CAUTION LONG!!
We managed to enter Mongolia in 2 hours, after having apparently lost the Kazakhstani Import document which we never received... We were fighting a bit with the Russian customs and many stamps later we were at our destination, MONGOLIA!! Very proud to have it done so far with our Dusty! The first bit of road was good, strange as we expected harsh roads. Former rallyers say, the Mongol Rally doesn't start until Mongolia, how hard can it be after having managed 16‘000km and the Pamir highway... We had two options: southern route, with lot of sand and corrugated ("Wellblech") roads or the more challenging north route with bad roads and river crossing. We didn’t found a lot of information about the northern route, as great part of the team is taking the southern, but as it would be the more scenic we chose the northern. Meaning a detour after Ölgli in order to skip one apparently impossible deep river crossing. The road disappeared instantanely, from there on, ten different tracks went through the landscape, each going to another direction. This was the point we thought, welcome to Mongolia!! We drove for hours following this small track and managed to reach a beautiful small lake, where we set up our tents just before sunset. Two minutes before reaching the campsite, we got our first flat tyre, hitting a rock which smashed our tyre and rim. We set up early to manage a bit more km, as with 15-20kph average and 1500km of landscape to cross would take us days. We were crossing mountain ranges and rushing up and down the hills with astonishing 30 kph J, it was very challenging for nerves and car but also big fun. The only dream that moment was to cross a big part of Mongolia on tarmac... The dream came true just after Ulaangom, new fresh paved road!! Not marked on any map, not going the right direction, but we followed it as we could make km on it. Stopping after 100km to take a swim in a wonderful lake and then finding a campsite in middle of nowhere. The concrete road continued, now heading the right direction, we knew it wouldn't last forever but hoped it! After another 80km we saw the huge dust of dirt road. The concrete stopped in middle of the desert and left us to deep sandy paths. It was really powdery, after a few minutes we had every mm of our skin and car interior covered with sand, we just managed to jump from one sand field to the other but barely moving forward. Dusty was excelling in this discipline! After a few km we noticed the rear suspension being really low, both rear springs were broken, leaving us in a car with absolutely no suspension. We slowly drove to the next town were we found out that the next mechanic was only 600km of off-road tracks away... Leaving us with no other possibility to drive at 10-15kph for the next days... During this short stop, we found a piece of Swiss Army Chocolate left on our window, another Swiss team has crossed our way. We met them again a few km after the town, 2 couples from Zürich and Winterthur, doing the Mongol Rally for Charity, a bit more sustained way to help Mongolia. They were also struggling on these roads, as also their car was really suitable for that kind of “roads”. We continued for two days, slow, not touching third gear as “speeding” gave us the second flat tyre, so we finished our spare wheels… We met one of the descendents of Dhingis Khan along the road, followed magical path but every pothole or stone was hammering on our car. As we were 132km away from the next mechanic, the rear left body collapsed not withstanding 400km of hammering, the wheel was completely blocked inside the body and not moving anymore. It was already getting dark, we set up our camp along the road and started with a few improvised Mongol repairs. The first repair held for 50cm so we continued the next day. During repair I noticed the right spring being broken in three parts, the rear differential mounting was fallen off due to rust, the left spring was missing and the body was 10 cm higher as original leaving a 20x10cm hole at the shock absorber mounting. We had two options, using a wooden block as spring and continue the drive at maximum 5kph or to find a way to bring the car to the next town. My patience was merely consumed, so we opted for the second choice. The next town was 17km away, where we surely would find a transportation to Mörön. We waited for a car to pass and hoped for a lift. The first two cars were both completely overloaded (8 or 9 people on a normal car)… So we waited for the next, as we were on a national road we expected a bit of traffic. Three hours and no car later we decided to walk, as the chance to find a car were not so high and a few km later the road crossed another main road. We also tried to ask some Mongols in a Yurt, drinking a lot of Yak tea and gesticulating to get the family chief awake but with no result. Finally we walked 15km until we found a car taking us the last 2km to the small town. As we arrived we just found the minibus to Mörön was departing, jumped on it and went off. The drive was wonderful and a nightmare never had such fear on a ride. The driver was flying along the roads, establishing the new record time between the two cities, just stopping a few seconds when people hat to vomit… The next day we managed to organize a truck to get our car back to Mörön. We noticed that the car wouldn’t fit in length, but there was bigger truck available… So we set off, after changing the most worn out tyres on the truck, to our injured Dusty Justy. We drove the same challenging path again, after 5-6 hours we arrived and managed to load the car from a nearby slope. Unfortunately they stole our fuel tanks and broken wheels during the night, but we were happy to gain a few kilos on our car J The return was painful, driving slower as before, two slightly drunk drivers and a broken suspension of the truck in the middle of the night. It was two AM as we saw that the suspension bolt had damaged the fuel filter, leaving us in the middle of nowhere without spare parts. Fortunately I could fix it with a meter of high speed tape I received from Belair. We managed to arrive after a 16 hours rescue at 4AM in Mörön. They fixed quite fast the three springs, finding some other parts from a bigger car. We gave away every Kg we could in order to lighten the car. After few hours of welding all together we were ready to set off. Fortunately it was all concrete, what a blessing! Spending the night on the most beautiful hill of Mongolia. At 200km before Russia, we noticed that a spring already broke and the welded body was already broken. We decided to drive slowly to Russia, from there we could organize a tow truck in case of damage. We tried to fix the body with tape, it was more a psychological thing and not a real fix… but we arrived in Russia!!! Where we stopped in middle of nowhere to spend the last night. The next morning we had to rise the rear suspension in order to manage to arrive to Ulan Ude. We put some wooden blocks in between and fixed it with tape and zip ties. After 6 weeks and 17’800km later we arrived at the planned destination of the Mongol Rally! Parked the car on the podium beside the Lenins Head a big remaining of the soviet era. Really proud of our achievement and a bit exhausted from the previous week we joined the party with the other teams which arrived that day. We really want to thank all our sponsors!! The climbing gym Sechsaplus, the mountaineering gear shop Baechli Bergsport and the foto database Photobank.ch And of course the numerous people that supported our charity for Mongolia and all friends motivating us for this adventure!! The small piece of Russia on our planning the map resulted to be more than 1500km long. As there is no direct border between Kazakszan and Mongolia we had to cross this part of Russia. We enjoyed having good roads after a hard kazakstan and as we hadn't planned a lot of days for it, we loved the high average speed. The landscape after Barnaul, where we enjoyed fine lunch and wifi, was getting better and better. We were entering the Altai region. We spent the night in a tourist village, river, big trees and a wonderful track for Quads which we followed to get to our camping hill, a spot with a view over the whole region. The dinner was delicious, a decadent plate with fresh mushrooms (ceps) bought on the road, 90% ceps with a tiny 10% pasta aside, never ate so much of them, delicious. The trip whent on trough wonderful landscapes, it s worth to visit the Altai once. It's a bit Yosamity of the east. Big mountains, endless trees and a lot of rivers and waterfalls. We arrived at 16:55 at the Russian border which was closing at 17... So no chance to pass, but we had the opportunity to pass as first the next day if we park in front row. So we did, set up the tents on tarmac and enjoyed the evening with two other Mongol Rally teams. |