Mongolian Interstates

Extended road trips in Mongolia are their own kind of fun.  After an early morning start and a trip to town to catch the next bus, I was hungry for those awful Mongolian roads of legend.  The road from UB had been paved all the way.  Where was the adventure?

Well, a few hours into our trip West I found what I was looking for.

Mongolia interstate

The pavement stops, and then the road goes offroad, into the steppe, and turns into a dozen braids of dirt road, twisting, combining, and recombining for hundreds of miles.  There's not much on the horizon except for the occasional herd of animals, maybe a yurt, and grass as far as you can see.  It's an incredible sight, and one that I was happy to enjoy in the company of a professional driver and a lot of Mongolians.  Driving this yourself would be intense - if you decide to do it definitely take a full kit of spares, a GPS, and a lot of extra fuel.

Heavy rain had fallen on a stretch of road ahead of us - it was pure mud - like a marsh - and we our bus was supposed to make it through, along with all the Jeeps and Land Cruisers stuck in the carnage around us.  None of the Mongolians seemed worried - which is always the right barometer, by the way, when you're away from home and not sure how dangerous something is - if the locals don't look worried, you shouldn't be either.  But once they are...

Here comes the fun!

Carnage everywhere.

Our driver did a fantastic jobs navigating the enormous potholes and mudslicks, until we hit patch of mud not even he couldn't get us out of.  

I suppose this is the part the trip is all about - getting stuck, getting out of the bus, and working together to get the bus going.  Everyone got off the bus, and the men got to work getting us moving.

Someone left to go to the ger about a mile off to get a pail of rocks, a few people started fetching wood to throw under the tires, and the pushing started.  

It took a little while for the driver to start to look nervous.  Every time he put the bus in gear it would dig deeper and deeper into the marsh.  Finally, after a few hours and extra pails of rocks, we got moving.  We were on the move again.

Stuck.

For a taste of Mongolian adventure, Start at minute 7 of the video below.  Ewan McGregor and his friend do a motorcycle trip around the world, and their experience in Mongolia totally mirrors the one I had.

Crossing the mud flats.

Luckily these guys got out and are on their way.

More casualties.

Mongolian teamwork - pretty incredible actually.  No complaints, no one freaking out, just a collective effort to get going.

Still stuck.

Finally on our way.