Well, it took 8 days to reach the Mongolian border from Irkutsk. As always, the shortest route is not always the quickest!. Here’s how it went. I haven’t been feeling particularly creative with words, so I’ve resorted to child-like arrows on google maps. I think you’ll get the just…
Day 1 – Out of Irkutsk
Day 2 – To Baikalsk
Day 3 – Going Nowhere in Baikalsk
Day 4 – Meeting of cyclists
Day 5 – Babushkin and beyond
Day 6 – Off-Road Biking
Day 7 – Rivers and Rain
Day 8 – To Kyakhta
You can see more photos from this last week here: Photos of Biking Baikal and Buryatia
There is a special buryatian meal called POZI. You have to taste it.
Oh don’t worry, I have. Many pozis – usually 3 at a time 🙂
Great stuff Helen. Love the maps….can almost feel your pain/joy etc!
Obviously, it’s very hard work this cycle touring, but very rewarding, I do envy you so much. Keep the posts coming. Good luck.
Helen,you are great! may be you remember a Russian girl .we met in a cafe when you were riding along Baikal to Buryatia on your bike, it was rainy ,we talked in English and even took some pictures.well,I also liked my wonderful trip to Baikal!
Hi Svetlana – yes I remember! that was a wet day!
I’m going back to Lake Baikal in January… i expect it’ll just be cold then!
Hi Helen,
we are the drivers of the first german camper, were overtaken by you and stopped you after that, gave you some water.
We are very impressed to read about all your adventures.
We came back home last week after about 20.000 Miles.
Good luck for you further on.
Heinz and Ulla
Hi Helen, I’ve just arrived in Irkutsk and after today I have 22 days to get to Mongolia. I think I will head up to Orkhon first to check that out if there is time, then I will be on a similar route to you I guess. How did you navigate once you deviated from the coastal road? Did you use paper maps or Google Earth or just wing it? I see from the comments that there was a bit of backtracking when a track turned out to be unrideable. Cheers! Dan (NZ)
Hi Dan,
I used a GPS and had been given that track by someone else. It started from Babushkin…
The only unrideable bit was near the end because of a swollen river (i had a packraft and rafted across) – the other option would have been a 50km detour.
With google earth you’d be OK i think.
If I get good internet in the next few days (i’m on the road) – I can send you the GPS track I used,..