We had slept very well until the phone rang. It was Hendrik. I had spoken to Hendrik yesterday to let him know we were in town. He was already in UB for a while waiting for parts for his truck.

We first met Hendrik and Katrin in Kazakhstan in Kulsary. Unfortunately his truck had suffered badly from the Kazakh roads.

So we got ready quickly and met with Hendrik outside. Lárisa went in the van and I followed with the bike. We drove outside of the city but in eastern direction this time.

We arrived at a big gate where his truck was located. But there were more trucks. It was a great place with a nice garage as well. Perfect to do the job.

He had other guests as well, Pjotr and Ulia from Ukraine were camping on the site for one day. They were from Ivanofrankovsk, the west part of Ukraine, and travelling on a Dnipro bike. Lárisa was happy to see some fellow country men and talked to them.

In the meantime Hendrik and I got to work. In less than an hour the rear shock was removed. Hendrik really had all tools you could imagine. I was like a BMW workshop here 🙂 We did also some other work. We fixed one of the broken side lights. We cleaned the air prefilter, which was very dirty. The airfilter itself was still ok. The brakes were still ok.

In the meantime Pjotr came by saying they were ready to ride on. We said goodbye.

Another job which needed to be done is tuning the valves. But I will do this job later. So Hendrik came along with some cold beers. Bikes and beers. So we went outside to see our babes. Hey they were making the food already. A nice shastlik was waiting for us 🙂

We sat together during the afternoon and talked about our travels and further plans. Once their truck was finished they would spend time to discover Mongolia further and then proceed probably to Thailand via China. Hendrik and Katrin were very friendly and even brought us home. The traffic was pretty crazy. You need one hour to cover 10km or so. We made a quick stop under the way at Oasis and met Jan again, he just arrived on his bike.

In the evening we prepared Larisa’s pack as she was flying early tomorrow to Belgium.

Today would be our longest ride so far in Mongolia. We had to cover about 370km but the roads should be really good now 🙂 Well they should be asphalt at least I mean. Well don’t count the first 70km or so 🙂

The first km were offroad but went fine as our batteries were charged again. Hey, we even had breakfast today. I think it was our first big breakfast we had in a while!

We reached the asphalt again and watched the landscape change. It would be a relaxing ride to the capital now. We stopped at a small buddha statue to relax and met a Czech biker called Jan. He was heading for UB and after that probably China.

On the road we saw an accident. Maybe someone hit a pothole. They are really huge here, like 30cm deep or more.

Twenty km before the city there were even double lanes. But traffic was quiet. We stopped just before the center to get some sugar in our systems and also to clean the bike. It would work on it tomorrow and prefer to do it on a cleaner bike.

Traffic in the center was a bit crazy, we almost got hit by a big Lexus twice.

We stopped near the Gandan district to find a guesthouse. Prices are still ok here and the location is central. Actually I was in UB 6 years ago. You could say before the big boom. Prices were still very low then, you could find a place for $5. Now the town is booming. Apartments are rising everywhere. Prices of hotels are almost like Moscow or London. The cheap days are over here.

As I would stay here for a while I found some good budget deal in Gandan’s guesthouse. Hell it was a ger again, but ok, pretty funny in the center of a big city 🙂

We got ready to hit town and eat a lot! We found some american burger restaurant and had French fries with mayonaise, double cheeseburger and beers. Great! Afterwards a chicken kebab and more beers, I was hungry 🙂

I knew there was a catch to our hotel. When we got to bed we found out why. Next to the hotel a crane started digging around 10pm! We told the receptionist and she told us they would stop after an hour or so 🙂

In the morning we made a little walk through town before leaving.

Our plan of the day was to visit the city of Karkorum where we would see the temple of Erdene Zu Khiid. This is said to be the first budhist monastery in Mongolia. It had between 60 and 100 temples at its glory days. But the soviets destroyed most of them. So we could only see three of them now.

We had to decide which road to take, offroad again through the mountains, but a lot shorter. Or follow the main asphalt road. My back was really almost broken by now, so I decided to take the asphalt. Read on and see if it was really asphalt all the way.

The first kms were asphalt indeed. It was a bit bumpy but ok. I had to be careful as the rear spring would act like a catapult if you go to fast in a bump.

After an hour we saw a roadsign pointing to Khujirt. Only 44km and then another 30km and we would be in Karkorum. But there was so much water we quickly went to the main road again. I still don’t know if it was a good option.

After a while there were roadworks again and we had to ride through the fields. They were quite muddy. Some trucks and cars got stuck in the mud, but we got through. It felt almost like riding on ice I guess but we didn’t fall 🙂 We kept going until we stopped at a yurta to say hello. The woman was working with the khimiz, she offered but we politely refused.

As we were riding on, still in the mud, people were pointing us how to go. I think we did at least 20km, so I was seriously doubting that we should have taken the short cut through the mountains. We got through the fields ok and hit on asphalt again.

It was pretty bumpy and there were big potholes, so care had to be taken always. We reached another crossroad. One pointed to UB, the other one to Karkorum.

We were happy as it was all new asphalt. We even road up a hill to enjoy a great view.

Our happiness was short though as after 5km the asphalt stopped again and there were more roadworks. The last 70 would be a bit difficult.

I got really angry at some point because of some idiot driver. If you overtake some people, then they start racing to overtake you again. I can’t go too fast, so it happened. Then once you are overtaken they go really slow so you can eat their dust. I almost went as he hit the brakes real hard and we fell over. No big deal but he better come not to close to me this guy! Anyway I guess I was getting tired.

We reached the temple in the evening and had a look around. There were also some stone turtles to see. One was well hid on a mountain top outside of the town. There was also somekind of phallic rock. I rode up to it with the bike, and a mongol started shouting really loud to me. No idea why but we took off. I guess it was not my day.

We stopped at a hostel called Jim Morin, but we did not see Jim. We had some warm food and slept in a ger. A bit touristic but what the heck. At least we knew there were many spiders now in a ger 🙂

We went to bed early as tomorrow we had a big ride. It would be the final one for a while!

I felt sick in the morning, headache, backache, stomache… So I stayed in bed most of the morning. Lárisa went out to do some shopping. In Mongolia it is normally better to ride early as in the afternoon there is a very big chance for rain. Indeed around 12 o’clock or so it started raining heavily.

We discussed the last night with Adrian what is interesting on our way and we saw the ancient capital called Karakorum was not so far and seemed interesting. There is a big temple, which was mostly destroyed by the Soviets in 1937, but still was worth to visit.

We also needed to decide what to do with the bike part. Should we use a company like DHL or spedition or go ourselves. I checked with spedition in Germany but they were slow in response. I guess because in our case we have to bring back the old part and leave with the new part it is more complicated. So we decided to buy airline tickets. The only one who could do it was Lárisa. I need a visa to enter Mongolia. She does not. So we bought tickets with Aeroflot. Lárisa would flow via Moscow to Brussels next week.

One worry less, we decided to push on. Our daily average in km was around 200km. The next big town of Avaikheer was exactly 200km so we decided to move. It was already 2pm by now and still raining. The guys in the hotel tried to convince us to stay.

We wouldn’t listen and moved on. After the first few km there was off road again. Uphill in the mud, not very cool. Luckily only 5km or so. Then again asphalt. We advanced well but it was very wet!

After a while we still had 50km to do or so when I saw road construction. No way the asphalt was not completed yet. Normally no problem, but it had rained so much that the offroad almost looked impossible. We decided to continue through the road works but then we first had to go over a small hill. Hmm the cluth smelled a bit burnt after doing that!

We gently continued and finally reached a temple, still in the rain, with a big horse statue. We had to pay 500 Togrog to get in. At the statue we met people in a jeep. It were belgians! One was actually the consul of honour of Mongolia in Belgium, named Paul Van Wouwe. He gave us his card, just in case I guess. The statue was of a specially fast horse. The next town Arvaikheer was actually named after it.

We reached Arvaikheer soon now, and searched a hotel. Same drill, no English, too expensive… Ok after the fourth one we found a good one. We took of all the wet clothes and had a warm shower. There was a nice little restaurant on the other side of the street and we had a good meal.

Tomorrow we ride to the old capital which was built by the son of Ghengis Khan.

We had slept well although it was pretty cold on the mountain top. I got out of the tent and enjoyed the view. Today would our last big offroad part. After that we have heard that it would be all asphalt. Pay attention to the word would 🙂

The ride of today was only 160km. But it had rained a lot recently so there was quite some mud and the washboards were not gone yet. I think they never are in Mongolia. Under the way we saw more camels and horses, but nothing we hadn’t seen before until we crossed a bridge and found ourselves in a nice canyon. Time to stretch the legs and do some climbing 🙂

We kept driving until we reached the next little town called Bembeger. We stopped at the local store to buy some fish and bread for lunch. Of course the locals came out and wanted to us and the bike from close. I smelled a bit too much alcohol and decided to leave town rather fast.

A few km out of town we stopped for a road side picknick. If you want to do a private picknick just make sure you are not seen from the road, otherwise everyone who passed by and stop to come and say hello. In the distance we could see big rain and thunder clouds. It would mean lot of mud.

We rode on and were passed by a german truck who was riding rather fast. After struggling through the mud I started feeling my back a bit too much and decided it was resting time again. But there were a lot of camels who came to the road to drink. A camel can drink up to 200l and we saw they were thirsty.

The next obstacle was a broken bridge. The river crossing was ok, it was a bit steep on the banks but I didn’t care anymore. I just wanted to reach the next town and find a bed to rest. We crossed it and rode the last 40km or so when it started to rain on us. We would reach Bayankhongor quite wet.

In town we filled up and noticed the gasoline prices have dropped again. So the closer to UB, the cheaper it gets. We checked out a few hotels. First one was too expensive, next one had no electricity and no hot water. We ended up passing a dinosaur park and found a soviet hotel which was adequate and had a garage!

In the hotel we met a couple called Adrian and Polina. They both lived in Berlin but Lena was originally from Sakhalin and they were both on their way to Sakhalin to visit her family. We had a few beers and ate Tsuivan, again 🙂

When leaving the city of Altai, you have two choices. You can ride north to Uliastai, which is called the central route, or you can ride east, and stay south. The latter is called the Southern road. The central road gives you more mountain scenery. The Southern road goes through the steppe. You will still be at 2000m. It will also be asphalted.

With our problem we choose the safest route and kept going on the Southern. We have seen a lot of mountains in the Pamir, Kyrgyzstan, Altai, so we didn’t mind. Personally I like the vastness of the mountainous steppe. There was a nice bonus to start the day, a stretch of about 100km asphalt. Under the way we stopped to see some hilltop monument. It had swastikas all over the place. We think this is related to buddhism but we have to find out what it means exactly.

After the asphalt stretch we were separated by about 5km from our gps route, which was the old Southern route. Now we had a choice, go back to this safe gps route, or keep following the more mountainous path.

Lárisa is quite adventurous. She spoke to a shamaan we met in Altai, and he told us about a new road through the mountains. So we took the new route. It was a bit risky, because there was almost no traffic on this road. I think we met 4 people on that road. But it was sure beautiful and difficult. We had a lot of soft sand, and some points Lárisa had to push me and the bike out of it! The worn heidenaus were not much help here.

We kept drifting away from the old route and soon it was long gone and we were alone in the mountains. The landscapes changed after every hill crest. Altough we had no rear suspension, it was an amazing ride. To lighten the load on the rear spring I stood up most of the time. My eyes almost fell out when we saw a big truck on this road. He had problems with one of his 22 tyres.

After a few valleys and 200km we reached the small town of Buutsagaan. There was the most amazing weather hanging in the air at the time. We bought some provisions and left the town. I looked at my gps when sunset would be and noted we had shifted yet into another timezone. I kept an eye open for a good camping spot.

We were climbing up a small mountain just above 2000m. I wanted to ride over the hill crest and saw an amazing view. Voila, the perfect spot for another clandestine bivak. We were not seen from the road. Just below the hilltop and out of the view. The view was unpayable.

We set up camp, had a good dinner with bread, fish, and pasta. I climbed to the top to watch the sun go down. My phone was lying with Lárisa when Peter Dhaese, my BMW dealer called. I ran down quickly and he told me he was looking for my part. There had a been a delay as the breakdown happened on Sunday and workshops only open on Tuesday, and there is the 6 hour time difference as well.

I was assured now it would be OK. It was getting dark and cold as well on this mountain. We went in the tent and did some reading. We went to sleep. All of a sudden my phone ran again. It was Peter, now he told me BMW had approved the warranty claim and they would send a new spring to my dealer. What a great news to end the day! I was doing a little dance inside the tent. It was cold but we were both very happy 🙂

After trying to fix the rear shock I was a bit tyred. We went in the centre of town where we had a fast internet connection to do some blog updates.

We also had a look around in town. There is not too much to see. There is the aimag museum, the main square. We saw a lot of motorbikes, mongols just love them.

While sitting at the main square we met 3 French guys who were doing a 4×4 trip. We also saw some English Honda small motorbikes passing, but we were too late to stop them 🙂

We checked the local museum, but it was not very interesting. The guide could barely speak English, and almost everything was written in Mongol inside. I was even more tired by now so we decided to rest for the day and stay in Altai.

In the evening there was a nice thunderstorm. There was also a mouse in our room, so I tried to find it. Tomorrow we will do the last big offroad stretch from Altai to Bayankhongor with a broken rear shock. I hope it will hold 🙂

I could not sleep very well last night thinking how to proceed. I decided to remove the spring from the bike and check it. Maybe it could be fixed. Early in the morning I headed to the Mongol Rally Service. This is mongolian mechanic which is famous amongst the Mongol Rally riders.

He was not awake yet, so I started myself. First removed the saddles, than the alu case carriers, exhaust damper, and rear wheel. Now the spring could be removed and the mechanic appeared. We took out the rear shock and checked it. On the lower side we could see the gasket open and the bottom ring was loose. The bike has now about 27000km, so I will check with BMW if this can be replaced under warranty. If not I will replace it with a stronger aftermarket part.

Anyhow we could not fix the spring and reassembled everything. I gave a call to Mongolian Motorcycle shop in UB to check if they have this gasket but no luck. It takes two weeks to get a replacement.

Next we called the Mongolian BMW importer, but unfortunately they only do cars. There is no Mongolian BMW motorbike dealer. Then we called Russia, the dealer in Krasnoyarsk. The part is not in Moscow, and not in Russia, so it has to come from Germany. This will take up to 4 weeks.

We will ride on to UB. Still about 1000km to go and it will be bumpy. In the meantime we will think and try to find the best solution. I hope we get good news from our dealer back in Belgium.

I woke up at 0455 AM. The light comes very early. I started to read a bit about Mongolia and after an hour or so we both got up. We had breakfast and broke up the camp. We noticed we almost ran out of water, but decided not to go back to Darwi and look for a river. I checked the rear tyre thinking and hoping it will last until UB. Today we would leave Western Mongolia and enter Gobi.

When riding we noticed it got dryer and dryer. After a while we realized we were riding in the desert. At some point the road got terrible. There were several parallel tracks, but they all had the worst washboard I have seen. The bike and we were really being rattled apart. Creating new tracks was not easy because of soft sand and sharp big stones.

We saw a lot of birds and when coming closer they were not like the eagles or buzzards we saw yesterday, now they were even bigger. They were huge and numerous. It were vultures eating a dead camel. The smell was quite bad.

All of a sudden Larisa told me she smelled something weird, and I felt something weird. We stopped and the verdict was clear. Our rear suspension was lost. The oil had run out, and the spring was now working without damping. Riding the bike was like being a kangaroo now. It also happened about 125 before Altai and it was getting warm in the gobi, so still a while to go with almost no water. Larisa didn’t carry much in her camelbag because she had backpain the last days, and I drank all mine almost. There was about half a liter left for emergencies like this. We were lucky however and a jeep with doctors passed our way, they gave us water. Now we just had to make it to Altai.

It was very difficult as I couldn’t make speed because of the washboards. The bike has no watercooling and I was only able to ride about 20-30kph. This made the engine warm so I had to stop every 10km to let it cool down. Luckily there was quite some wind so we had not to wait too long. But it took us a while to get in Altai.

While riding we met two bikers on Yamahas, Greg and Christian. They both stayed in Oasis in UB and gave us a lot of useful info. They also have had problems with their suspensions.

In the evening we arrived in Altai and saw there is an airport. A flight to UB costs about 120 EUR and takes 2 hours. We looked in the town and found the Mongol Rally Service. There is a mechanic. We also had internet again, so I could send messages to my Belgian and Dutch friends to get help. Tomorrow we will remove the rear spring strut and try to fix it. I was quite exhausted and we went to bed early.

In the morning I went to the garage of the hotel in Khovd to get my bike. I looked a bit closer to the ground, and saw a lot of nails and other nasty iron things. You really have to keep your eyes open here to not get a puncture. We went to fill up the bike and get some supplies as it was a long way to the next big city which is Altai.

You leave the city by going up a hill. On top of the hill you have a nice view and there is what I call the buddha hill. It is a pile of rocks with blue ribbons. I don’t know what exactly it means but I will find out 🙂 I was stopped by a guy who wanted to have a chat. Friendly guy, but we had to move on. The offroad was great, and we could easily ride 90kph on the gravel in the start. After a while we noticed a lot of construction works were ongoing.

The country is definitely transforming. They are building asphalt roads, and I guess over a few year it will be here. The economy is growing fast here. The country is rich of minerals and the buyers are close. Good infrastructure explains itself. But how will it affect the people? This great country has been about gers and animals for ages. I wonder and was thinking about this when riding.

The offroad got a bit more technical after a while. There were many parallel tracks. Some had a lot of washboards. Other had soft sand. Others had curves and ups and downs. Well the main thing was to be concentrated, but I enjoyed the ride. We advanced well, and after 80 km or so we reached an unreal stretch of asphalt for about 50km. The change is coming faster than expected.

We pushed on and got hungry. But where is the shade here? It was already warm in the afternoon, above 30 degrees. We found some shade under the road construction. Not very nature, but we cooled down for a moment and rode on.

By the evening we got to a town called Darwi. We stopped to get some supplies. There was also a bus with locals who were going to Ulan Baator. I think half the bus got out to check my bike. They did not jump on it at this moment 🙂 I don’t mind as long as they are curious. From what I see Mongols love motorbikes.

We left the town and kept riding. It was good offroad but bumpy. I was thinking what a good job our suspension was doing. I noted my front tyres was loosing pressure again, so we stopped to inflate it. Luckily we did, because our jerrycan with spare fuel got loose, and was hanging on a wire in the back. Luckily it did not get in the rear wheel and we didn’t loose it.

We checked the GPS to see how much time sunlight we had left. Normally around one hour before sunset I stop to setup camp. We saw some wild horses and followed them. A bit further were some hills. Nice spot to hide the tent from the road. There was no water, but we had some with us.

We set up camp had a big dinner with bread, chicken pastry and noodles. There was great view on a snowy mountain peak. It was Saturday night, but we went to bed early. Tomorrow would be a big day.