I'm not Seb...

But.. The southern route can be done on almost any bike. Last summer, south of Olgii there was quite a bit of construction. Heading East out of Olgii or north will be more enjoyable I think. You can go anywhere in Mongolia with a dominator. Like many have said before, the southern route gets most of the traffic. I found in Mongolia, the worst roads were the ones with lots of traffic. The barely used 2 tracks in B.F.M. are relatively smooth and fast because they are not beat to crap. But, no matter where you go, it will be awesome. Because its Mongolia. I had about a month in Mongolia and Altai and I wish I had more. Its a beautiful country with beautiful people.

Thank you Noah,
I read many times about the southern route being full of traffic and with many roadworks, that's why I would like to take the central at least after Altai City, maybe before.

cristiano

What he said... :scooter:

The great thing about Mongolia is there are not 2 routes. There are infinite routes defined by fuel stations and distance between them. You can play "connect the dots" with towns/cities and make your own route. Even when I was trying to take the "southern route" and for about a day and a half I was 50 km north on some nice tracks. I took a wrong turn and didn't realize it. The main thing is, get the "central asia GPS points" in your GPS, go where you want, and have a good time. You will be able to find fuel with just a tiny bit of looking ahead.

Agreed.

It is not that there are just the main routes, then pristine, trackless steppe.

Whilst it is (in the south and east) often possible to just drive in a given direction, it is better to just follow a general direction on the endless number of small tracks. When one set of tracks changes direction for no apparent reason, just connect to another. You'll meet Mongolians in isolated gers, who will look at you as if you have just ridden a giant ostrich from Jupiter, but they are friendly and helpful.

In areas where there are no tracks, it may indicate that you are heading for a boggy area, a deep river, or a steep hill. By driving in such areas you are also further scarring the landscape.

Ohh! I almost forgot. I was riding one track to try and get to a lake. But it hit dunes instead. I rode along a dry river for a while and the track kindoff went away. About 1 km from where I was, there were gers so I headed for them. I had to go through some of the bumpiest clumps of grass/sinking in a bog/thought I would loose the bike. I finally came to one ger and a old lady looked at me. I tried to ask where the road was and she was nothing but blank stare. I followed the track and finally found a road again.

But what he said, there are some places you don't want to go through... some places don't have tracks for a reason. But tracks are just about everywhere you need to be.

I was also surprised how good the OSM maps were. They had quite a few of the little 2 tracks on them. They were not quite caught up to the new construction.. but they were good. Better then the paper map I had.

+1 for comment about the osm gps map and also Walter's waypoint list. Much better than the fiction that are the available paper maps.

Going the northern route is much better scenery wise. Olgii - Ulaangom - Murun or Olgii - Ulaangom - Tsetserleg. If you go middle route through Tsetserleg, it's paved road now all the way to UB for 460 km, which means a lot of traffic. The river north of Achit Lake is called Yamaatiin River. It depends on how much rain the area had a few days prior to your arrival. We don't get weeks of rain in Mongolia. It also depends on how hot the weather has been as the river is fed by glaciers from Mount Kharkhiraa & Mount Turgen. If you need up to date info on the conditions, you can contact me on info@adventuresmongolia.mn From time time I'm on trips in the countryside, but I'll be able to help most of the times. Goodluck & Cheers. Gana

300Km? Is that for most of Mongolia or just in specific areas?

Thanks

300km, yes, thats a good guide for most of Mongolia. I wouldn't advise going there with less.

Take a look at the waypoints file. Work out where you want to go based on infrastructure. Will there be fuel, for example.

As far as the sometimes uncrossable river between Tsagaannuur and Ulaangom, there is a simple fix. Go via Olgiy. The track from Olgiy to Ulaangom, the Khotgor Track, can be funky in places but has many beautiful scenic spots along the way. So for anyone planning the Northern Route, plan via Olgiy and you avoid the biggest potential problem.

Hi Seb,
In May, we will be in Mongolia and we are looking for the best route. We are interested about your loop Altai - Uliastai - Tosontsengel - Tsetserleg. This route seem very nice. A track to follow on our GPS will be really helpful to drive over there. Can you send us your GPX file ?
Thank you for that and thanks for all informations on the Hubb.

Get in touch through > info -at- wanderingsouls -dot- be < and I'll see if I can find the tracks again "somewhere" on one of the hard disks.... ;-)

And you are most welcome about the info, we try to share what we can.

I can also recommend this route like Seb did.

In my opinion much nicer from the landscape than the northern route via Ulangom.

Did it also in 2013 and liked it a lot :mchappy:

I recommend the northern route, I did it solo back in 2012 on an XT600E (No offroad experience). As has been said the first river before Ulaangom can be tricky if it has rained recently. I just about managed after beaching myself on the mud on the otherside, there are local shepherds around to help you out.

And then after the rivers it's nice off-piste riding to the lake and onwards to Ulaangom.
http://i.imgur.com/1bvBeOs.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/uiF2bFl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/rfMgcdk.jpg

I have done the route like Seb did ( Southern, then from Altai north and then Centerroute ) in 2013 and I did the northern route in 2015.

And that is the reason, why I would personally prefer the route south and Center
In my opinion much nicer landscape and view.

But that is just my opinion