We camped mostly in Mongolia, but did stay in a couple hotels along the way, just to shower and wash clothes. The hotel in Hovd was interesting, as Hovd has central power and water. But the power and water were off. So we paid full price for the hotel, but didn't get lights or water. It didn't seem to change the price though.
We did get in to one town, very late, and there ended up being a Kazak convention of some kind, so we trooped from Hotel to Hotel (there were three) only to be told there was no room. The last hotel said there was a GER camp about 4 km outside the town that would have room, so we drove off into the dark, only to see the GER's, but we were on the wrong side of the river. So we ended up pitching camp, in the dark, in a field of sand. When we started getting set up, I realized that one of my bags, containing my thermarest, tent poles and pegs had fallen off the bike somewhere, so I ended up sleeping in my tent, on the ground until we got to Barnaul and I was able to buy another tent and cut the poles from it to the right size for mine. We didn't have any water, so we went down to the river with the portable filters we have to get some, and realized it was the only polluted river in Mongolia. So we just went to bed.
Petar took a nail in his tire, and we had to spend a couple hours fixing it in the heat. The spare tube he brought, had two holes in it (brand new), so we had to patch it first.
I fell down at speed for the first time, doing about 60 km per hour in the sand. When you come off in the sand, you don't fall down all at once, it's more like this sick, 20 second flapping, cloud of dust, left, then right, then left again, more flapping till you are down. I wasn't hurt, the panniers took a bit of a beating, and all was well. It happened right in front of a group of Mongolians in a truck, so they likely had a nice laugh. I picked my bike up and fell over again. Did I mention I hate sand.
So now, I am driving with absolute fear every time there is sand, which is about every 50 meters at this point. And the worst thing you can do in sand, is be tense. So it wasn't long before I came off again, this time at about 30 km. Same thing, flapping, dust, etc. Not hurt this time either, but my confidence was shot for the next 4 or 5 hours.
Cory had an off too, coming into a mud hole. Rotko was filming, so we have it on video. It's a good one. He wasn't hurt, but the panniers flew off, and broke one of the mounting locks. He wired it back together with a good bit of Mygyvering, and we were ok.. for about 5 minutes.
Then we came to our second water crossing. The first one, I ended up stalling my bike, and Petar had to wade in and help me push it out. We dried it off, it started right off and we continued. This time, I ended up drawing water into my engine.
So, we pulled the plugs, blew all the water out, changed the filter, and it finally started back up (about 2 hours). We then took off, thinking everything was ok, only to go about 200 feet and the back tire seized completely, the bike stalled, and I skidded to a stop. The bike wouldn't even turn over. So we pulled the drain plug, and out poured a chocolate milk shake. We were going to change the oil at the next town, but it had to be done there. So after an hour or two of scrounging, were were able to come up with enough oil to do a change, which we did, and it started back up again, and was fine.
But for about an hour, we thought that the engine might be finished. Lucky for us, it was ok, and we were off.
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