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

High winds and dismal terrain

Day 12 of the expedition

Distance traveled: 36.2

Day 13 of the expedition

Distance traveled: 48.1

Position: N 45 28 E 100 16

We woke up still in the sand storm with a covering of dust over all our gear. The dust oozes through the zippers and eventually settles on our sleeping bags and tent floor. Even the slightest movement causes the dust to leap back into the air obscuring our vision and choking our lungs. By mid morning however the storm had settled enough to make forward progress. For most of the morning the winds stayed constant and strong, allowing us to fly our 4 meter Flow's at a generally good clip. We were traveling off-road and navigating by GPS and map, slowly making our way to an area marked on the map as sandy. Once we got there we had the option of keeping off road or continuing through the sand.

By 4 in the afternoon it became apparent that we had missed the road. It also became apparent exactly what "sandy" really denoted on the map. There was indeed sand, but it posed only a minor discomfort. The difficulty lay with the small shrubs growing in the sand. As the shrubs grew, they collected sand at their base, placing each small shrub atop a mound. At first this made for a rough ride, bouncing along the ground with the sound similar to running over potato chips on a bike. But eventually the mounds became bigger, and every bump would send the rider skyward. We were flying our 10 meter Mantas at this point, hoping that the larger kites would keep our momentum going even over the bumps, which they did but at a cost.

Near sun down it became apparent, after being lifted out of the buggy 8 times and having a row of bruises on my leg, that kiting in this terrain with the dimming light was becoming futile. We pulled the buggies, sometimes on all fours, to a location flat enough to pitch a tent.

 

The next morning we woke to a Mongolian making a significant amount of noise outside our tent, untouchably trying to wake us. It was 6 in the morning. He was a delightful man and with his energetic use of hand signs and interpretive dance, our conversation lasted longer than most. The early morning was a bonus in many ways, the winds were strong and this would have made for great sailing. However due to the terrain we were restricted to pulling our buggies in hopes of finding a road.

By mid day with our monocular we spotted a van traveling fast over the horizon. Our hopes soared, a van moving that fast over this terrain must be traveling on a road! An hour later we managed to converge with the small dust track.

The rest of the day went well except for a small run in with a salt march. We managed to kite till the sun set and make some miles to prove it. Hopefully we will be able to keep up the distance for the next few days.

In closing I should mention that we will most likely update every two days, as with Curtis' responsibility now divided between the two of us and a larger focus on making distance, we have been short of both time and electricity. If either of these situation change in the next few days, we will continue posting updates daily.

Eric

Only two of us

May 25 and 26^th

Day 10 and 11

Distance traveled: 51 km

Position: N45 ° 51 E099° 21

Only a couple of days ago we were a three person team, all working for the same goal. Today we are only two. Sadly Curtis has decided to leave early due to family reasons. As soon as the decision was made, the ball started rolling fast - flights were changed and a pick up was arranged.

As soon as the winds increased, we launched our kites, heading west, aiming towards a river and a small settlement of a couple gers, where Curtis would meet his driver and head back to the city. The winds blew steady all afternoon, giving us hope of reaching the river that day. But 5 km away the sun dipped below the horizon and the winds faded out.

We got into the small settlement early the next day, with time to spare before Curtis left. So we headed to a nearby ger for meat dumpling and milk tea, then went down to the river to wash and start re-organizing all our gear.

Eric and I met Curtis over three years ago, when he moved to our home town to work as a pharmacist. He quickly picked up dog sledding and kite skiing and became a good friend. The three of us headed to Greenland on a kite skiing expedition and shared an amazing 45 days of expedition life together. It was sad to see him leave this expedition early. 

Eric and I will continue on.

The driver stood there waiting for us to say our goodbyes. We hugged and said some parting words, before they closed the doors to the van and started their two day drive back to Ulaanbaatar. As it was still early in the evening we had hoped to continue kiting till the sun set, but as the van pulled away the winds soared into a vicious sand storm that lasted the rest of the night. 

We wish Curtis all the best and safe travel home.

Sarah