Questing for Dunes

Part 2 of Mongolia Honeymoon starts (and ends?) in Dalanzadgad, the provincial capital of Ömnögovi Aimag, where we took a rest after riding the cold highway down from Ulaanbaatar in the country’s center.

We had some audacious plans for our Gobi section of the trip. After idling a few days and route planning at a ger hostel (think a row of yurts, Mongol-style, with a shared bathroom), we were going to challenge ourselves to ride deep into the desert, off-road, on our loaded bikes to reach the Khongoryn Els, a magnificent range of sand dunes in the Gobi Gurvan Saikhan National Park.

This would require loading water and food for 110km each way, from the last town nearby, Bayandalai to the tourist camps out at the dunes and leave on a different road to Bulgan, another town known for its “Flaming Cliffs” we’d see after. This section’s logistics scared me a bit, especially with an illness upon Claire taxing her stamina and the cold front in the Gobi dissipating and bringing highs back into the 30s, but we’d opt for it regardless.

Setting out from DZ to Bayandalai wasn’t very long, some 90km of paved road through the scenic Yolyn Am mountains, where ice can persist into summer, but it came with a trial. The pass featured a 750m climb on our snack-laden bikes, which proved a breaker of spirits for the day. An hour-long downhill glide to town was nice but brought us in exhausted.

I had high hopes to make the 110km on gravel to the dunes in one day, and out the next similar distance to the town of Bulgan. That turned out to be naive. The gravel road that heads to the dunes is a washboarded, sandy nightmare that took twice the effort for half the distance of pavement, plus our huge water carry of about 8L each and food for 4 days. We made it about halfway to the dunes on day 1, passing naught but a few gers, and one helpful truck driver who had us some water, snacks and soda.

I set a disciplined start for us at sunrise, and we soon found our first flowing water in the desert to filter. A nice surprise for two thirsty cyclists! Road conditions too improved after a dire start mired in sand, and another visit by our guardian angel truck driver on his return gave a good morale boost with a second soda and water refill for each of us. We seemed like we were gonna make it. Alas, it wasn’t to be.

I had gotten a flat tire going into Dalanzadgad and another leaving Bayandalai, with nothing conclusive as to why. This day pummeled me with 4 flats and exhausted my repair kit when we discovered the spare rubber glue had evaporated. I was stuck. Fortunately, by this time we had sight of the dunes and were less than 10km from a nearby resort. We made camp deflated but resolute.

Claire was able to come to my rescue the next morning with a heroic ride through the sand while I waited with our gear. An hour later, she came back in a jeep with some worried owners. The sun had come up pretty high by then and the shade from the tower of bags I set up had waned. We got extracted to safety at the Gobi Discovery Camp and spent the next two days relaxing in shade with wifi and sodas before getting a ride out.

We had made it to the dunes. It still felt like a win to see this worthy natural landmark. They are an impressive feature from afar but up close really leave an impression. We hired another ride up to see an oasis right at the foot of the dunes further west in the midday heat and walked up ourselves before dawn the next morning to see the changing characteristics of the sands and the geometry of shadows. Simply, they are a treasure.

Regarding the bike, we determined the repeated flats had to be caused by exposed spoke holes due to my rim tape failing and were despondent about having to return to Ulaanbaatar to get the goods. Several contacts and local businesses were rallying to help us secure items for my kit without having to return. The only shop here in DZ had but a single compatible tube and a repair kit.

For more tubes and the needed rim tape, Saikhana, who drove us from the resort (and acted as dunes tour guide again on the way), was able to look in UB for us, since he had dropped us off on his way home for a holiday with his family. Rim tape seems very hard to find anywhere, but he at least got the tubes and had them shipped via Mongolia’s informal delivery network of drivers going one way or the other and dropping cargo as needed.

We scrounged electrical tape to hopefully work as a replacement, and then were off. Even with so much help, it still seemed like we might not be able to take off again since my tire was so stubborn to mount with the ad-hoc tape that it took 2 hours of grueling, dispiriting struggle to finally reseat it, with our miserly hosts eyeing us out the door as we were well past checkout.

We’ve now set off northwest for the Khangai Mountains, not quite sure if our ad hoc rim tape and newly stubborn tire are going to get us out of the Gobi, though Claire at least has gotten antibiotics. We’re praying to the gods for no more issues for the remaining month we have in Mongolia!

Postscript: After a day cycling out, another flat occurred. The faux rim tape melted in the 30-degree heat and likely the spoke holes pierced the inner tube yet again. The cheap repair kit glue got pierced in my bag and evaporated again to add to the comedic error of the affair. Amazingly, I was able to cycle back to Dalanzadgad with a bare rim. We’ve decided this leg of the trip is over and we’re headed to Ulaanbaatar via night taxi to find rim tape and get the wheel examined. Tune in next time to see where and when we pick up the journey.