Somewhere in Bayan-Ölgii aimag (MGL)- Unknown River Crossings (MGL)
August 29, 2014
Crossing the dry up riverbed with big rocks is super tough. It was a long day driving. The road is very challenging due to our low clearance car.
However we are glad we did a detour from the normal Mongol Rally route. In front of us is the majestic Tsambagarav Mountain, part of the Tsambagarav Uul National Park. The mountain is the stand alone eternally snow-capped mountain of the Mongol Altai and the regional sacred mountain in Mongolia.
Our car got stuck in one of these stream. Fortunately there were some nomads nearby we borrowed a slate of rock and put it under the tire. Young took the driver seat step on the reverse gear, Graham pushed from the front and I was at the back using the tow rope pulling.
Once Young stepped on the gas Graham got a total facial makeup! hahaha! It took us a good hour to get Takhi Butter out of the mud.
Just when we thought the road got smoother we saw a big river in front of us. Once we arrived at the narrowest crossing we once again faced another challenge- this river is deep. We checked with our shoes off and it is at least knee depth.
We emptied the load of the car. And Graham by himself accelerated to a very high speed and cross the river! It was a crazy and glorious moment with the water splashing onto the windshield. Unfortunately we didn’t have a video to shown but Graham totally kicks ass in crossing this river!
We finally found the road and merged onto the Southern Route again. We stopped by the one and only one local stop.
Most of the human transportation in these parts is done in Graham’s new favorite auto: the UAZ-452 a.k.a ‘the breadloaf’. This car is perfect for the rugged Mongolian ‘roads’. Here one stops in front of the only restaurant within a day’s drive.
We had hot Airag tea and lamb dumplings. Hmmmmm so so so so delicious!!! We were so exhausted.
Call us crazies. After the entire day of hard driving we decided to drive all night to catch up to our schedule.
Driving in the dark in Mongolia with no paved road is not easy. We drove until we arrived at another river crossing. With no choice we decided to camp out on the riverbank.
I’m about 99% sure that beautiful mountain is called Tsambagarav.