About time Pete joined in!
Trip Start
May 08, 2009
1
6
31
Trip End
Aug 2009
Ulan Bator, Mongolia
Friday, May 29, 2009
Though Russians proved to be generally a bit dour, we have met some nice ones along the way - like the family we stayed with who having shown us into our rather pleasant rooms, took us out for dinner, and thru Alexi, the son who spoke English, asked us if we would like to drive their Russian tank! Well, of course we jumped at the chance, and all had a go in the drivers seat, which was excellent fun. Rick wanted to fire the gun, but thankfully we managed to dissuade him.
Off for a walk to the shops now, partly to clear my head of the fog from thee inevitable Ulan Baator Irish bar, and also to get the supplies we will need for our travels in the Gobi desert. Mind you, I never expected to be setting off to the Gobi in a snow storm, but thats what its doing as I write this! It was 35 degrees when we arrived in Mongolia, so who knows what'll happen.
Anyway, having an excellent adventure, hope alls well in UK, and your not all working too hard, arf arf..... bye for now......Px.
Comments
Who would have thought it....
...pissing down with rain on a bike trip!
Bazza
Greetings all from the Very Sunny Town of Swanage..
Glad to hear all is going well and that you have finally made it to Mongrol Land. Very unlike you Baz to visit a Bar, there must be a natural instinct to find beer.
All is super smashing great and everything is under control. Hope you are all enjoying your little adventure. Keep the photos coming and BAZ for christ sake grow a comedy beard..
A tank....!
Hey, yeh! 'I have a tank in the back garden, would you like a drive of it?' Raving mad!!!
Pete, don't tell me that you let Rick loose in it...... he'll be off to the military surplus in Preston when home, looking for one to bling-up to the max!
Good to here that your getting along fine.... though the mechanical failures could of been done without of..... mind you, BMW bikes and a Land Rover.... anything could happen! ;-)
down under
Barry have to say Bro im very proud! I love the photo's please keep posting some more!! Whats with stalling the tank, thats the sort of thing i would do!! Anyway congratulations to you all, it seems you are all enjoying you experience and why not. Im off to bed now as as usual have had to many beers!! Miss ya bro safe riding J J J x :)
Re: the trip
Tim posted this posting on the GS site, so thought that I would copy it over for everyone to read
Can't remember the spelling but we're in Dalanzadgad, it's the town in the south.
Around 450 miles down here from UB and fairly rough going at times. Dennis the Oz we have with us came off in the sand yesterday and was trapped under his bike, if he'd been alone, he reckons he'd still be out there and is only suffering an ankle injury...
...talking of ankle injuries, Jarvo had a small 'off' today and is hobbling around with an oversize foot and ankle this evening, we'll see how he is in the morning. We may ride in the Gobi region for a day or two, but it's hot here and lot's of sand to keep us happy, then we'll head NNW as there's a remote, ha that's a laugh, everywhere's remote in Mongolia,... a remote mountain pass of around 200+ miles that I'd like to have a go at.
Most bikers who ride in Mongolia use one of two usual routes, we're trying sort of zigzag a large part of the country before heading west on the northern route
The problem here is the weather's so changable, they say in Ulaanbaater that you could change your clothes 4 times a day.
GS's are holding together. A 1200 needed a rear oil seal change in UB, the rear Wilber's on Baz's 1150 is fecked. The bikes are taking a real pounding, mainly down to the conditions but also through our exuberance.
Tiffany and I are keeping contact via email and she informs me Turkmenistan are not issuing any visas due to swine flu so we may need a 2nd visa for Kazahkstan and get a ferry to Azerbaijan from there. Still, that's a long way off.
Oh I didn't mention that in our escape from the thieving women of Ulaanbaater, Baz got bitten on the hand...and I got a photo of the teeth marks
Right, I think the lads have a bottle of vodka, so it'd be rude to keep them waiting...
Another update from Tim on UKgser
We're further north now in Bayanhonger after some of the best and most demanding riding I've done.
The deep sand of the Gobi caused a few dummies to be spat........like it's my fault there's sand in the Gobi desert
But all back on track now.
I split a front tyre at speed yesterday which I've repaired with a patch on the inside and a tube....it's only got to last until Istanbul
We're camped on an island amongst some trees sheltering from the strong wind and light rain, but of course this means crossing the river a everytime we go anywhere. Jarvo attacked the slippery rocks with mucho gusto with the inevitable result so has gone to a hotel with Baz tonight Pete took a dunking also
After pulling the tents down this morning we set off to cross a high mountain range to Teslerleg but the weather was against us so beat a hasty retreat and got the tents up again on our island....there's snow on the hills now so a lazy day..maybe a bottle of beer and packet of biscuits
Tiff's facing the same problem re Turkmenistan and it's looking like we'll need to get another Kazakhstan visa and cross the Caspian from there.
Dennis the Ozz is providing entertainment every minute....'I'm just going to snap one off' he said while walking away from his tent the other morning armed with his 'date roll', five minutes later 'Oh bugger I went and sat in it'
Re: Re: the trip
Thanks Tracy - look forward to meeting up next week
amatol1
hi rich finally got a dive on the BEN MCDUIE fantastic viz 15m four dives in 2 days off the defence,not going to get rich off that wreck.hope you and the SHANDY DRINKERS are all well and making good progress.seeya daz
Update from Baz
Hi folks
Jarvo, Pete and I are sat in an internet cafe whilst Tim, Rick and Dennis are up in the mountains still!
Yesterday was an awesome day riding up into the mountains and crossing the odd river or two...about 12-18. We reached the top of the pass before heading back down from the pass which was about 9'000 feet above sea level. I used Tim's video camera so fingers crossed will have some footage to show later.
As soon as we crossed the top of the pass the wind picked up and the temperature dropped. After about 2 hours of riding we decided to break out the heated jackets again to make riding a bit more bearable. All the time the weather seemed to be chasing us up the valley!
I thought riding a heavy GS in the sand was a laugh..NOT! but we hit patches of loose large stones which I suppose had been deposited by the rivers which had a tendency to throw you of line every now and then..great fun. Well the river crossings varied in depth fom about 6' to 2 '. I decided to tackle one crossing where the water was only 6' deep and I thought I was going to be ok but that is where I went wrong! The river bed was covered in this brown algae and was slippy and so you guessed it over I went! Thankfully Tim was not too far away to give us a hand.
Whilst on the way we saw a local decide to do a river crossing in his overladen car and suprise, suprise he got stuck. International Ricky Bling came to the rescue and used his bling winch to tow them out! This was not the first time he used that this day but I will tell you about that in a mo.
We used this as an opportunity to have lunch before we set off again. Everyone was in good spirits but Jarvo said,
' This is bloody ridiculous, the bikes are too heavy!'
Jarvo thought someone was going to get injured and he said he would of loved to of been blatting around on his CRF450x. Hats of to the 6' 5' Oz Dennis who was riding his R100 through the river crossings. I went through one which I took a bit deep and I am sure it was a little too close to comfort on the air intake and when I took the airbox drain plug out I saw emulsified oil. A moment that you don't really want to have in the middle of nowhere! I took the top off of the airbox and I saw a dry dusty filter so big smiles all round at that point
Pete took the lead at one point with Jarvo following and then me. We left the others behind slightly as we were blatting across the river plains at about 45-55 miles an hour. This brought a smile to our faces especially Jarvo's as he said it was fast and smooth.
We then arrived at the river crossing which involved the use of the bling winch! Jarvo rode across first and he had manufactured a snorkel to his bike and he realised it was about 2' deep. I followed without a snorkel! and kept the revs up and thankfully got through ok! Pete set off with his usual gusto spirit and 4 seconds exactly after leaving the safety of the bank he and bike went swimming! I know this as I managed to get it on my camera! I went in to help as Jarvo was still filming on the bank..or so he thought (Camera was not on!) He was laughing so much.
So now picture the seen Pete and I in the middle of this river with water not far off our knees and The bike practising holding it's breath in cold running water. We got the bike upright and Pete tried to start it. The bike spat an exhaust full of water at me in disgust and failed to fire up. We tried pushing it but that was futile.
About 5 mins later Dennis, Tim and Ricky Bling arrived. Tim did his usual, helmet off, rolled a fag and I am sure got his camera out! Rick drove through the river, donned high vis jacket and got the amber lights going on the roof as International Bling rescue sprung into action! Rick had a look of concern on his face as I don't know if everyone knows but the bike Pete is riding belongs to Rick!!! Oh I forgot to mention when the bike did not start Pete said in jest, ' Not my bike!'
Well winch came out and we towed the bike out. Within seconds Jarvo, Pete and Rick were working on the bike. Thankfully she fired up after a while which put a huge smile on Pete and Rick's face. Now here we are in the middle of nowhere in a real idealic campsite but Pete is soaked. Tim, Dennis and Rick decided to camp and the rest of us decided to push on to the town.
We set off and we had another 4 or 5 river crossings to negotiate on the way. It got to a point when it started to get dark and we made a decision that we would ride for 30 mins and if we could not see the town we would camp! Well as luck would have it we managed to cross the top of another pass and at 26 mins and the town was in front of us! We rode on found a hotel, parked the bikes in their warm garage and settled in for the night. The hotel said there would be hot water from 2200 - 2359 hours. I jumped in first as JArvo used all the hot water at another hotel in DZ when I had to have a cold shower. It was lovely!!! Pete jumped in next and when it came to Jarvo's turn the water had run out! He is a hardened Yorkshire lad so cold water to him was nothing or that is what he told us. I not sure if I believe him as as well as his snoring his teeth were chattering!
We didn't surface until aout 1000 hours and we looked out the window to see snow on the hills and it a mixture of rain and sleet outside. Not great tent weather! I got a call from the Rick on the Bling phone(sat phone) saying that they have snow at the campsite and that he will call at 1700 hours to let us know an update. I am not worried bout Rick as he I am sure has an electric blanket in amonsgt his bling. I only hope the rivers have not risen too much for them. We wait now until 1700 hours for an update.
What could possibly go wrong!!
Cheers
Baz
Re: latest update
Brilliant write-up Baz, keep it coming when you can.
Me, Charlie and Ben couldn't stop laughing about Jarvo having to have a cold shower, especially as at that time Charlie was sitting in a lovely warm bubble bath. Understand you are having problems with the internet, but it is brilliant that some news is managing to get through. Richard, so far we have raised over £450 pounds for charity, and I still have loads of sponsorship forms that I havent even collected in yet. Raised £100 in Dog and Duck last night alone.
Love you
Tracy, Charlie and Ben
PS: Charlie says her steak pie in Dog and Duck was excellent, she was thinking of you, as she ate it.
Greetings from Cirencester!
Good to see more photos Pete. Tank driving sounded fab!
RIVER CROSSINGS
AS A SEASONED MAN OF MANY A RIVER CROSSINGS I AM DISAPOINTED TO SEE THAT THE 5 WISE MEN CAN'T SEE THE OBVIOUS, TO OVERCOME THE PROBLEM WITH EQUIPMENT AT HAND.
1.LAND ROVER CROSS RIVER!
2.SWIM BACK WITH WINCH!
3.INFLATE JARVO'S SLEEPING MAT TO 50.PSI
4.SECURE ALL BIKE'S & PERSONS TO MAT!
5.JOB DONE!
LAMMY IS STILL AT THE READY TO SCRAMBLE AT A MOMENTS NOTICE. KEEP UP THE GOOD WOOK LAD'S
amatol1
hi all i'm having a little trouble getting my head around this.how come there does'nt appear to be any problems updateing the gs owners club site but sadly not able to update this one.i realise you bmw owners need to know thoes tractors you ride are still going but come on lads 5 entries in 5 weeks.in the absence of recent information i hope you are all well.cheers daz