![]() We'd had a day and a half to settle in, and it was mid-week, so were slotting rides in and around my (remote) work, and usual routines for the non-riders around us. I felt like I had unfinished business at the Chinggis Khan Statue Complex - about 50km east of the city, we'd visited it with Ma and Pa, but there was something I'd opted out of then, and since regretted. The (skinnyish) road tyre format was a little constraining, but simultaneously helpful in cutting down the options. Views on approach were uniquely Mongolian, and once we did get out on the bike, it was amazing to see the extend to which outback "roads" were mapped and an official part of the network. We had a daytime flight from Seoul to UB, and flew into Chinggis Khan International Airport for the first time, just shy of its second anniversary of opening. Instead, we planned make do with short rides around UB, all the better if friends or family would be on hand before, during or after. The necessary 1000-plus-kilometres in the Mongolian wild seemed like a bad use of our time. We had every intention of using the bikes, but the vastness of the country quickly became apparent when we looked at the possibility of connecting up some of the key locations in Sarah's upbringing - her home town of Darkhan, her grandfather's birthplace Khuvsgul, and the capital city, Ulaanbataar (or UB, as everyone seems to call it). ![]() Besides, we were going to Mongolia to see people, rather than ride. Travel with a bike seems to be all about compromise though, and we optimised for the Korean leg of the journey. Virtually the entire country is public land, and there are beaten trails criss-crossing the place, most of which would be hard going on a road bike, but with enough pavement to make a mountain-bike frustrating. ![]() In January, we finally pinned down the balance of our time away from NZ, and booked a separate return ticket from Korea, where we'd squeeze in a cycle tour on the way back home.Īs much as I dislike the "gravel bike" terminology (much preferring "fat tyred road bike", though finding it harder and harder to use, given the growing ubiquity of the former), Mongolia is a destination that really suits the format. In August we booked return flights to Seoul Incheon for June 2023, a long way out, but giving Mongolia a chance to get through its winter freeze, the airline industry a bit of time to settle back into moving people (and their luggage) around without mishap, and us plenty of time to look forward to the trip. The draw got that much greater in March 2022, when our only niece on Sarah's side, Tsomoo, had her first child, Urin. Of course, COVID-19 had other ideas, and so 20 were impossibilities. We came back to NZ knowing full well (and with me declaring at the end of the write up) that we'd need to make that trip more regularly. It took us a long while to organise my first trip to Mongolia, but timing of the 10th Mongolia Bike Challenge in 2019 worked out well, and the long overdue mission was made, with my parents as company. ![]() " French, Kissing and the USA", posted in January 2014, was the first of many posts on this blog documenting our family cycling activities. 10 years and a couple of days ago, I was riding into Paris at the end of Le Cycle Tour de France, and a few days after that, I was introducing Sarah to my parents (and vice versa), at Wellington airport.
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