Our mission today was to get out of the lake area on about 20km of very rocky and pot-holed track and onto the bitumen for an easy ride into Tsetserleg and the Aussie run guesthouse.
I have yet to meet my new BMW so I was on the spare Tenere which was probably perfect for the mix of conditions. Since most of Mongolia is basically gravel, the rain run off very quickly so the track was quiet OK, despite more storms the night before.
We passed a big group of Italian tourists all riding the Chinese-made 150cc that all the locals ride, but that looks like pretty hard work to me.
I don't know if it has made the news back home much, but there are massive forest fires in Siberia and all the smoke is heading south to us. I had a look on the satellite images and it looks like the smoke is right across China and around to Alaska (Which is actually not that far away ....) but it means we have lots of smoke and quite reduced visibility. Apparently they are on an unprecedented scale .. 10’s of thousands of square km with almost no chance of controlling them. Pretty scary.
On the bitumen we passed an impressive gorge and a big, lone rock out the valley - both good drone opportunities.
We arrived in town early to beat the possible storms and had a look around - a pretty depressing town. All 60’s soviet building that have just been left to ruin. Mongolia is a beautiful country but its towns are very sad.
An Aussie burger for dinner tonight and a cappuccino with breakfast is the only saviour.
My ‘new’ BMW is awaiting downstairs so another bike change tomorrow. Let’s a see if this on e can last the last 2 days riding.
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