So we’ve finally made it to Mongolia. I thought Kaz was vast but nothing prepared me for how wild, vast, desolate and stunning Mongolia is. This is like arriving on another planet. The area we arrived in from Russia is quite hilly with huge mountains in the distance. The terrain is very dry and arid, with no trees except along the river. The roads are just very bad dirt roads very very rocky and they change quite  a lot from solid nice windy dirt tracks to very sandy tracks to very rocky pebbly tracks. Riding over the next few days is going to be very interesting.

I still find the Dizzy very top heavy compared to any other bike I’ve ridden. I have dropped him a number of times because of this when stopping on a steep incline. I do think my confidence and riding skills will improve greatly after this trip. I am also sure when I get on a nice well balanced WR250 I will feel like I’m in riding heaven. We have not had any technically challenging off road riding yet, just varied good / bad / terrible dirt roads with vastly different surfaces. The challenge for me is coming from the bike and the endurance. We are riding this terrain for hours and hours hundreds of KMs at a time. I am also hugely aware that I have a long trip ahead of me and no hospital just around the corner which has made me quite cautious. I am however LOVING this.

I’ve worked out that I have another 8 so 16 border crossing on this trip and they may just be the death of me. They are painful and that is no exaggeration. THE first Russian one was the worst the second Russian one the easiest (i.e. Kaz to Russia) the Russian exit form Kaz another nightmare and the entry to Mongolia as well. Although we had it easy just 5 hours in total, as there were no queues. We met another German rider, travelling with a Swiss couple who spent 9 hours at the same border the day before. The Mongolian border is open from 8 to 5pm only and closes for 2 hours over lunch from 12. At least the Mongolians were pleasant and some spoke English so we didn’t have any problems it just gets tedious waiting, and filling in copious numbers of forms.

We seem to have had far too much rain on this trip. While still in Europe (specifically Berlin) the temperature soared and I was convinced that summer had arrived and we were heading for some warm climates, how wrong I was. Right across Russia at rained almost every day and it was freezing, not so pleasant on a bike, or when putting up a tent. Kaz was different really hot (much easier to cope with on a bike than being wet and cold) When it did rain in Kaz the showers were short and sweet so I didn’t even wear my rain jacket most times. I just got wet for 15 min and then 15min later knew that I would be dry and warm. The minute we went back into Russia from Kaz the torrential rain started again, freezing. Mongolia is currently pretty warm and dry but we are expecting rain over the next couple of days. It is VERY windy here.

The one thing I like about the rain is when you are lying in your tent and you can hear it pattering down outside it’s such a nice sounds and for that I like the rain. It is also a nice sound to fall asleep to. I must say I have never slept so well, I am a terrible insomniac and have a really tough time sleeping but as the trip progressed and the stress levels dissipated so the sleeping pattern got better and better. I have honesty never slept so well.

One of the other nice things I have noticed when camping here are the flowers. It’s amazing you can see a green field a perfect campsite that looks quite barren until you start walking thought and noticing the flowers. Once you’ve noticed one you just see flowers everywhere and so pretty and different according to the different terrain. This has made me think about all the amazing things we miss in our daily lives because we just don’t notice them.

The other stunning thing is the birds. I have never been a bird watcher but can guess that this is a bird watchers paradise. Camping out where it’s so quiet you notice the amazing sounds the birds make. We have also seen numerous birds of prey. One day in Kaz just in one section of the road (I guess over a 50km stretch) I counted 16 of them. They hover quite close to the road so we are getting some good views. I think they are hunting these little ground rodents we keep seeing (too fast for pictures) they are ground squirrels or some kind of prairie dog, they are cream coloured and have short stubby tails and keep running across the road, too cute. I also saw a fox the other day but it was dead fast. The saddest thing was seeing all the fox tails in the little market we past, so beautiful fluffy and think, but unfortunately not on the fox 😦

The Dizzy broke his chain again and this time had to undergo some surgery as one of the casing bolts snapped off. So we ah dot drill it out and fix it all up. Breaking the chain twice in 10 days has got me a bit worried but we cannot find any reason for this happening. Hopefully the repairs will work now and then we get to Ulaanbaatar I’ll put a new chain and sprockets on. Unfortunately we have some rough Mongolian off road terrain to get through so here’s holding thumbs the new master link holds.

We’ve gone back into Russia for a couple of days on our way to Mongolia (Kaz and Mongolia do not border each other) we rode though the Altai mountain region and WOW these views are just breathless. The mountains remind me of parts of Canada an Alaska and Switzerland all rolled into one area. The campsite we found was the best so far and next to a raging river which made the most amazing sound.

The first thing we noticed when camping in Kaz as that although there are a few mozzies they are smaller and less agro than the Russian ones so quite easy to cope with, and they hate mozzie spray. The Russian mosquitoes drink mozzie spray for kicks, you can spray it on till it’s dripping off you they land lap it up roll onto their backs with their feet in the air and say” bring it on baby, I hate them.

In Kaz the first camp site was awesome when I walked into the grass hundreds of butterflies flew up and tiny blue dragon flies. It was so cool like this great welcome to Kaz this is a friendly (almost) mozzie free country 🙂

I thought I’d find it hard to wild camp with no bathroom or en-suite toilet for 6 days in a row, but actually it’s been fine. It’s amazing how quick you get used to changes in situations and the camping has been such fun I have not minded using the bushes … well if bears can do it so can I J

The best part though is reaching our guest house in Almaty and stepping into a HOT shower after 6 days WOW it felt like the best experience of my life and I just did not want to step out again. We did find a stream at one camp site and made the most of that it was FREEEEZING but great. When I jumped in the first time I screamed so loud Cesar came running over as he thought I was being attacked

While on the road to Almaty we passed two cyclists took pics of them while riding and waved but rode on. A few kms down the road we needed to stop at one of our GPS waypoints where we all meet up with Jeff in the 4×4, they are like cheek points we reach a few times a day to just make sure all is well. When we stopped Cesar noticed a brand new Continental motorbike tire lying next to the road. Thinking it was our lucky day we picked it up. The two cyclists then caught up to us and stopped to have a chat. We mentioned the tire and they said “oh that belongs to Marcus another German guy we met on the road who lost it and has just sent us a text asking us to pick it up if we see it” So they got hold of Marcus and we arranged to meet up with him and give him his tire back. He was so grateful and is a very lucky guy that we found it. Such an incredible coincidence.

Marcus is riding his transalp from Rosenheim in Germany to Vladivostok in Russia so a similar Trans Asia trip to ours. The two cycling, twin brothers Paul and Hansen, are riding across Asia from Berlin to Shanghai over 6 months WOW Hats off to you guys.

In Almaty on my rest day I needed to get to a bike shop and get another master link for my chain and I also had my tires changed. While there I met another 2 German motorcyclists (the Germans sure are in a Trans Asia mood this summer) their one bikes (a triumph tiger) electric system has gone on the fritz completely dead. They were there trying to fix it but said that if they couldn’t  do that after 2 days then their trip was over and the one guy would fly  back with this bike the other was deciding if he wanted to do the same or ride back to Germany alone. The mechanics speak no English so they had contacted a German lady to translate, who is living in Almaty who speaks and teaches Russian here. So she helped me as well and the while the bikes were all being sorted out we sat and had a great chat and it was nice to speak to someone in German in the middle of Kazakhstan 🙂

The Kaz roads are something else, long dead straight roads that don’t just go on for miles but days. It’s incredible and quit monotonous to ride for hours on end. There are a lot of road works and although you get sick to death of corrugations they do break the monotony so we coped.

I’ve had only one problem on the bike, my chain broke so we had to quickly repair that but otherwise the dizzy is going like a dream.

One of the strangest things we’ve seen on the road is millions of crickets. When we first rode through them I thought it was seeds or leaves  and as I looked at the other guys bikes riding thought they sort of pushed these “seeds” like a wave, then I realised they were crickets so strange, however not as bad as the locusts. We rode though a small swarm of them and they hit you like hair and squish all over you and your bike and visor. One flew up my sleeve and you can’t stop as you need to just keep riding and shaking my arm could not dislodge the thing and I felt it just clawing and scratching up my arm so I just grabbed my arm with y left hand squished it and felt all this bug juice run down my arm EEEEEEW, I now make sure my jackets sleeves are tickly fasted at the cuff

The best thing about Kaz is the people, so friendly and hospitable. They treat bikers like celebrities, every time we stop they want to talk to us shake out hands, one guys even asked for my autograph (go figure) they keep taking pictures of us and with us. The women are going crazy for the guys and keep getting me to take pictures of them so I told the guys I’m starting to pimp them out to pay for my trip…they were not impressed 🙂

I did have a little giggle as I remember Ewan McGregor mentioning in the Long Way Round something about how surprised he was that people recognised him in such remote places as they kept taking pictures of him etc hee hee sorry Ewan you were just a man on a motorbike and they treat all bikers like that.

I haven’t introduced my KUDU travelling companions yet. Jeff is the KUDU owner and driving the 4×4. Karuhl is from Malaysia and is doing a lot of filming and photography of the trip. Cesar is from Mexico and has become like a second big brother to me, he is fantastic and really looks after me. He is the trip pro rider just really tip top on a bike. Gareth is fast becoming one of my favourite people, so considerate and a real gentleman. Neil has just joined us in Almaty and works with Jeff.

Finally time to do some blogging so much has happened that I just cannot write it all so here are some bits and pieces.   We made it to Kazakhstan and the border crossing was a breeeeeez so different to the Russian border. There were no queues and the border customs guards  were so friendly and nice, a great welcome to their country. From the border the road just stretches on and on and on, the landscape is so different quite dry but just so VAST and flat, the plains stretch out with no contours or buildings not anything but grass for as far as the eye can see. This country is huge it’s taken my breath away.

Even the Kaz police are nice, they are as corrupt as the Russians but so nice about it and charge more reasonable bribes. As soon as you are stopped the things to do is just stick out your hand and shake the cops hand say Hi be friends and they bribes are approx 1000 to 2000 Kaz Tenge. We’ve even had cops invite us home for dinner but due to our timetable have not been able to accept and what a pity because I think that would have been great. We’ve even been let off fines on the odd occasion. One guy stopped us and then saw that I was a girl and said “ah Frauline, Frauline I love you, ok go go” and we got off. This happened twice, and on another occasion I was changed 1000 Kaz ts, and the guys 2000 just because I am a woman, we had a good laugh at that one.

We’ve encounters cops almost once every day but it was not too bad until 2 days out of Almaty then we went though countless speed traps and it really got on our nerves. The cops sit about 3km after the road works speed signed on the motorway.  The speed is 50km/hr on the most beautiful long flat perfect motorway, go figure I guess they need to stock up on new police cars so are out in force making money. Cesar eventually found a while van that was speeding along like crazy and just sat behind that figuring that he would get caught. However it seems that he was on some radio to other folks as every now and again he would really slow down and a few ks later we’d see the cops… Thanks while van man 🙂