/image%2F0273494%2F20140918%2Fob_907895_dsc-3281-copy.jpg)
/image%2F0273494%2F201212%2Fob_adda3b83be8dc680694d9606db485a91_dsc-0455-2.jpg "Unimog adventures")
South to UB... and back
Published on September 18 2014
UB is the local (traveller) slang for Ulaan Batar, the capitol of Mongolia. Inevitably every traveller ends up here sooner or later, be it for visa extensions or otherbuerocratic tasks or stocking up on food or just having a short city blast after all this emptiness..... From the little paradise at Khovsgol lake we headed directly South into the Central part of the country to then join the "center route" and follow that East to UB. It was pretty rough tracks locally but very nice and variable landscapes again...
variable scapes...
hitting the odd village here and there
white lake
finally hitting some tarmac
It was quite a shock finally entering the city... after all this endless panoramas of grassy hills and forests dotted with lakes... construction mayhem...
UB is growing rapidly, many move to the city to try their luck so as many cities in these circumstances UB is surrounded by pretty poor suburbs with construction and dust everywhere...
We were heading straight to the airport as Rachael was keen to get out of here haven been shaken around enough on bad tracks for thousands of kilometres...;-).
We camped on the airport parking, pretty convenient actually, but mainly because there was absolutely no hotel nearby.... the airport did not grow as fast as the city one could say :). As Rachael passed customs I was back on my own without my navigator (master chef !!!:) and best travel companion) tackling the crazy traffic in the morning.
First stop was the Mercedes garage as the poor Unimog was thirsty for an engine oil change and quick service...this is what I saw there...
G wagon crazyness... V8 biturbo Brabus 6x6. I cannot even start to describe the engine sound... A toy of some Mongolian who had damaged it with one of his Zetros 6x6 camper trucks reversing into it.... real problems....
Unimog was not lonely as there were a few more Mongolian brothers in here...
very disconcerting views on the streets of UB...
As every overlander I ended up in the "Oasis" guesthouse and of course met some old friends and fellow travellers I had met months earlier already in Kirgistan... Was really pleasant to see a very diverse and interesting crowd and we even went on a night out.... after getting soaked in a rainstorm (in 5 months I had only 1 entire day of rain ...in UB) we found one of the few places to dance after midnight...
Off I went North heading towards Russia, first on tarmac, but I preferred the off road so I challenged myself going the straightest way possible...
I was heading to the famous Amarbayasgalant monastery, which is located way off anything else in the North of the country (scroll through these pictures)
From the monatersy I continued the challenge and went on just following tracks marked neither on map nor GPS and just going in the general direction... I crossed deep forests, unbelievable meadows bursting with colours (and insects of all shapes and sizes one of which left something on my camera lens). Another one of these amazing landscapes in the country...
....and I finally managed to get stuck...the first time ever...;-). Driver stupidity as most times though... I crossed a creek with 80 cm high muddy embankments, which would not have been a problem at all if only their distance from each other would have been different... This way I just parked in and did not move anywhere anymore... well a shovel 2 sand boards and 30 minutes later I was rolling again...but completely on your own in the middle of nowhere makes you swallow hard at first....
The early morning before x-ing the border into Russia.....