Today has been a rest day, and I’ve been taking things very slowly…! I had a bunch of jobs to do, and I’ve pretty much got them all done, but it’s taken all day. I tried to have a sleep-in, but when you’re in a triple room, and people are used to being awake at 0600 (at the latest) that doesn’t work so well – I think I’ll treat myself to a single room for our next rest day (or maybe find someone else who’s keen on that idea and split the difference).
Because we’re operating on TDA time, which is the same as Ulaanbaatar, but an hour ahead of Ulaangom (where we are) there was some confusion about what time breakfast was. In the end it turned out to be none of the times calculated or expected because the cook slept in, so it ended up being ‘when it was ready’. That said, it was worth the wait – a cross between an omelet and fried eggs which was really tasty.
Next up was bike cleaning – the most important thing was to get as much of the dust and sand as possible out of the drive train and get things lubricated again for the week ahead.
From there I was on a mission to find some epoxy glue to try a more permanent fix for my current tent poles. Mission accomplished I continued to drift round the town and market collecting essentials like baby wipes (camp shower), hand cream (it’s been so dry here that the skin on my hands is cracking all over the place), Snickers (should be self explanatory – I’ve really developed a liking for them, Mars were my preferred choice, however the peanuts in Snickers give added long-lasting energy. They’re also less prone to deformation in hot weather), a nail brush (mostly for trying to keep my legs clean in camp) and ice cream because, ice cream!
Back at the hotel I cemented the ‘lug’ back into its aluminium ring on my tent poles – I won’t know until tomorrow afternoon if that’s been successful, but fingers crossed!
I mentioned previously that Sandy had come to Ulaangom two days early because of teeth issues (which are now satisfactorily resolved) and she had bumped into a local tourism person who was really interested in what we were doing. As a consequence this evening the local cycling club came to the hotel to visit. A local musician and dancer had also been arranged to show us something of the local culture.
Local dance and musician whop paid us a visit at our hotel.
The musician was just a young high school student, and terribly shy, but the music he could produce from a two-stringed instrument was quite amazing – hopefully the videos below show that.
A number of people have asked about the ‘mood of the troops’ with the recent tough riding days. I think many of us are in a similar position on that – we’re hanging in there making the best of the tough conditions while quietly waiting to get into Russia and back onto some roads which will make things more enjoyable again.
I’ve no idea how connectivity’s going to go over the next seven riding days to our next rest day in Gorno – I suspect there will almost certainly be nothing as the next two days in Mongolia (for which I have a local SIM card) due to the remoteness, and once we’re in Russia I don’t know how I go about getting a SIM.
For another take on the tour, check out Ron’s blog.
Local musician performing:
Dancer and musician
The local cycling club singing the Mongolian national anthem (at Ruth’s request)
Just caught up on your last 4/5 updates and feeling your pain but glad it’s not too bad – boo to the sand and hello Tarmac (I hope!!)
Sending hugs xx
Hello tarmac indeed – it’s been awesome! Because we’ve been away from connectivity for the last week all the updates are coming at once (I did buy a Russian SIM card, but I can’t get it to work in my dongle, so I only have connectivity today in Russia – will try again in Kazakhstan).
Thanks for the hugs – same to you and your wee man…!
Yes, what some people can do with 2 strings others of us will never achieve with 6! Funnily when ever I read Ulaangom I keep thinking “Armageddon”.
Ulaangom wasn’t quite that bad, though some bits of it are looking pretty derelict these days – no idea what the factories used to be, but they ceased to function quite some time back.
I fully agree with Jillian.
Reading your blog and watching the pictures and movies is so much better than seeing it in a magazine or on TV.
I am happy your wounds heal well, that is not that obvious at your age 😉
Two more days of dirt tracks, and then you’ll be in Russia to enjoy the … tarred roads!
Thanks Jan – we have indeed been enjoying the tarred roads, they do make things so much easier! Glad you’re enjoying the blog – hopefully the posts will go back to being more regular once we’re into Kazakhstan rather than coming all together once a week.
Great pics! This is so much more fascinating than reading some national geographic piece with accompanying photoshop jobs. Ron’s blog is interesting too – my RSS feed (do people still use RSS?) is going to be overtaken with cycling stories. I feel like I’m going to learn a lot about central Asia in the next few months, without even leaving my couch! Thanks for putting in the legwork 🙂
RSS – wow, you’re old school…! glad you’re enjoying the updates – I’ve added in a couple of other peoples blog links in recent posts, though unless your Dutch and German have improved in recent times you might be restricted to looking at the pictures…!
I love those boots Liz has on. Trust you will not need this info, but ED nurses used to scrub gravel wounds with a nail brush to get out the grit. Probably just as painful as a pot scrubber! Loving the updates, feeling the aches with you, and still wondering how far the logs come for that bridge – there are no trees in sight for days!
Didn’t need the nail brush I assure you the pot scrubber was more than abrasive enough!
I’ve also wondered about the logs for Mongolian bridges – periodically there would be trees, but not terribly many.
‘Uneventful’ is no bad thing after the past few days! I love the videos – what a great little snippet of the local culture, and that boy is very talented on that instrument!
Uneventful was perfect…! and yes that lad was pretty amazing.