy petrol etc.

We came to a large town called Moron and when we came out of town we were on a brand new tarmac road. At first we were exhilarated but then quickly we started to miss the tough tracks.

We stopped and had a brew and decided to make good progress on the tarmac road. Whilst we were stopped we noticed two very large birds of prey just sat about 40 yds away. We took photos as best we could and then walked towards them to make them fly. They were either very big eagles or some form of vulture.



After a while the new tarmac road was blocked by barriers and we were directed onto tracks again. We noticed that other drivers were just ignoring this and driving back onto the new tarmac road. We did the same, and at about every 10 km there would be a barrier mad of soil blocking the road. We had great fun riding over these barriers and finding ways onto and off the tarmac road. The construction workers were not bothered at all by four bikers using their new road.

Later we came across a really drunken driver who was driving all over the road, going fast and overtaking us and then slowly waiting for us to pass again. We became really wary of this individual and if he had stopped were very close to the point of taking his keys away and throwing them into the undergrowth.

Arrived at a town called Ikhuul and stocked up with vegetables and set off for the river to camp. The river is ok but not as clear as the rivers we have camped beside before.



Geoff cooked and made a stew with potatoes, turnips the size of pickled onions, onions and beef from a tin with a picture of a cow on the outside. It did look like dogfood, but it tasted great.

Stop press news Dave has just broken his fishing rod!! We are all thinking how best to joint it and brace it sufficiently to allow him to continue fishing!

The evening was spoilt right at the end when a drunken motorcyclist came to our campsite which is right next to the ferry crossing. We shared a tot of vodka with him and he appears to have stolen the stainless steel shot glass that Dave's sons bought him as a present for the journey. People all around the world can disappoint you with their behaviour!!

Geoff noticed a numb feeing in his right knee, and it is still the same in the morning??


More later
RRs
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 30 Monday July 28th. Northern Mongolia

Set off in the morning and within half a mile Paul was saying his bike had lost all performance. We took off the underpant patented pre-filter and away the bike went perfectly. We are all amazed at how sensitive the air intake is, but maybe it's a combination of high altitude and also restricted air flow?

During the day Geoff twice lost his tank bag which he now keeps strapped with bungee straps on top of one of his side panniers. This contains all his electronic gear and important documents ( passport etc.). He never even noticed that it had come off when bouncing over a big dip in the road. In the end Frank got sick of having to stop and pick it up so he strapped it to his bike and refused to give it back to Geoff saying he would give him lessons in how to strap items onto a bike. Dave insisted that for the day Geoff should be referred to as "bagman"! As we travel along we are all losing bottles of water etc. due to the bumpy roads, and it is the job of the person travelling behind to collect them.

We same across a river with a rickety wooden bridge that looked like it would fall down at any minute. We all went and inspected it and decided how we would pick our line tentatively across the bridge. Just as we were about to cross a large lorry laden with logs just bounced across the bridge making all the already loose planks on the bridge even looser! We all got across and were thinking this is the first of many such situations we will face on the BAM road.



Beautiful days riding on much better tracks than across the plains. Some of the scenery is stunning.

We came over a high pass and there beneath us was a wide river snaking its way through a valley. We stopped at a nice camp site area and swam, washed and fished. Geoff caught two 6" fish and Paul three about the same size, but Dave's first fish continues to elude him. All fish were put back unharmed!














Frank cooked a beautiful meal of mackerel on fried bread as a starter followed by corned beef with onions and potatoes.

Geoff searched through his emails and found a phone number for a motorbike spare parts company he had used back in 2013, and called them on the satellite phone. They were very helpful and having taken Geoff's credit card details agreed to send by air mail four air filters for Honda Dominators to our contact in Irkutsk where we are due to pick up the tyres. It's amazing what you can do with a phone, an iPad and a credit card!!

More later
RRs
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 29 Sunday July 27th Harboom Northern Mongolua

Very early in the day Dave started to get even more trouble with his bike. The performance was poor, and it was starting to cut out at times. Geoff's bike was also starting to run worse, and although most people were looking for an electrical fault Geoff stuck out with his opinion that the problem was fuel and mixture related. Well over the next hour we changed coil, plug, and ignition control circuit all with no effect. We then tried old petrol from the Gerry cans to see if the last batch of petrol was poor. None of these had the desired effect. We then looked at the air filter to discover it looked pretty dirty. Swapped it for a new filter and bingo the bike was performing perfectly again. So Geoff felt vindicated in his early diagnosis that it was a fuel mixture problem, much to the annoyance of the other three!!



Within half a mile Geoff's bike was exhibiting almost identical problems, so Paul ( who had brought a spare air filter) kindly gave Geoff his air filter and away we were going again.

Later in the day Paul's bike started to loose performance but he had to just put up with this because he had run out of spare air filters!!

That night at camp we had a big debate about how to try and recover the performance of the soiled air filters. In the end even though they were paper filters we washed them in soapy water and hung them out to dry on the line. This seems to have worked for the time being as when you hold the clean filters up to the sun you can see it through the paper. The soiled filter was absolutely opaque!






We had a discussion about whether to rig a pre-filter across the air inlet pipe, and decided to use a pair of Geoff's micro-fibre underpants. These were cut into four pieces and both double and single thickness put across the air inlet as an experiment.

Geoff's bike would not run with either the single or double thickness it just produced loads of black smoke indicating a very rich mixture. Paul's bike seemed ok so he left single layer of underwear across his intake.

During the day Geoff had two major wobbles where he left the track and bounced across country for a while until he regained control.

We hit patches of deep sand that is extremely difficult to traverse and keep the bikes upright.

Just as we were approaching our campsite for the evening there were two beautiful crane type birds next to the track.

We are gradually leaving behind the hot plains and moving towards mountain tracks, much better riding.






Franks foot still sore, but improving as is Geoff's back.

Only Paul and Dave have maps for Mongolia on their sat-navs and they are doing all of the navigating by reading our coordinates off the sat-nav then plotting our position on a paper map, then using a compass determining which track and direction to choose. They are doing an excellent job. When Geoff or Frank are leading they just stop whenever there are multiple tracks and wait for the navigators to arrive and say which track to choose. The hardest navigation is getting out of the villages. There are literally twenty tracks leaving the village going in all the pions of the compass. There is a lot of trial and error involved in leaving villages.

Late in the evening we had a call from three young men on horses. They were very inquisitive about our bikes and equipment. Geoff showed them pictures of back home on the iPad and they sat down and thumbed there way through the complete photo album. They offered us the chance to ride their horses but nobody took them up!!







More later
RRs


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 28 Saturday July 26th Tez in Northern Mongolia

At 5 am we heard Ryan starting his newly acquired jeep and leaving to try and cover some 400 km to the western border crossing before Sunday evening when his Mongolian visa expires. He indicated that the fine for an expired visa is 11,000,000 Tsn (about £3000)

We had a lazy start to the day but Geoff's back was no better. After resting on Dave's super thermarest outside Dave suggested trying the deep heat cream that he had bought for Geoff at the chemist next door to the Transit hotel in Russia. Geoff agreed and within 2 minutes of applying was up and about running around complaining about the extreme burning feeling. However within 10 mins the heat pain had subsided and the back muscles relaxed and the back pain went away. Geoff turned immediately from a miserable old bugger to a happy old bugger.

We spent the day washing clothes and then doing checks and minor repairs to the bikes. During inspection it became clear that one of the welds holding his side panniers to the foot peg mounts had broken away. Frank fixed it with a jubilee clip which looks like it will hold until we can find a welder.

We have all tried our hand at fishing this river but with absolutely no success.

At one point a young girl from the nearest Yurt came over with offerings of sour milk cakes. We all great fully accepted but took very small bites. She brought with her a fishing rod made of just a section of a branch, and a cork for a float. Dave gave her a hook and a fly from his fishing box and they set off together to go and fish.



Later we had a visitor on his Chineese motorbike. He came and asked for cigarettes. We gave him some beer, and nuts. At one point he just helped himself to the leftovers of the salad dressing we had had yesterday. He then pointed to our packets of pasta and indicated he would like to eat those. Dave used body language to indicate that as far as hospitality goes " enough is enough"



Late on we had a visit from a chap n a silver jeep indicating that we should not be fishing in the river. He then stormed off in his jeep and tried to cross the river only to get it stuck in the deepest part, "gentle Jesus!!"



Another home cooked meal of corned beefstew, and tubs pasta!!
Then a few beers and sitting around a campsite fire.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 27 Friday July 25th Tez in Northern Mongolia

Woke with the noise of our feathered kite friends.



A better day for Geoff and his back he managed slowly to pack up his own tent away, and lad his bike. He made the decision to abandon his road tyres as they were causing big problems with his panniers and top box which was causing him to stop every couple of miles to reassemble the load.

A good days progress with better roads. Stopped at a cairn at the top of a pass to go three times around and a couple of Mongolian motorcyclists stopped for a chat. They gave us a bottle of vodka, and we gave them a selection of miniature bottles of spirits.


We eventually arrived at a town called Tez and straight away an Englishman came over and introduced himself. He was called Ryan and was from Wetherby in Yorkshire.






His F800 BMW had crossed a stream and since then the power was poor and the clutch was slipping. He had been 5 days trying to get some help to repair it but there is nobody in Mongolia who can fix BMWs. He had negotiated the purchase of a jeep ( a Russian UAZ) from a local Mongolian entrepreneur ( he paid $1700) and was just waiting for the documents being transfered into his name so that he could take carry his bike over the border in Russia.
He was overjoyed to see us even if just to have a good moan about his plight.
We agreed to have a look at his bike and we all went to investigate. The bike was minus it's wheels and stuffed into this jeep. We lifted it octane started to open up the engine to get to the clutch. Ryan thought he had a full set of torque tools needed to unfasten the bolts on BMWs, but was in fact missing one needed to remove the engine guard. We could have started chopping it apart and doing more damage so in the end we just lifted it back into the jeep.

The Mongolian person who was selling him the jeep seemed mighty relieved that we were not able to just repair the bike.

Ryan agreed to come and camp with us for the evening and so we loaded up with beer and our free bottle of vodka and proceeded to go to a camping area just close to Tez near a large river. We all swam and washed, then cooked a large meal and talked well into the evening.









Ryan's plan was to get up early and set off for the western border crossing before his visa runs out.

More later
RRs




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 26 Thursday 24th July. Baruntoona Mongolia

We had decided to try and get an early start to complete the two remaining tyres, but in fact we got an early morning call from a whole herd of goats that came down to the river and through our campsite. As you are laid in your sleeping bag you have an image of goats passing through the campsite like locusts eating everything and anything they come across.






We completed the two remaining tyres, and it became evident that all this work had badly affected Geoff's back. He could not pack up his tent or put all his things onto his bike. The rest of the team did his packing for him and then Geoff tentatively rode around the campsite area to see whether he would be able to ride today. He decided he could try it and see how he gets on, so now the group had two infirm riders tentatively riding along.

The knobblies made a huge difference to how the bike handled, but often it seemed worse, the front end was trying to react to each and every bump and it was harder to keep the bikes on the line you wanted.

We rode into the next village about 10 miles from the campsite and stopped at the fuel station. it took us 1 and a half hours to establish that the fuel station operator was not available and that there was another fuel station at the other end of town!

We left that village again with great difficulty finding the correct track out of town, and then our troubles really started as we hit loose sand. Progress reduced to walking pace and in the heat of the day it was extremely draining trying to keep the bikes upright. Needless to say we never managed and there were frequent stops to help people pick up their bikes.

Geoff became desperate to gave a cold drink when in a village and would go from shop to shop looking for a one with a fridge. Late in the day we came to Barantuuna and Geoff bought everyone a nice lolly. Everyone was expecting a Magnum or similar, but what they got was a frozen plastic cup full of slightly flavoured horse milk. "When in Rome etc etc".

We rode just out of the village and followed the river upstream until we found a lovely campsite. There was a family of kites flying all around us and making a screeching noise until they eventually settled down to roost for the night.







Late that night there were people gathering at the side of a reservoir on a hill near the campo site. They were obviously having a good time, and were singing well into the night. During the day we had see on cars and cans driving in the local village with flags flying from their windows a bit like World Cup fever in the UK. Perhaps it was a national celebration day of some type?

Dave's bike was showing low power and also was starting to have a tappet type rattle. The power loss seemed to be caused by a burnt plug lead, but the tappet sound is still present.

More later RRs




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 25 Wednesday 23rd July

After our second night at our three bed, single room hotel we set off for a good days travel.



Unfortunately it took us three attempts and about 45 mins to find the correct road out of town. There are no road signs in Mongolia it seems that all the locals know where they are going and there are so few visitors that it is not worth the cost of putting up road signs.

We eventually got underway in the right direction and today we saw our first camels. They were branded, but just roaming free.



It was a very hot day and water intake and storage is a big issue for us. As soon as we stop to refuel the bikes we are looking to re-stock on bottled water. Unfortunately when you eventually find a shop they often only have 2 or 3 bottles of water.

Frank had a major off at the back of the group and was just laid on the floor for a while until Dave came back to look for him. He had seriously bruised his ankle, and was struggling to walk and when on the bike to balance and change gear. This slowed our progress and eventually we came to a river crossing and decided to stop and camp early to give time for Frank and the rest of us to recover a little.

We had a big discussion about tyres and wether the delay in putting on the knobbly tyres had contributed to the days incident. So we decided to change the tyres, and set about in the evening doing the task of changing 8 tyres. This takes longer than you think but because it was a lovely calm and mosquito free evening we pressed on and got 6 of them completed.

Paul cooked a delicious corned beef savoury rice stew and we all went to bed tired and nervous about how bad Franks foot was going to be in the morning.

More later
RRs

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 24 Tuesday 22nd July, Ulaangom. Northern Mongolia

We woke this morning and started to address the outstanding problems on the bikes. It quickly became evident that it would take some time and therefore we made the decision to stay another night at the hotel and get the work done and have a rest day.

The hotel were starting to worry about the extent of the bar bill we were running up so Paul and Dave went to change some money at the bank. We had decided that we would change $500 into Mongolian money. The first bank that they visited just said no it was too much money they didn't have enough Mongolian money to complete the transaction. The second bank changed the money OK.

Whilst Frank and Dave and Paul set to work repairing the bikes Geoff took advantage of the wifi In the hotel to post all the outstanding blogs. He went onto the internet to look for motorcycle outlets in Ulaangom but drew an absolute negative.
The woman called Tsetsee who stopped and helped us at the side of the road yesterday was at the hotel visiting friends and she helped us again. She made some phone calls and said there was a local market where there is a known auto parts dealer. She offered to take us in her Toyota Land Cruiser so Paul and Geoff went with her to this market. We arrived at a busy bustling market place and she stopped outside of what just looked like a garage lock-up.






She phoned the number on the locked door and we then waited 20 minutes for the proprietor to appear. He had a battery of the correct size and sold it to Paul for just 25,000 Tsk. So clearly the hustler at the garage who sold me his Chinese battery last night got a good deal for 50,000tsk.

(Sadly I have a confession to make about the cost of yesterday's battery. After negotiating a cost of 50,000tsk with the "hustler" I wanted to offer something to the old man who had gone out of his way to walk and find different auto parts shops. I figured 5,000tsk would be a reasonable gesture, and so rummaged in the kitty looking for a 5000tsk note. Because we were only recently in Mongolia and none of us were familiar with the money, and because nobody had separated the Russian money in the kitty from the Mongolian money I ended up offering the old man 5000 rubles as a thank you for his trouble. So the battery cost £17 and the tip to the old man cost £80!!!!!)
Ah well we can afford it and it has probably made all his XMAS's cone at once. )
When we came to leave the market Tsetsee started her Toyota and it started making an awful noise. We lifted the bonnet and clearly the dean belt was screeching. It was established that the air conditioning pump had seized and straight away the fan belt was cut and the screeching stopped and we continued on our journey. Tsetsee just said this is how we do things in Mongolia.
We returned with the new battery but it was dry and needed acid adding, so we then set about draining the acid from the Chineese battery and using a syringe from our first aid kit putting the acid into the new battery. At one point we thought we would be short of acid so Dave rode back 20 km to where we had abandoned the old battery, but it was no longer on the side of the road, so somebody must have thought it was worth taking as scrap.
So after a lot of effort we at last have a proper sized battery fitted into Paul's bike.

Frank had decided we needed a metal plate fabricating to strengthen Geoff's top box bracket. We asked the man who had been hanging around watching us do the repairs, and he showed us a small garage area in the hotel courtyard where we were parked. We then found a piece of scrap metal and between him and Frank the cut it to shape, drilled holes in it by using an arc welder to blow holes in the plate, and then grinding it with an angle grinder.

Amazingly everything fits and it should hold things together for a while. If it fails catastrophically then Geoff will probably gave to ditch the top box and just buy a hold all and strap it onto the back of the bikes (like the rest of the clever buggers have!)

Frank can't find his remote control for his headcams
Geoff found his original smart card reader so everyone didn't have to ride through the rain in busy Novisibirsk.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day 23 Monday 21st July Ulaangom. Northern Mongolia

Eventually got some photos off Paul's camera and here is a spectacular shot that he took couple of nights ago.



Up and broke camp and away for another days riding. We set off at quite a pace, and after about 30 mins and a discussion between the group we dropped the pace slightly. The dilemma is that "speed is your friend" and you have more control and can simply ride through any problem of ruts and soft sand. However if you do get into trouble then the consequences are far greater if you do come off at speed.
We are all getting gradually more and more competent in off road skills but we are sure there is much more to come to test us.





We rode across vast open plains, through valleys and over passes and at each junction of tracks relied upon basic sat nav coordinates and maps to determine where we were and which road to take. Often three or four tracks would lead in almost the same direction and choosing the correct one was guess-work. Some of the vistas were breathtaking.

At the top of mountain passes there are prayer mounds made from stones and decorated with blue ribbons.















At the one above Geoff went to walk around the mound three times (as per Mongolian tradition to give good luck) and the men in the photo offered him a saucer of water to drink. Not wanting to be rude Geoff accepted and when drinking the whole saucer full realised it was neat vodka.

We were stopped at one junction of tracks and a man and his wife (?) pulled up on a motorcycle and offered us what looked like shortcake biscuits. We all accepted but when we ate them, they tasted of some kind of sour cheese and just stuck to the roof of your mouth. We were all trying to be polite but desperate to get a drink of water to wash it down.


Geoff's side pannier keeps coming loose due to all the vibration on the corrugated tracks and although they are held in position by chains to stop them falling off we need to find a better mechanism to hold them. Also his back top box gas bounced so much that it has bent the holding bracket and started to crack the Givi mounting frame. As I write Frank is busy looking into how we can improve the situation.


We are very much aware of the need to have plenty water, and whenever we come into a small village we end up buying loads of bottled water and soft drinks. The children at these villages come straight over and wave and enquire where we are from. Paul seems to have an endless supply of polo mints and other sweets supplied by his sister-in-law which go down very well with the kids, but this then led to him being offered more sour cheese biscuits from the parents!

The tracks were better quality today than yesterday and we made good progress. Each time we stop people stop and come over and the custom seems to be to poke around everything and try on whatever they want. They pick up helmets and try them on, and poke sat navs to see what it does. It is interesting to see the different cultural norms for behaviour.

At 3pm we had been making such good progress that we decided to try and finish the day at at fairly large town called Ulaangom, but this would require another two hours hard riding along tracks. Then after about 1 hour like a mirage in front of us Tarmac appeared and our spirits lifted thinking we would be in a nice hotel drinking beer within no time at all.

Then out of nowhere Paul's bike just stopped and was totally electrically dead. We started at the battery and realised straight away that something was very wrong. The battery was too hot to touch and was only showing 2 volts !! You could also smell the acid cooking something.

So not yet knowing the cause Geoff and Dave went into Ulaangom to try and buy a new battery whilst Frank and Paul stayed with the bike to try and diagnose the fault.



Geoff and Dave made enquiries and were shunted from auto part store to auto part store, but nobody could suggest where we could buy a motorbike sized battery. Eventually at a tyre changing depot we were showing our exasperation that there were so many motorcycles about how could there not be any shops that supply batteries when the man who was on his Chinese motorcycle realised there was an opportunity to make some money. He suggested we buy his battery off his machine. So we negotiated for a few minutes and ended up paying what he originally asked for and bought a Chinese battery much smaller than the Honda battery, and with the connections in the opposite direction and different connection posts. All for the tidy sum of 50,000 Tsk ( about £17). Then it's back the 20km to where Pail and Frank are waiting.

Paul and Frank had swapped various parts from the bikes and determined that when they try to start the bike it is blowing the ignition fuse each time. Eventually we noticed that the ignition control module had a lump and cracked moulding that we were sure had not been there before. After much deliberation and thought we gave come to the conclusion that the regulator has failed in some way and has been pumping current into the battery causing it to overheat and have a high voltage, this has then damaged the ignition control module which had then started to blow fuses.

Whilst we had all the parts other than a battery to fix the problem, it was not until 8 pm that we eventually got underway again. Heath Robinson comes to mind when you now look at Pails bike with a Chinese battery tie wrapped in position with made up connections, however it works!!

Whilst we were at the side of the road fixing the bike loads of people stopped and offered help of all sorts. A woman and man gave us pears and salami sausage and their phone number where we could use his garage at home and stay in his Yurt for free. Another man all togged out in Mongolian long coat stopped on his motorcycle, left his wife to sit on her own and came over trying to get involved in the repair. He is picking up our muti-meter and putting it on various contacts just hoping that would solve the problem. It can be hard when you are busy trying to resolve a problem to remember to keep your tolerance of other peoples natural curiosity and wanting to help.

Eventually we rode into town all dusty dirty and sweaty and the first thing we did was have a cold beer outside. Heaven!!!
The hotel was fairly full and could only offer us a single room with three double beds. I'm not sure how the decision was eventually resolved but Frank ended up sleeping on the floor!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad