Hi all

We are being forced to ride from China into Mongolia via the Takishant border crossing and from there to UB

Has anyone done this using the southern road? I have the OSM maps but there is nothing there

Anyone have any tracks I can use as a guide, and or info about fuel etc?

I have all the Asia waypoints as supplied by Colebatch(thanks) but these are more the middle route, which we may end up on, but if I had some user tracks I could start calculating the time it will take us to transit

Cheers from Almaty
TravellingStrom

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www.travellingstrom.com

Richard,

Do you mean the Tashanta border crossing?

Last year I went down S. Gobi using the route shown on the map at:

https://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?m...008,153.984375

and it is described at:

awayonmybike.adventureriders.com.au/

I was coming from UB and the route and km readings were:

07/09/11 Wednesday Ulan Bator
08/09/11 Thursday Near Hadatuul 38,870
09/09/11 Friday Near Togrod 39,113
10/09/11 Saturday Near Mandal Ovoo 39,322
11/09/11 Sunday NearBayandalay 39,517
12/09/11 Monday Khongor 39,619
13/09/11 Tuesday Khongor
14/09/11 Wednesday Gurvantes 39,790
15/09/11 Thursday Near AlagDund bulag 39,920
16/09/11 Friday Bayantsagaan 40,120
17/09/11 Saturday Burgus Oasis 40,293
18/09/11 Sunday Altay 40,450
19/09/11 Monday Altay
20/09/11 Tuesday Near Darvi 40,700
21/09/11 Wednesday Khovd 40,900
22/09/11 Thursday Olgii 41,130


So 16 days and about 3000kms. Where it says "near..." we were camping the rest were small hotels or ger camps. The middle bit (between about the 10th and the 16th) was, by my standards, fairly tough going on a KLR650 but I made it. I don't think I would have coped on a VStrom (assume thats what you are riding) but a good rider in reasonable weather might. I did it with two other riders and myself would not do it on my own there is some empty country down there - but the scenery and people were fantastic.

If you want the way points for the places I camped at night I can probably get those off my GPS tomorrow night (out of town at the moment)- let me know by replying or a PM. I didn't really use my GPS, except in compass mode, so don't have my full route recorded but I found the OSM when I checked seemed to have a lot of the tracks I used marked. We navigated the old fashioned way with maps and asking the locals - however of the five maps we had of Mongolia none agreed exactly on which places were linked to which by track, so there was a lot was suck it and see. The great thing in Mongolia is when you find a track is not heading where you want you can often correct yourself by riding a compass bearing until you pick up a track that seems to be going the right way. Fuel was usually available every 150km or less - but we did have one place where the station was dry and we had to wait around for a day. Water availability was the same in the furthest south regions. Many of the local maps have fuel stops marked on them (but with varying accuracy) - its a case of fill up regularly the problems only come when you decide you can push on pass this one and stop at the next. By the way outside the town it is all 76 octane only - although many fuel stops seem to sell octane booster.


Enjoy your trip - I'm envious. One year later I'm stuck back in the office saving for my next one.

__________________
Martin

finally back on the road again


http://awayonmybike.blogspot.com/

Hi and thanks for your reply

I could not get that first link to work, it just opens a generic google map of OZ, but I did manage to look at the map on your blog page. From what I can see you are up north and taking the north and middle route, so it will not help me much at all.

We will be entering Mongolia from China at this border point

Takeshikenzhen, Altay, Xinjiang, China


The one you mention is way up north.

Cheers for the info though

TS

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www.travellingstrom.com

The route marked on the OSM that you are calling 'middle route' is the 'South Route'.

I can't find that border crossing you are talking about, but there is a road that runs from China, though to the village of Mankhan (about 100ks from Khovd) that joins the route marked on OSM, It is marked kinda on OSM but you will only see it at higher zoom levels. It is a actually becoming a major road as the Chinese are build a new road through here. You mention Altay which is the west of Mongolia so this may the road you need so I think you will need to ride up to this road from China border crossing.

Maybe PM Walter Colebatch, he may know.

Tashanta is not the one you want, this the crossing from Russia.

Worse case follow the tire tracks that head in right direction and ask the locals, if this is a multilateral border traffic to major towns (for want of a better word) will go this way.

BTW make sure you bike is happy on 80 octane petrol. It might all you can get in smaller villages.

How are you riding through China? I've heard that it's impossible to be licensed/registered to do that without an escort?

Apologies to those who tried the map link on my first post and found it didn't work - should have checked it. I think it works correctly now. Route was to the south but exited up North.

__________________
Martin

finally back on the road again


http://awayonmybike.blogspot.com/