Follow the track

Day 19 of the expedition:

Distance Traveled: 24.3 km

Day 20 of the expedition:

Distance Traveled: 35.2

Position: N 45,21 E 104,03

Picture caption: up on the river bank just before entering the town of Sayhan Ovoo

We are uncertain as to exactly where we are. Come to think of it that saying has come out of fashion after the invention of the GPS. We know where we are; truthfully though, we have no clue where we should be, which is on the track to DelgerHangay, the next town on our route.

The last two days have felt very similar to this, trying to find our way through the hills on the patchwork system of roads. It has been somewhat challenging and time consuming. Yesterday the winds were favourable yet quite strong, kicking fine dust into the air and making the visibility poor. For the better part of the morning we were unable to find a track that traveled in the direction we wanted to head. The tracks act a bit like a drainage system, at first the track is merely a trace on the ground, barely an indentation but still void of vegetation. Then slowly it picks up other tracks of similar size, usually leading off to family gers; similar I suppose to driveways in north America. As the tracts join together they become deep so much so that at times the back axle of the trailer drags on the ground. And eventually they arrive at a destination, usually a town.

By late afternoon we arrived at the town of Sayhan-Ovoo, found the local well and filled our water bags for the next part of the journey. We were not in need of supplies, so after talking to the few locals that were intrigued by our odd set up, we headed out into a dust storm and quickly lost sight of the village. Within a few minutes, we came across a sign indicating there was a tourist ger camp 11 km down the road. This was the first road sign that we have seen the whole trip, and more importantly it confirmed a good meal. We had no intention of staying the night, after all the winds were still blowing strong and the moon would be out and almost full, we potentially had a long evening ahead of us.

The meal was delicious, mostly because it included a salad, something that we had not eaten in 20 days and a sort of large fried goat dumpling, all served with tea. The great taste of the meal was quickly overshadowed by the task of navigating. The first road that we took led strait into the mountains and quickly turned the wrong direction. No good. We hulled back along the road for about an hour and then took another track, which ended up doing somewhat of the same thing. By this time it was dark and we were riding a roller coaster of a track, ripping down hills, swerving out of control on soft sand, and climbing back up the next hill. When we eventually encountered power lines we decided to call it quits. It was quite dark, the moon was behind cloud cover and we could barely see the track. Maybe tomorrow with the sunlight we will be able to better find our way.

Eric

Kiting in the Gobi video

 

Half way!

Day 18

Distance traveled: 35.37 km

Day 19

Distance traveled: 31.18 km

Position: N45° 25 E103° 19

The small town of Togrog was just over 35 km ahead of us. Eric and I excitedly talked about what treats we should pick up. Because of the expensive cost of cargo, we had decided to pack out all our food (with the exception of 100 Camino chocolate bars) in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.

For such a huge town we were surprised about the lack of selection. We spent an entire day testing different food; none were very exciting. But we settled on a meal plan of oatmeal for breakfast and either rice or ramen noodles for dinner, with various powdered sauces that all taste roughly like salt. For snacks we had our delicious chocolate bars from home and we picked up granola bars and a variety of dried fruit and nuts.

Leaving our start point of Altay, we carried with us all our basic food for the entire expedition, planning to stop in small towns along the way to pick up treats and extras. And we have stopped at a couple ger's for the occasional local meal, which pretty much consists of meat and more meat (we are never sure what kind of meat) with a warm drink of salty milk tea.

The winds were teasing us in the morning. They blew strong till we were ready to travel, then died down to almost nothing. We could hear thunder in the distance and it grew louder as the dark rain clouds moved towards us. We quickly threw our gear back into the tent and waited for the storm to pass.

After the storm passed, the winds were back up and we launched our kites and made our way towards the small town. Arriving after dark, we set up camp just outside of Togrog. In the morning we headed in. Our first stop was to pick up water. The well was very obvious with a couple of locals and a small herd of cows surrounding it. We waited our turn to fill up our water bags and asked directions to the store. Inside, Eric and I were like two kids in a candy store! We picked up some potatoes and onions (the only veggies they had) some bread and an over sweetened version of Nuttella and cookies!!

With head winds, we hauled out of the town. We attempted tacking back and forth till the winds died down, and hauled into the night We have passed the half way mark! As the crow flies, we have covered 554 km, with only 539 km till our end location!

Sarah

Distance

Day 16 of the expedition

Distance traveled: 29.5 km

Position: N 45,13 E 101,33

Day 17 of the Expedition

Distance traveled: 80.5 km

Position: N 45,28 E 102,31

The last two days have shown great contrast. Yesterday was a slow and gruelling day with little wind. We still kited, but the attempt was rather sad and mostly involved a lot of waiting for the occasional gust of wind. During the gust, we would kite as fast and as far as we could until the kites inevitably fell out of the sky during a lull. Then we would begin waiting again. By afternoon it became apparent that there would be no more wind for the day; we had waited 30 minutes since the last gust. It was time to haul. In poor spirits we continued to haul into the night, eventually getting to bed around 1 am.

In the morning we woke early and set up the solar panels outside where they would begin collecting sunlight. The winds were just a breeze but it was obvious that this would be a kiting day. In our excitement, we ate and packed our gear quickly in order to get off at a decent hour.

Despite a wrong turn around mid day, which brought us further into the mountains than we would have liked, the terrain and winds cooperated. We made camp near night fall and finally checked the GPS for our distance traveled. 80 km! By far our longest day! If we were tired, we did not show it. We were excited but more importantly relieved. Since the beginning of the trip it had worried us that the winds or the terrain would prevent us from making more than 50 km in a day. Now at least we knew it was possible. Hopefully in the next few days to come, we will be able to beat that distance!

Eric

In search for better terrain

Day 14

Distance traveled: 44.6 km

Day 15

Distance traveled: 34.8 km

Position: N45 ° 13 E101° 11

 

Spring has arrived in the Gobi. Grass clumps and bushes spot the terrain and small flowers have started to bloom. To my right, the snow that covers the mountain tops slowly melts away. This is a magical and a beautiful country! Never in my windless dreams would I imagine kiting along with camels to one side and a heard of horses to the other.

The winds are still gusty and unpredictable. Both Eric and I have had our fair share of daily crashes (and scrapes and bruises!), but that has become the norm. The terrain is always changing, one minute we are cruising across a flat expanse, the next minute we are stuck in a salt march and are force to pull our buggies out.

Never knowing what's ahead has kept the trip challenging and interesting, but has made navigation hard. With us we have a couple set of maps, a compass and a GPS to help us find our way. But the challenge is finding good terrain. When we are lucky we can follow a road, which is little more than a dirt track. Other times we make our own way across the open country, trying to avoid salt marches, sand dunes and thorn bushes that grow so thick it's almost impossible to haul our buggies through.

Yesterday after spending the morning trying to find our way out of salt marches, we found good terrain and kited into the small town of Jinst. This is the first real town we've visited - with electricity, a store and a school. It didn't take people long to notice us, and soon we were surrounded as kids and teachers poured out of the nearby school. One young lady who worked as a teacher spoke English. Immediately we were invited into her home for juice and cookies. The kids followed us, and practiced the English they knew telling us their names and age. We showed them pictures of home. The picture that intrigued them the most was one of narwhals. The young teacher explained to us that for most of the kids, we were the first foreigners they had met. It wasn't till two hours later that we waved goodbye to our host, leaving her a children's book on the Canadian Arctic for her and her students. It was the least we could do. Everywhere we have been, people have gone out of their way to invite us into their homes. The kids followed us out of town, watching us unroll our kites. We said "bayartai" which is Mongolian for good bye and kited away.

Today the terrain was ever changing and the winds were light. We kited when we could, hauling when the winds or terrain would force us to. As the stars came up, we hauled into the night listening to the Rolling Stones on our little speakers.

Sarah