Cycle Tour - Övörkhangai Province - Mongolia - Day 4 (Stage 4)

Today's stage takes us cycling 90km through the Övörkhangai Province, and over a 2,000m above sea level range. We will then take the vans to Mongol Els, about 50km drive, to stay the night near Little Gobi.  

Cycling across the swamp after visiting with the Mongolian family at their ger camp.

The landscape made me feel like I was back in the Waikato, New Zealand.

The ground was covered in these daisy type white flowers, that smelt like lemon when you walked on the leaves.

Erik cycling out of the swamp and onwards to the hills.

We happened upon a Mongolian on his motorbike, and after a brief chat, he pointed in the direction the cyclists had gone.

At the base of the very large hill was this building.  

The symbol on the door means Long Life and Prosperity.

The final big hill of the day!  Looking out across western Mongolia, that desert is Mongol Els, and where we will be staying for the next two nights.

Always weird not seeing the ocean from such high hills .

Looking east, vast forest-less hills, and more valleys. Vast landscapes and blue skies.

All of us, and some of the bikes.

And they are going down that steep steep hill.

If you look carefully, you can see two of the riders about quarter of the way down the hill.

We still have to work out how to get the vans down into the valley.

That was quick, the cyclists all waited in a group, and then off they went to the right. Our descent was much slower.

Everyone except the drivers walked down the side of the hill.  The vans took it very slowly.

We all got to the bottom, took about 15-20 minutes.

The cyclists were waiting in the shade at the roadside.

It took a while to load the bikes onto both of the vans.

Cosmos grew on the roadside, and the bumblebees are different colours than the ones we have at home.

The speed limit is 50 kph along the highway. Exciting to see the sand dunes of the desert get closer. 

Maybe it took just over an hour to travel to the Khugnu Khan nature reserve, Mongol Els, in the Bulgan province, to the Bayangobi ger camp where we will stay the next two nights.