What Bikepacking in Mongolia Is Really Like | Rebecca Gross

If you've ever wondered what travelling through Mongolia would be like this episode is going to take you righ there. This week Rebecca Gross is giving us an update from her bike adventures through Mongolia. Think of huge, open landscapes, river crossings, dreamy wildcamps, sandy roads, headwinds, yurts everything! 

Be sure to follow Rebecca via her instagram - @rebecca_grb and watch her bike adventure unfold. 

Check out Old Man Mountain's Ponderosa Panniers

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:24

Hello everyone, it's Bella Malloy here, host of Seek Travel Ride, and welcome back to another midweek episode. These episodes are designed to keep your fire and fuel for Wonderlust and bike travel stoked. It's also a way for me to share stories from our listeners in a view of inspiring you to take your own bike journey as well. That's very apt for this week because I have another update coming from Intrepid Adventurer Rebecca Gross. If you're new to the podcast, I should let you know that we have been tracking Rebecca's adventure since she left her home in Austria with her partner Harvey, and her destination at that point was the Pamirs. Now Rebecca had been tuning into Seek Travel Ride as inspiration to take on some bike travel for herself, and so we have been enjoying getting periodic updates along her travels and seeing where her adventure has taken her. No one tells Rebecca's story better than Rebecca does, so we're gonna get right into it, and I'm gonna let you know that this update is letting us know all about her time crossing the country of Mongolia. So take it away, Rebecca.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Hello. Finally, it's time for the adventure from Mongolia. It has already been about three weeks when we left this country, but I don't want you to miss out on this adventure. So this time I want to tell you how Mongolia has been for us. When we first entered the country, and right after the border, we could enjoy the famous tailwind. Everyone we met and everyone who told us about Mongolia came the other direction and told us that we will have the best tailwind ever. And always when someone tells us that we will have tailwind, it's always wrong. We still end up having headwind. But on this day, we had so strong tailwinds that we just were flying into the first village of Mongolia. I mean, it was almost the only day we had tailwind, so it wasn't quite true what people told us, but at least we got to enjoy it this day when we arrived. And it's also funny when you meet other cyclists in Mongolia, and there are quite a few, because the first topic you will always talk about is the wind. And wind seems pretty important in Mongolia because it's pretty strong. And the cyclists start talking about wind, like they are checking wind apps, and they try to decide at what time to leave in the morning to have the best wind, and when it is strong, and at what time of the day it turns. So I got the feeling we are not cyclists anymore, rather than windsurfers or sailors. So it was quite funny how important this topic for cyclists was. And we just learned that it's always headwind. Sometimes it's a bit of tailwind, but most of the time it's super strong headwind. And yeah, in Mongolia you have to accept the wind. Another important topic was the route. You either have the north route or the south route. And since Mongolia was never our plan, we also had no plan which route to take or where it is beautiful or which way is better, which way has less traffic. And we were pretty lucky already in Kyrgyzstan when we met Connor, a fellow bikepacker. So he came the other direction. And he was riding a really, really beautiful route in Mongolia. He told us so much about it. He told us which villages to pass, and he said it is the most epic landscape he has ever seen. So it was clear to us that we want to see this landscape, and also it was not the main road which we always are happy not to take, and it's actually a valley and a dirt road beside the main road. So the direction is the same, and we ended up in the same place we wanted to go to, just the road less traveled. He told us the landscape is beautiful, but the road is in it's in a bad condition. It's not actually a road, it's gravel. And what he told us is that at the beginning it's a bit sandy, but the rest is quite okay. So we have never had sand. We had some pretty bad roads in the Palmeirs, in Kyrgyzstan, also in Kazakhstan, so we were prepared, but we haven't been prepared for the sand and for the corrugation. So the first day, and then some days in between, we had very sandy stretches where we had to push our bikes a lot, and pushing a bike in the sand is just very exhausting because the bike sinks in, you sink in, and it's just so hard to get out of the sand. And often when you have the sandy stretches, you're able to find a bit of a better road on the side, but this often means corrugation. So sometimes we had days where we're going from one stretch to the another stretch between sand and corrugation and sand and even worse corrugation. And since corrugation is there because of the wind, you have often sand, corrugation, and wind. And it's a really terrible combination, but we managed it. But I just want to say Mongolia is very difficult to write. With this said, I also want to say Mongolia is probably the most unexpected country we have been. You expect from Mongolia desert, the endless steppe, and not a lot of beautiful or changing landscape. I always thought it's rather boring, and so I was really, really surprised by the landscape we discovered in Mongolia. So we were riding this valley west to the main road. And the first day was sandy. We saw the river a bit far away, so we had to cope with some really difficult hours. But by midday we reached the river, which was just amazing. It was a valley almost like a canyon because it was very narrow. And on the bottom of this canyon was a river. The water was so clear, it was blue. Beside there was grass, there were trees. It looked like an oasis, and it was an oasis. It was just so unexpected and so beautiful. So along this river, we followed it the first two days. There were endless picnic spots, endless sleeping spots. We were just amazed. And on top of that, we have seen probably two cars and one motorbike the whole day. So we had this whole valley to ourselves. It was just amazing. The downside of such difficult roads is that we had some flat tires these days. We haven't had flat tires almost never on this trip, but entering Mongolia, it happened almost daily, and it was so annoying. But it was not only us who had to who had these flat tires, also this one motorbike who passed us. Later we found them beside the road, and they also had a flat tire. It was already late in the evening. We were already looking for a camp spot, so the sun was about to set, and they didn't have a pump. And the next village, supposedly the village they wanted to reach, was about 70 kilometers away. So if we wouldn't have been there, I just don't know what they would have done because there was also no reception for the phone, and they obviously had no tent or bivak. So we could pump up their tyre and help them, which was really cool because normally we are the ones who receive help, but this time we could give something back, and they were really happy that our pump worked, and so yeah, they could reach the village before the sunset. And what we did before the sunset is choosing a perfect camp spot. There were hundreds of camp spots, but we wanted to have the best one. After this rough day, we just felt we deserve a perfect camp spot, and so we found a very small island in the river. It was easy to reach, the river wasn't deep, so we could go over there and had our own private camping island where we set up camp, and this day we slept without the tent fly so we could see the stars. By night we were completely alone. We just could hear some birds and it was epic, like Connor told us. So the next few days we followed the same valley. The river was just until the next village where we had some problems to find bread, because our main thing we always buy is bread, so we don't have to cook twice a day, and because the other problem was to get water on the way, so if you cook twice a day, you need more water, but we thought there is no river, so we had to carry water for two or three days again. At the end, there was a river, same story, like in the Palmiers. We carried a lot of water for nothing, but thinking that there won't be water and we shouldn't use too much of it, we just needed to buy food which doesn't have to be cooked, and for us it is bread, and it was actually the first time on this trip we couldn't find bread. Everyone in Mongolia is baking their own bread, and we already know this from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, but there is always still someone in the village who sells you their own bread, but somehow nobody had bread left. Some students helped us, they told us sit down in the restaurant, have something to eat, and in the meantime, we will try to find bread for you. We were so thankful, and our mind was blown away by how friendly the Mongolians are, but they unfortunately came back telling us that there is no bread left in town. So I went to a shop owner and I could convince him to call probably the whole town, asking around who can bake bread for us. And the next day at 7 in the morning, he had three big loaves of bread for us. And it was amazing to see that people who don't know you are willing to help and to find a solution. So, with bread in our backs, we could leave this village and go further up the valley. We had the worst headwind ever. It was sandy, there was corrugation, and we had so bad headwind. Harvey was carrying probably 18 liters of water again and fighting against the wind. It only got better when we had a steep climb ahead of us, only to find out that there is a river, and the river was going until the place where we set up our tent. So it was completely useless again to carry so much water, but it's better to have more water than less water, I think. So yeah, we were following another river up a beautiful valley. We saw a lot of animals, a lot of eagles, and luckily we found some stone walls to set up our tent because we were already very high. It was in front of one mountain pass we have to cross the next day, and we actually didn't realize how cold it already gets in the night, and it was so so windy, like every evening. So we were happy to have these stone walls. We built up a bit of a stone wall ourselves, so it was perfect, and we were protected during the night. And the next day we found out it was freezing, it was below zero at night because the tent was frozen, our water was frozen. So the first few hours riding up the pass were very cold and well, unexpectedly cold. So we were happy when the sun came out and we were on top of the pass, and we had this beautiful view. We saw glaciers, we saw high mountains. It was just amazing, and again, a landscape we just didn't expect to see in Mongolia. The rest of the day after the pass, we had to solve a lot of issues. First, his bags we bought in China, they broke. So we tried to fix them with zip tires. Then the low rider he bought in China also broke, so we just could not fix it with zip ties anymore, so we had to put everything which was in the bags in our bags at the rarex. Then he somehow lost some parts of the break, which we luckily had with us. But this day Havi really had bad luck, and we just had the sensation that Mongolia really is testing us. So somehow we reached the next town and we're trying to look for bread again, and a huge rain and sandstorm occurred. It was pitch black in the sky, and we just knew we can't camp out there without shelter. So, luckily, when we found the bread, the shop owner, he asked, Where are you going to sleep? And he asked me in English, and I was so surprised that someone knows English. And so I asked him if there is some shelter, and he was really happy talking to us. He said, Come to my house. I have a big yurt in the garden, and you can sleep there. And again, we were amazed by the Mongolians. He just invited us home. He knew that we needed help, and he gave us the place to sleep. We had a lot of tea and some Mongolian food, and then his mom cooked dinner, and we had the most Mongolian food you can ever imagine. It was horse meat with lamb meat, and that's it. It was meat with meat. There was no rice, there was no bread, there was no soup, no nothing. There was just meat. And luckily, we are not vegetarians, and we ate a bit of the meat, and we just were hoping that our stomach is fine the next day, which was, and it was actually delicious. But we already have heard that they are eating only meat in Mongolia, and this was our proof that that it's true. So after reaching this village, we had, I think, two days to get to a bigger city where we took some rest and where we could plan a bit of the next stretch which would lead us over two beautiful and big lakes, and it was amazing. It was again very rough. We had a lot of corrugation, we had a lot of wind. Luckily, there was no rain. We saw a lot of rain in the mountains, but it was always ahead of us. So we had some beautiful rainbows we were riding towards, and it was beautiful and again unexpected. Our camp spots were always beside a lake, and hearing the waves when you lie in the tent, it's just very peaceful, and also nothing we thought we would hear when we are in Mongolia. So these three days along the lakes and over some mountain passes were very hot, and this time I wasn't so lucky. I had a lot of problems one day, so my wind jacket ripped, and then my handle bar bag also was broken. Then again, one screw of the wreck broke, but we could luckily fix this with a zip tie. And when we reached tarmac and were so happy that we are on tarmac again, we faced so bad headwind and a flat tyre again. And this day was just again proof that we can solve every problem, and a proof that we are able to solve any problem which will occur. Like if there is something breaking down or not going as we want it to go, we are not even blinking with the eye anymore. It's okay. We see the problem and we instantly are thinking about a solution. There is no mental breakdown, there is no nothing. It's just the problem, we need a solution, and there will always be a solution. Always. We have never had a situation where there is no solution. And with this in mind, any problem doesn't seem so big anymore. We know there will be a solution. We don't know the solution yet, but a bit of thinking, a bit of trying, you will come to the solution. And it's always like that, and probably keeping this in mind for The whole life probably helps a bit of not seeing problems very dramatic. They can be solved always. And Mongolia really teached us this. And I think it's really cool to keep this in mind. And I hope I can keep this in mind also for after this trip. So with every problem solved, and with beautiful pictures from Western Mongolia, we headed to Central Mongolia. And we cheated a bit and we took a bus because it was about 600 kilometers through this famous endless Mongolian steppe. And as a mountain lover, the steppe is certainly not your happiest place. So it was just clear to us that we will just try to save some time and take a bus. Which took us to the famous Orkon Valley. It's well known amongst cyclists. It's a valley where there are a lot of different routes, there are a lot of river crossings, and there are beautiful green hills and a lot of things to explore. And seeing this landscape, I somehow remembered when I have heard about Mongolia first. It was probably 10 or like 15 years ago, a long time ago. But I remember that there was some tourist group visiting Mongolia on horses, and they were going from Jurt to Yurt, and in between there was just nothing. I could see the green hills, this beautiful landscape, and I just thought to myself, wow, I would love to see this landscape. It's so different than anything I know. It looks so relaxing and quiet. And I just wanted to see it. So in this documentary, there were this tourist group on the horse. And I thought, like, there is nothing. You go from yurt to yurt, and in between, there is nothing. You just have to trust yourself. And they ate in the yurts, and every day one of the group got food poisoned. And I also thought, no, no, I think Mongolia is impossible to visit. Like, how would you visit? I don't like horses, and I don't drive motorcycles, and it didn't seem like you could visit it on your own. Or you have to be a very brave adventurer to visit such a country. And I'm certainly not this kind of person. So I always thought it would be nice to see Mongolia, but I also knew I won't see this country. And then riding my bike in those green hills, I realized I can visit this country. And now it seems that I'm an adventurer and I'm able to visit any country I want to visit. And I was really proud of myself coming to such a country where I thought I wouldn't be able to see. We also passed a monastery high up in on a hill. You had to walk for maybe one hour through the woods, and suddenly there was this monastery. It was very small, it was made out of wood. There were a lot of colours and this famous spraying flags. And it was just so surreal to see such a colourful place in the middle of the woods on a green hill. And it was really cool to explore this area. So up on the monastery we had some terrible instant coffee and made our way down again, riding a bit out of the valley and again sleeping on an island. We found a bit of a bigger island this time in a river, and the river was easy to cross, so we set camp again on our private island. The next morning we enjoyed some breakfast while our tent could dry a bit, and also knowing this would be one of probably our last days in such a calm and relaxing landscape, and in such a beautiful landscape. Because this day we would reach the next town out of the valley, and then our plan was to reach Ulambator as fast as possible. Because after this Orkon Valley, the landscape again was the endless step, and we wanted to avoid it because it was again about 500 kilometers along the main road, and with a lot of traffic, because it was close to Ulambatore. So we could luckily get a car which brought us to the city. And this is how our adventure came to an end. And when we have been in Ulambator, we went to the supermarket and bought everything we wanted to eat so much for the last weeks and also for the last months. Because surprisingly, Ulambator was amazing in terms of food. In the supermarket, you could find everything you want, and everything you would find in Europe at home. Normal bread. Bread I would find at home. My favorite chocolate. We went to Pizza Hut. I have never been to Pizza Hut, but we have been in Olambator. We ordered so much, I think it was for six persons, and we ordered it and we ate everything. We just couldn't get enough of having normal good food. And after cooking for I think it was two or three weeks in Mongolia, and always cooking the same pasta with tomato sauce and some tuna, we just couldn't get enough of food. And we really enjoyed our days in Ulampatore. We then booked a train to leave the country, and it was really funny because we actually didn't know what to expect from the train. We just knew that it is about 30 hours to go from Ulampatore to Beijing. And we thought 30 hours we really need a bed and be comfortable. So we booked, I think it was the first class, not knowing what first class means or what second class would mean. But we just wanted to be safe to have a bed, and we thought, okay, with first class, there might be a bed. And then we were pretty surprised when we entered the train that there were just two beds. We had our own cabin, two beds, and our own shower and our own toilet. We had a table, we had a chair. It was very luxury and way more than we wanted to have. But yeah, we had it and we really enjoyed it. And the 30 hours passed pretty fast. You can lie in bed, you can have a shower, and we had a lot of food, obviously. So that was really okay. So yeah, this is my update to Mongolia. So we had this beautiful, epic landscapes in western Mongolia where we had to solve so many problems. We had these beautiful green hills and rivers in the Orkhan Valley in central Mongolia. We saw the Endless Steppe, and we had great time also in Ulambator getting every food we can get and ending this disadventure in Mongolia with a really cool train ride towards China again. And now we are already three weeks in China. We are right now renewing our visa-free stay to have another month here because China is huge and we want to see as much as possible. But more on this on my next update.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Wow, Rebecca, there are so many things I need to get into on this amazing update of yours. First and foremost, I think I have said it many times on the podcast before, but Mongolia is also a country that I personally have looked at with such wonderlust and thought, my goodness, I'd love to travel there. And uh I say that as someone who's got a nice little healthy fear of horses and knowing that there would be many, many horses in that country, but the landscapes just look amazing. Whenever I've seen visuals, I can just picture this beautiful light on golden grass, amazing vibrant skies, probably with some cloud magic of a looming storm off in the distance and that feel of an endless horizon. And much like yourself, I'm a mountain lover, but I feel absolutely transfixed by those landscapes. And your audio update has well and truly taken me there. I am absolutely transfixed by the adventures you and Harvey are continuing to take there. And I must admit I had quite a good chuckle hearing you talk about the idea that bike travellers probably aren't bike travellers anymore, you're all like meteorological weather experts on the wind, and arriving at the conclusion that it's never a tailwind, it's always a headwind, maybe have a little bit of a light tailwind momentarily, but brace yourself for full frontal headwinds for most of your adventure. And that did make me laugh quite a lot. As did the idea that you and Harvey were once again fueled up with so much extra water and realizing that you didn't need it at all. So I remember when this happened to you crossing the Pamires early on in the piece, and you did say the same thing then, you'd rather have too much water than not enough. I'm certain everyone would agree with you there, but just the idea that you're battling through this horrible road and horrible headwind carrying all this extra water in vain. Also the conclusion that headwind, sand and corrugations and then uphills has to be the worst combo ever. Oh my goodness me, sandy corrugations. And I just think about the roads that you have traversed already on the Pamirs and thinking that once again, with every part of your adventure it prepares you for the next chapter in your journey, and that has been pretty cool. I had a really good laugh when you were having the meal of meat with meat, and I must admit I was very thankful for you and Harvey that both of you weren't vegetarian because I do wonder what you would do in that instance. Like, do you think you'd be the sort of person that would just be polite and eat the meal anyway? Or do you think you would have to excuse yourself? Because I think that would be something where someone's showing you such hospitality and you don't know what to do, and then in the back of your head you're probably worrying about food poisoning, and I'm so glad that that didn't happen for you. And oh my gosh, you must have felt like you hit the absolute lottery there in Ulam Batar, where you could buy every bit of food that you wanted to, and go to Pizza Hut for the first time and eat enough for six people. I loved that part of your adventure. And something else that I've also really enjoyed is the way that you have adapted your travels to suit you. And you've put what gives you energy front and centre. But what I mean by that, listeners, is Rebecca and Harvey know they're not thrilled by spending hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kilometres on the same flat landscape, so they're quite happy to skip a section if they need to. And very similar for catching that train journey. A 30-hour train journey, but with your own beds and shower, you must have felt like you hit the lotto once again. And then just the idea that you've had dreamy camp spots, those private island camp spots, how great is that? But Rebecca, I think the thing that I loved the most was the little anecdote where you have realized that something that you thought yourself would be impossible for you is no longer impossible for you. You dreamed about Mongolia about after watching that documentary and thought, no, I can't go there. But look at you now, you have been there and you've realized that you can go to places that you do want to go to and that you are a proper adventurer. And along with the realization that there will always be a solution and that problems aren't a need for a mini crisis, like you you seem calm with that, and I really hope that when your adventure does draw to a close eventually and you're back home in Austria, that these are the life lessons that you take with you for the rest of your life as well. Listeners, what an absolutely awesome update this has been, and I can tell you now that since this update, Rebecca has been making her way through China and also Tibet. So keep your eyes peeled for more adventure updates to come. Thank you, Rebecca. Listeners, my favourite time of the show where I get to shout out a big thank you to you, my super fans, who have been so magnanimous and bought me coffees. Each and every week these virtual coffees come through, and it's supporting me to keep producing episodes of the podcast, and I'm very thankful for them. This week I'd like to say a big thank you to Judy Pearson. Judy, you've said, Hey Bella, after discovering your show, you have made several long drives fly by. I'm feeling inspired, and hopefully the butterfly effect of your interviews will soon see me setting out on my own adventures. Take care. Oh Judy, I love it. I love that you're tuning in for inspiration. And as I said at the start of the show, I mean this whole episode, Rebecca tuned in for inspiration, and my gosh, she's ridden her way from Austria through to Mongolia now. So this is definitely a thing, and bike adventures are coming your way, I am certain. In the meantime, thank you so much for supporting me in the podcast. And listeners, if you would like to do as Judy has done and support me and the show, you can do so. Simply head to buymeacoffee.com forward slash seek travel ride. Buy me a few virtual coffees, but most importantly, let me know what is it that you love about the podcast and where will your next bike adventure take you? And until the next episode, I'm Bella Malloy. Thanks for listening!