[caption id="attachment_460" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Ugly, but possibly functional, flats and tarred road (all of about 2 km of it)"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_462" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="And they like to keep their tar clean."]
[/caption]And like many other bits of Mongolia you could feel change coming - a mixture of a mining economy (like Australia) coupled with its closeness to China is seeing a lot of development and at least some of the country is booming. As ever it seems to be the banks who are the first to be able to afford to put up the big new modern buildings.
[caption id="attachment_461" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Around the corner a row of new bank and office buildings"]
[/caption]In theory my last few days in Mongolia were to be straight forward following the main road from Altay to the border a mere 800 kms or so of dirt passing through two towns on the way - Khovd after 450km and Olgii another 225km after that.
[caption id="attachment_464" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Immediately out of town (and for the first 100km) the road was freshly graded and I though this will be easy."]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_465" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Then the sand started - that slowed me down. "]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_485" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="And where there wasn't sand there were corrugations. These are really tough on the bike - shaking everything violently unless you are able to ride fast enough to skim over the top of them (trouble is that is sometimes faster than you want to go)."]
[/caption]Part of the problem was a lot of the road was being upgraded. This meant all the traffic was forced to make its own tracks off to the side - this is not normally a problem but here the road is relatively highly traffic'd (more than 1 car/truck an hour) and the surface couldn't cope and just powdered up completely.
In the middle of this I met another bike coming the opposite direction.
[caption id="attachment_466" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="John Thoreson - I was able to tell him he was about to reach the good surface, and he could tell me I was not!"]
[/caption]There were virtually no villages or communities between the main towns on this leg - just occasional food or fuel stops.
[caption id="attachment_467" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="When food stops only appear every 3-4 hours you stop."]
[/caption]On the menu here was mutton and noodle stew - no options. Actually quite tasty.
[caption id="attachment_468" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The restaurant kitchen"]
[/caption]Most of the traffic on this road is trucks. In most places on a bike you are much faster than them - but sometimes overtaking can be a nightmare because of the huge amounts of dust they throw up. It can be a case of hang on, accelerate and hope like hell there is no major hole in the road where you choose to rush past.
[caption id="attachment_469" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Typical of the trucks plying this road."]
[/caption]This seemed to be sheep and goat herding country - large flocks of them were often spread across the road.
[caption id="attachment_470" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="All destined to be stew."]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_471" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="and these enclosures dot the horizon - presumably to keep them alive in winter."]
[/caption]The scenery of course continued to be stunning - where else do you get such a mixture of desert and snow capped mountains.
As I approached Khovd the intensity of the road building increased - this part of the road forms a direct link between China and Russia and a lot of money is being poured into it.
[caption id="attachment_473" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="If this sign is to be believed a good section of this road will be tar or graded gravel within the next few years."]
[/caption]After 430 kms I breathed a large sigh of relief - I'd reached the tar:
[caption id="attachment_474" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="and it lasted for less than 1 km! Why it existed remote from any other tar I have no idea - maybe its a test section for the future road."]
[/caption]Slightly further on Khovd did come into view, prettily nestled in a valley.
Khovd does have one of the most pointless sign posts I have ever seen. After 450km of unmarked gravel, which often in true Mongolian fashion wanders all over the plain giving many opportunities for getting "geographically challenged" (as my kids say) there is this, in full view of the city:
Khovd was a pleasant enough town - but only one photo as my camera batteries went flat and somehow the spares weren't charged. It was noteworthy because the streets were tree lined which in Mongolia would have to be unique. Apparently they are all over 200 years old and the legacy of when the Chinese Manchu dynasty conquered and ruled the era.
[caption id="attachment_477" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="A sign of moving west - Khovd had the first mosque I've seen on the trip"]
[/caption]From Khovd it was onto Olgii the next day. This part of the trip was enlivened by water.
[caption id="attachment_478" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Not in a great state of repair - later on I came to two much worse that were being worked on. In both cases the workers helped me cross them as the alternative of driving through the river was too deep for the bike."]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_479" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="But this was manageable - axle deep."]
[/caption]Spotted on this part of the journey were also this pair of "Deer Stones" - these are some form of ancient (burial?) marker and have complex marks carved into them.
[caption id="attachment_480" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Deer Stones"]
[/caption]Olgii came and went without me taking many pictures - it really was a small town. However on the edge of town I did see these trucks selling coal. Those are big lumps of it in the back and they were chipping pieces of these to make up small packages for the buyers.
Olgii to the border was a relatively easy straightforward 100km of dirt road. I did my good deed on this part of the trip providing some patches from my repair kit to these truck drivers who had run out.
And here are a couple of last shots taken as I road towards the border - Mongolia, at least at the moment, characteristically maintains dirt road all the way to the border crossing - no tar even on the last few kilometres of road.
[caption id="attachment_483" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Approaching the border."]
[/caption]And a last shot of the bike in Mongolia. Three thousand kilometres - 90% on dirt, some 0f it very tough, and I didn't manage to break anything. It might be heavy but its strong.
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