5th to 8th of June 2011
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I lost some time in the morning with fueling up my bike. Sometimes it so complicated at Russian filling stations because you always have to pay in advance…but how much if you want to fill up completely? This lady did not accept my 1000 Ruble (25Euro) note and that is where the hassle started…with a motorbike it is not that easy, helmet, gloves, pushing the bike and because of my special tank construction I always have to put down my luggage roll…
Right after Gorod Altaijsk a really beautiful scenery starts, one drives right through the Altai Mountains. Lush forests, rivers, first hilly then high snowcapped mountains. I would have taken more pictures but a heavy thunderstorm nailed me down for more than an hour at a filling station and I ran out of time to reach my target in about 700km distance.
I had to cross 2 passes, 1500m and 1750m above sea level and later the vegetation became less and less and I felt like being back in Kazakhstan.
Aktash was then like reaching the end of the world. In Kosh-Agach another 50km later and at 9 pm I reached it.
With the help of a taxi driver (maybe the only one there?) I found my Gastiniza Prival, three boys “managing” this place, no shower, pit toilet in the garden. The registration paper they made for me was not accepted the next day at the border control:-) but they were very friendly.
Freezing cold outside I wondered on which height I was. What I found out the next day Kosh-Agach must be on about 2300m above sea level.
Restaurant, no, but in a small coffee bar they served me some salad and 2 small pieces of a small fish and I got some green beer (I cannot recommend). Some local boys tried to communicate with me. When they invited me for some vodka I left the place and went back to my pension.
I was about to go to bed when another guest, a Russian invited me for some vodka in his room. Two of them, doctors which were in Kosh-Agach for food & health control. After the 4th round I moved to my room in order to get some sleep. It is always hard to leave the Russians…:-)
Next morning I tried to find some coffee and after a round in the deserted village; I was too early. So I got myself first ready and had afterwards a stop at the “supermarket” , another one for fueling and finally I got my coffee in small snack bar. Everywhere I stopped I got into some “conversation” and I was a bit nerved when I left this remote place.
The Russian border control came again with surprise, this time right in Tashanta whereas the real border is still about 20km away. Customs was a headache and what made it worse was that they had some “student” working on my case. But ok, everyone friendly + no bribing.
Then the “real border” control post, just a gate on 2500m a.s.l. and exactly at that gate the asphalt stopped and the gravel on the other side started. The friendly officer there spoke German :-) Another 10km and I reached the Mongolian border control, four steps to be completed, all friendly and welcoming. After the final control post I had to stop again to buy my insurance for the motorbike, about 25Euro. I lost so much time that the sky had enough time to turn dark: it seems that in the afternoon now regularly a big thunderstorm closes in.
After I got a coffee for free (!) at a Ger in this 10 house village I started into Mongolia and… into the thunderstorm. I thought I could make it somehow around it but at a certain time “we just met” and I was out in the wide open. I got really scared when hail pattered on me and left my motorbike where I stopped and I run bent down about 50m away and tried to hide in a ditch beside the “road”.
While I ate and drank something there in the dirt the next hill went white with all the hail hammering down. I was f____ scared and finally my prayers came true and the hail & heavy rain eased away. My fingers stiff frozen I made my way out of the open steppe and later winding up a mountain passing a Ger and heavy machinery with road construction workers who confirmed that I was on the right track to Olgiy.
I crossed the pass with some off road techniques when I saw something unbelievable at the horizon: asphalt?! It was and the next 40km to Olgiy I was on super Mongolian highway, my tires singing and me as well. Maybe the only one I will see here? The landscapes I drove through developed inside me “a being on the moon” feeling. The light show the sun and clouds displayed on the mountains were beyond imagination.
Right after Gorod Altaijsk a really beautiful scenery starts, one drives right through the Altai Mountains. Lush forests, rivers, first hilly then high snowcapped mountains. I would have taken more pictures but a heavy thunderstorm nailed me down for more than an hour at a filling station and I ran out of time to reach my target in about 700km distance.
I had to cross 2 passes, 1500m and 1750m above sea level and later the vegetation became less and less and I felt like being back in Kazakhstan.
Aktash was then like reaching the end of the world. In Kosh-Agach another 50km later and at 9 pm I reached it.
With the help of a taxi driver (maybe the only one there?) I found my Gastiniza Prival, three boys “managing” this place, no shower, pit toilet in the garden. The registration paper they made for me was not accepted the next day at the border control:-) but they were very friendly.
Freezing cold outside I wondered on which height I was. What I found out the next day Kosh-Agach must be on about 2300m above sea level.
Restaurant, no, but in a small coffee bar they served me some salad and 2 small pieces of a small fish and I got some green beer (I cannot recommend). Some local boys tried to communicate with me. When they invited me for some vodka I left the place and went back to my pension.
I was about to go to bed when another guest, a Russian invited me for some vodka in his room. Two of them, doctors which were in Kosh-Agach for food & health control. After the 4th round I moved to my room in order to get some sleep. It is always hard to leave the Russians…:-)
Next morning I tried to find some coffee and after a round in the deserted village; I was too early. So I got myself first ready and had afterwards a stop at the “supermarket” , another one for fueling and finally I got my coffee in small snack bar. Everywhere I stopped I got into some “conversation” and I was a bit nerved when I left this remote place.
The Russian border control came again with surprise, this time right in Tashanta whereas the real border is still about 20km away. Customs was a headache and what made it worse was that they had some “student” working on my case. But ok, everyone friendly + no bribing.
Then the “real border” control post, just a gate on 2500m a.s.l. and exactly at that gate the asphalt stopped and the gravel on the other side started. The friendly officer there spoke German :-) Another 10km and I reached the Mongolian border control, four steps to be completed, all friendly and welcoming. After the final control post I had to stop again to buy my insurance for the motorbike, about 25Euro. I lost so much time that the sky had enough time to turn dark: it seems that in the afternoon now regularly a big thunderstorm closes in.
After I got a coffee for free (!) at a Ger in this 10 house village I started into Mongolia and… into the thunderstorm. I thought I could make it somehow around it but at a certain time “we just met” and I was out in the wide open. I got really scared when hail pattered on me and left my motorbike where I stopped and I run bent down about 50m away and tried to hide in a ditch beside the “road”.
While I ate and drank something there in the dirt the next hill went white with all the hail hammering down. I was f____ scared and finally my prayers came true and the hail & heavy rain eased away. My fingers stiff frozen I made my way out of the open steppe and later winding up a mountain passing a Ger and heavy machinery with road construction workers who confirmed that I was on the right track to Olgiy.
I crossed the pass with some off road techniques when I saw something unbelievable at the horizon: asphalt?! It was and the next 40km to Olgiy I was on super Mongolian highway, my tires singing and me as well. Maybe the only one I will see here? The landscapes I drove through developed inside me “a being on the moon” feeling. The light show the sun and clouds displayed on the mountains were beyond imagination.
