I had some slices of bread with barbecue sauce and juice for breakfast, which I bought yesterday in the small shops on the other side of the road. At 8:00 in the morning, I am ready to continue the journey. I find frost on the bike and I remember that Marcus told me temperatures would be below zero for the next few nights.

Camping is now a last resort.

I don’t have the equipment for those temperatures and I don’t know how down can they go. Inevitably, I rode the first hundred kilometers with my hands frozen and changed to winter gloves when I arrived in Tariat. The pain I felt in my hands reminded me of the trip between Novy Urengoy and Nadym, near the Russian Polar Circle in 2019. I continue a few kilometers to Lake Terkhiin Tsagaan where there is a parking lot on its shore.

While having a break, I had the opportunity to take a few pictures with the snowy mountains as a background. Before leaving, a family that was having a picnic waved at me and asked me to sit with them. They offered me Khailmag, a typical Mongolian caramelized clotted cream that I had not tried yet.

I continued my way towards Ikh-Uul, a city where I hoped to stay.

Nothing caught my interest there, so I moved on. It was still early and the next city, only forty-five kilometers ahead, was possible to reach. When I arrived in Tosontsengel I approached the highest-rated hostel but it was full. A political group has reserved it entirely since there are elections in the region the next day.

After talking to the group for a while, one of them tells me he has a friend on a Vulcan 650 who wants to take a trip through Europe the next year. We exchanged credentials hoping to meet him in the future. The staff told me there was another hostel around the corner where I could stay.

I’m not feeling so lucky today, that one is completely abandoned.

It seemed so much because I entered and walked through the hallways. The rooms have their doors open and the beds have the sheets on. However, there is no one there and the reception has a big hole in the wall. Although I could stay here for free, I decided to try the campsite on the outskirts of the city. There is no one at the campsite either.

I asked at the supermarket that is right next to it and they tried to call the owner, but no one showed up. A woman, who isn’t the owner, comes out of one of the yurts and tells me the price is 150.000 Tugriks. Since it seemed very expensive to me, I moved on to two other hostels, one opposite the other, and I ran into the same situation: there was no one there.

In one of them, there was also a van waiting for someone to show up.

Finally, I chose to continue to the next city which was about a hundred kilometers away. Just before reaching Lake Telmen, I saw a campsite of yurts and cabins on the right of the road and I stopped to have a closer look, and a woman welcomed me. I think is the owner’s daughter since most of the time it is a family business.

I asked if there were any cabins available and they offered me one for 60.000 Tugriks, breakfast included. The price seemed right to me. I can’t say why, but I feel I’m always given the furthest cabin, or room, from the main entrance. It’s around 6:00 p.m. before I go out of my cabin to look for the showers.

Unfortunately, I realize that the running water is not working.

It seems they are fixing one of the two showers and the water must be cut off from the entire bathroom. Not even the WCs had water. I ordered goulash for dinner while waiting, which will be ready by 8:30 p.m. Meanwhile, I took advantage of the restaurant’s electric outlets because I didn’t have any in the cabin. I moved the motorcycle into the compound according to the owner’s instructions received when they served me dinner. Right after dinner, the shower was working again.

I stayed a little longer in the common area before they offered me another cabin with plugs. They wanted to turn everything off and lock the building. As an additional improvement, this cabin also has a stove. I changed cabin around 9:30 p.m. Around 10:30 p.m., when everyone was already asleep for about an hour, a truck driver appeared looking for accommodation. Despite the cold weather, I go out to help him. We used my phone to call the owner, but it didn’t seem like he was opening the door.

Despite having a stove, the temperature in the room doesn’t exceed 15ºC.

I got up at 7:00 in the morning to have everything ready. Yesterday I found out my credit card had reached its limit in Tosontsengel and that it would not allow me to carry out any more transactions. I had to change the type of payment at night to be able to pay for the campsite without any inconvenience. At 8:00 in the morning, breakfast is ready and around 8:30 I am ready to leave.

In order not to feel cold again, I put on the rain pants and winter gloves directly. It is better not to get cold during the first hours of the day. Just like Lake Terkhiin Tsagaan, I wanted to stop near Lake Telmen’s shore. Unfortunately, the road passes too far from it. I refueled in Numrug continuing towards Songino, where I avoided the rain for a while. On the sides of the road, I still see many vultures and eagles flying through the skies or simply perched on posts. After being on the road for a while I realized there are no gas stations in sight. I checked the map and regretted not fueling up again in Songino.

There didn’t seem to be any towns around for three hundred kilometers.

No towns usually mean no gas stations. Although the asphalt is in very good condition, the sections are straight and very long, becoming very monotonous. As I skirt around Lake Khyargas I realize that I’m reaching the limit of the motorcycle’s autonomy range and I’m getting worried. Neither Google Maps nor MapsMe can tell me if there is a gas station on the road.

I continued moving forward, despite the little traffic, until I found a small settlement of two yurts with a food store. The owner tells me there is a service station about forty-five kilometers ahead. I also asked some road workers who were just a hundred meters before and they told me the next one was a hundred and eighty kilometers from there.

That was the distance left to Ulaangom.

I imagined they must have misunderstood me when I asked them. Full of hope, I keep moving forward. I drove just less than twenty kilometers the warning light came on. From my own experience, I know that I can continue driving for about forty or fifty kilometers, no more. When I had driven about thirty-five kilometers I saw a parked car on the side of the road and stopped to confirm the information previously received. They told me there was a service station about fifteen or twenty kilometers away.

I arrived at the station after a journey of almost sixty kilometers. I thought I wasn’t making it. While getting there, I saw a group of camels sunbathing on the shore of the lake. Since it was possible to walk there, I approached to take some pictures. I noticed there are several campsites on the side of the lake. However, they are all closed right now.

There are only a hundred and thirty kilometers left.

My destination today, Ulaangom, is in another time zone, which means I arrive at 3:00 p.m. local time. I head to the Grand Hotel, a place someone recommended to me during the break I had ten kilometers from the city. Unfortunately, it’s full. In the parking lot, there were some Russians who invited me to join them for dinner at 9:00 p.m. in the restaurant of this hotel.

I head towards another hotel that is not far away, under the recommendation of the reception staff, where I find a room for 50.000 Tugriks per night. They have internet, but the connection is very slow. Since I entered Mongolia I have not found anything better than in Darkan. I rested a little and called home before going out to dinner.

At the restaurant, there is no sign of the Russians. I end up dining alone and the service is quite bad. Aesthetically, the restaurant looks nice but there is no friendliness. I took my time to look at the menu and I ordered my meal. They answered it was not available. I ordered another and received the same reply. Even two at random ended the same way. Finally, I chose to have the same type of dumplings as the ones I had with Alexis and Daniel at Kharkhorin.