July 3rd Mongolia!

The road follow a forest free valley , that climbs to 2700 m- cold here-
And sudently - border post .
3 hours to get out of Russia - and 30 km of no man s land with several police check points - it seems that this border is open only for couples of years.
Very few vehicle - 5 or 6.
This is a natural border , and now the road goes down to the mongolian border post - only 2 hours ( for 2 vehicles !) to cross over
When putting the wheels in Mongolia , it turns immediately to gravel road. yesss! No Tarmac any more , and now for over 8000 km I plan to stay around !
Heading to Olgii , first city where I ll wait my friends coming from Ulaan bataar, with their motorbike.- I want to spend lot of time off road and being alone is not a nice idea - so 3 bikes will be ok to go in remote places , particularly in the GOBi desert.
The 140 km to Olgii are gorgeous , absolutely beautiful naked- coloured mountains.
And now with some yurts, camels, and yacks around.
Inm definitly not any more in Russia.
Olgii is the Western Mongolia city and it seems quite a tourist activity by proximity of the beautiful mongol Altai mountains with its glaciers and fantastic lakes.
I find a yurt camp where I ll stay waiting for my friend s and doing some bike maintenance.
I am 15.200 Km away from Marseille, it is time to change my Tyres!

A : See Details(Google Map)

July 3rd Mongolia!

The road follow a forest free valley , that climbs to 2700 m- cold here-
And sudently - border post .
3 hours to get out of Russia - and 30 km of no man s land with several police check points - it seems that this border is open only for couples of years.
Very few vehicle - 5 or 6.
This is a natural border , and now the road goes down to the mongolian border post - only 2 hours ( for 2 vehicles !) to cross over
When putting the wheels in Mongolia , it turns immediately to gravel road. yesss! No Tarmac any more , and now for over 8000 km I plan to stay around !
Heading to Olgii , first city where I ll wait my friends coming from Ulaan bataar, with their motorbike.- I want to spend lot of time off road and being alone is not a nice idea - so 3 bikes will be ok to go in remote places , particularly in the GOBi desert.
The 140 km to Olgii are gorgeous , absolutely beautiful naked- coloured mountains.
And now with some yurts, camels, and yacks around.
Inm definitly not any more in Russia.
Olgii is the Western Mongolia city and it seems quite a tourist activity by proximity of the beautiful mongol Altai mountains with its glaciers and fantastic lakes.
I find a yurt camp where I ll stay waiting for my friend s and doing some bike maintenance.
I am 15.200 Km away from Marseille, it is time to change my Tyres!

A : See Details(Google Map)

July 2d , crossing Altai mountains

Perfect road heading to Mongolia, with less and less villages along the road- people he are not Russian any more but Kazakhs. Nice forests and road climbing step by step - i start to see snow capped mountains.
Crossing 2 bikers coming the other way round we stop to catch up and decide to camp together.
A young couple of Swiss , on the road for 14 month
We camp by a river
Nice time!

A : See Details(Google Map)

July 2d , crossing Altai mountains

Perfect road heading to Mongolia, with less and less villages along the road- people he are not Russian any more but Kazakhs. Nice forests and road climbing step by step - i start to see snow capped mountains.
Crossing 2 bikers coming the other way round we stop to catch up and decide to camp together.
A young couple of Swiss , on the road for 14 month
We camp by a river
Nice time!

A : See Details(Google Map)

Jume 29, crossing to russia

After a night in a strange soviet style hotel in oskemen I head to a
Small border hoping It will be fast to cross .'the 200km road is completely broken and I damage a bit more the front wheel rim in the potholes as I forgot to inflate the wheels properly .
, some villages could be Borat village, if btw Kazakstan is definitly not the cliche the movie brings - but quite a developed country with lot of money and many big cars -

A finally a very straightforward border crossing to Russia.
In Rubtskovk , I m hosted buy a young biker , Russian , (his name !) in his apartment - interesting experience as he doesn't speak English and we use google translate to communicate
rubskovsk is a typical poor small Russian city - old and damaged apartments blocks, muddy surrounds , very strange place . Russian s apartment is old and in very bad conditions it seems that Ithe roof will fall down on my head . And pipes will blast,..
In the building the only weird thing is the presence of big steel safety door locked with electronic commands !
And in the middle of the others age living space there is ... 100 MB Internet for 600 roubles (15 euros ! )
Same cliche with his car, a 30 years old Lada-That works I don't know how
I meet one I his biker friends , in his "garage " with 2 motorcycles one honda 350 and one honda 500 xls he made one , adapting one engine on one chassis , welding the missing part - motivated people who must build things as this is impossible to find any supplies
I try to invite them for a drink down town , and they come back with a jerrycans of .. 10 litters of beer and weird dry and smelly fishes as snacks - and everywhere in the city there are people , young as less young drinking their beer or vodka and eating the weird fishes - absolutely surrealist.
Interesting experience