I'm trying to plan a trip from Ulgii in western Mongolia to somewhere around Ulaanbator in June/July. Does anyone have any info on a route like this? Any advice on looping north through the forests or going straight eastward through the steppes? Thanks for the info.
Bill
West-east Mongolia
月, 2011-01-03 16:47
#1
WS Member
West-east Mongolia
I was in Mongolia last summer so I can tell you a few things. Olgii/Ulaangom to Ulan Bator was the initial plan but changed on the go for a logistically easier in central Mongolia. The problem is getting to the far west is either an expensive (and apparently easily booked out) fly or a monster 2 non-stop days (and nights) in a crowded bus/van. Anyway, I wouldn't hesitate to try again in the future as the mongolian far west is so enticing.
On our tour, we met some bicycle travellers who came from the Olgii area. They were saying the "roads" (no tarmac at all) are usually worse than those in central Mongolia and there are really tough parts. Settlements and general habitation are also more scarce than the area I travelled through which means a bit of a logistical problem about food and water.
The northern route is apparently more scenic and more forgiving as far as weather goes in the summer time as the southern route borders the desert and gets really hot. It's also shorter. Last summer apparently (from reports from other cyclists) communication between Olgii and Ulaangom was shut due to a missing bridge after some serious floods, check if that route is open before commiting to it. These cyclists said they went instead through Khovd, then Altai and then linked to the northern route through Uliastay and reported they loved all of it, including the supposedly less scenic, more monotonous southern route portion.
I don't know how much you know about Mongolia or about cycling there so I won't go into info you may already have. Ask away any specific (or general) questions you may have, I'll try to answer as best I can.
Mongolia is an amazing place for travelling and particulary cycling feels like the right way of doing it if you like the open spaces and the freedom of a huge place with no fences.
I biked from Zamyn-Uud to Olgii and really, it was challenging. There are no real roads and the maps are all horrible. I highly recommend you pick up the Mongolian Road Atlas but as far as I know you can only find this at the State Department store in Ulaanbaatar. Maybe you can find it online? I'm sorry I didn't hold onto mine but I didn't want to carry around the extra weight for the rest of the tour or I'd send it to you. There are no road signs and the "roads" are constantly shifting. It isn't always so easy to just go with the most worn dirt road as these can easily deadend in the middle of a field. You really have to ask people along the way what road to take etc. but this isn't always easy as there isn't much traffic so you can easily spend hours waiting around for someone to come by. The "roads" can be painful. Maybe I'm just not that talented a bicyclist but I found myself pushing the bike through a lot of areas. Truth be told, I'm one of those people that can get lost walking from the kitchen to bathroom, so perhaps it was a lot more challenging for me than it would be for someone with a naturally good sense of direction? I had to accept at a certain point a very high level of "I think this could possibly be right" and "this is definitely not right and I'm lost". If I recall correctly Erin and Sam from http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=RrzKj&doc_id=3259&v=2El did the northern route so maybe you could contact them for information and read through their journal? Good luck!
u can consider flyign to almaty in kazak then u take train to ustkamengorsk adn then fly to ulgi on an 24 about 2 or 3 hr fligth and im not sure of the price buti can get it for u ifu need it ,i am airline pilot workign here and i fly to ust kamengorsk all the time ,it costs 50 buchs for visa in kazak and fro mongolia im sure u know the cost of that visa.then u can hed aoff from ulghi i was also lookign at doign yoru trip ,but as yet i haven torganised my myself,i fu need any info gettign there from kazak to ulghi let me knowi will find out for u. ucan aslo consider cyclign from novsobirsk thur the altai to ulghi and on to ulan batattar thats is a beautiful trip u can find lot of stories on that in www.crazyguyonabike.com
i have friend in ulan batar who runs trekkign and bike trips in mongolia his name is peter wenig he can give u lot of info as well
regarsd tas,
the name of the airline that does the flights is scat.kz
if u need his email let me know,he has maps fro sale a bit exxy but they good i heard.