I (Anna) decided to do a memory exercise and try to remember what it felt to drive in different areas of Russia and Mongola. Obviously, Pablo drove - I was a happy passenger.
Novosibirsk - crazy traffic! Getting out of the city was a pain. For an hour or so we were moving from one traffic jam to another. At some point we got off the road to see the mighty Ob' River - the beach was not yet ready for tourists and looked quite sad.
Altai Krai - flat lands and agricultural fields - big and endless. Occasional factories. Good road quality, quite cheap petrol. Birds - sparrows, crows, magpies - in Altai Krai are smart. They were waiting at the roadside to pick any insects that collided with cars - this is something we haven't seen much of in other regions. Sparrows would fly towards a radiator of a parked car to pick stuck insects.
Altai Republic - beautiful! Breathtaking views of hilly winding roads, tall mountains and mountain rivers (Katun', of course!). We crossed several climate zone within 5 hours: a desert with oases in the South (1800m above the sea level), tall snowy mountains, tundra like plateaus, steppes, lush green forests, lakes, rivers, hills - all you can wish for. Susliks (ground squirrels) were often crossing the road in front of moving cars. Chuyskiy Trakt - the mainline connecting Russia and Western Mongolia - is of very good quality. Road works had temporary traffic lights, which felt very organised; traffic regulation during roadworks was mostly done by people as we moved towards East. B roads were quite bad. This is where we had our first wheel damaged - somewhere between Chuyski Trakt and Katy-Yaryk. Katy-Yarik mountain pass is a story on its own! 500m down over 2km. Yes, there is a sign which reads Be Extremely Cautious and yet there were a couple of car wrecks, probably left as an additional warning sign. Rather expensive petrol - very expensive in most remote areas.
Tomsk Oblast was quite a glimpse and I don't have much recollection of it: just forests and the Tom' River.
Khakassia Republic - the land of menhirs. They were everywhere. I can imagine they are a pain for local farmers who seem to preserve them - I guess by law, but maybe also as a reverence of ancestors. The area was quite hilly, but with mostly low hills. Well, we didn't get to the mountains that are in the West of the region. We mostly were in the steppes. Beautiful Belyo lake with its own charm.
Tuva Republic - endless steppes and very dry lands. Beginning of the Yenisey River. Beautiful mountains and fells. Shamans practicing at the roadside. My first sighting of an owl. Salty lakes with small red creatures and strong smell. This is where I learnt the concept of being able to close a road completely for renovation and letting traffic pass on both sides without building a temporary road: no need to cut trees, no marshlands. Unstraight temporary road markings gave us a good laugh. It was also a surprise to drive small dirt tracks between villages, which were in fact roads known to the car navigation system. And of course my constant concern about being outdoors during late hours and overall concern about unfriendly and drunk people. They actually did get quite unpleasant when drunk - even locals were not happy to handle them - what a shame for such a beautiful land...
Krasnoyarsky Krai - plains, lakes, hills and of course the mighty Enisey River and the Sayan mountains - very beautiful. Quite impressive mountain pass near Ergaki. Evidence of a lot of forest fires (and more fires came after we left...). And plenty of agricultural fields - very big ones. This is where we had butterflies bombard our car, well we just smashed poor creatures and then spent quite some time cleaning the windscreen and the radiator. This is where we took the ferry to cross Enisey River. And of course the hydropower stations on Enisey - Sayano-Shushenskaya being the biggest one. Not to forget the massive coal-powered station over a lake in Sharypovo. Why did we not take a picture?! Roads were quite good overall. Oh yes - plenty of police cars with speed radars. Although we were not speeding up, it was still nice to have a quest: oncoming vehicles would signal with their front-lights indicating a portable speed camera and we would look all around to find a car hidden in bushes. Krasnoyarsk - unexpected experience. The city that regularly boasts top ratings of the worst cities to live in Russia was actually great. Felt very European - they even have palm trees in the streets that they move to a warm place during winter, and plenty of fountains. The place just felt great on a sunny summer day.
Irkutsk Oblast - plenty of agricultural lands as well, much flatter lands than what we saw before. This is where we felt that the railroad is the artery which links East and West of Russia. If it is so important, why not make bridges? The amount of time we spent waiting for trains to pass was somewhat exaggerated. I remember having lunch in the car while waiting for 5 trains to pass. Enough complaining, let's talk about how beautiful this place is - it's the Baikal Lake territory after all! When we were approaching Olkhon Island by road, I was quite surprised to see the landscapes similar to Khakassia and Tuva. We were told that it seldom rains there and Olkhon Island is actually translated as Dry. Although it rained when we arrived :) On Olkhon Island, we discovered the concept of alternative roads: the main road (gravel) was so corrugated, that locals created several parallel roads to avoid it. We were silly tourists when we arrived and drove the main road all the way through, but we got smarter on our way back. Here we had the second ferry during our journey - although much quicker than the one in Krasnoyarsky Krai. It is also the land of susliks (ground squirrels) - we sighted a new generation of them in Olkhon. Olkhon is stunning and we enjoyed watching the mist forming different shapes in the air. Baikal indeed seemed like a sea: I could not see the opposite shore and the water colour was very sea-like. There were a lot of foreign tourists here: we heard quite a few languages on Olkhon. When we were driving South from Irkutsk, the road crossed mountain ranges - although not very tall, but making the road winding and quite dangerous at places. To make it worse, there was a lot of traffic and road works. I was surprised to see so many cars - I thought we were stepping into a no man's land - but that was further East.
Buryatia - dry, very dry - there was some agriculture going on, but I wonder how plants survive there. Landscapes very similar to what we saw in Tuva and Khakassia - hilly and with few trees. At the border with Mongolia, we crossed a very beautiful pine forest. In fact pine trees were different everywhere we traveled. It is quite interesting to see them change from one region to another. This is where we were driving along tanks doing their routine exercises. We also visited Baikal Lake in Buryatia - the East Shore, which was also very beautiful - we were driving between small sand dunes at the Holy Nose peninsular. And of course - the Tunka Valley with its Love Peak. Tunka Valley is amazingly rural - cows were resting at the roadside and even on the road, hiding from the sun at bus stops and in general very annoying for drivers. It is in Buryatia, where we were filmed crossing the white line an got a hefty fine. The region is littered with police cameras - this must be a very good source of money for the local budget! By the way, Buryatia is a new border between Siberia and the Far East. It was Siberia until a few months ago and it is now the Far East for better or worse.
Zabaikalsky Krai - this is a true no man's land. After Chita, the traffic all but disappeared. We could drive for several kilometres without a sight of any other car. Just endless pine and birch tree forests and occasional ivan-chai (fireweed) fields. There were quite a few birds of prey - owls and others - smashed by cars on the roadside - quite a sad view considering how few cars there are. I don't think we saw any kites from now on (and we saw many in Siberia), but plenty of other birds of prey. We didn't encounter many villages or towns and those that we crossed were sad! Lost in the middle of nowhere... And fuel was expensive! I understand petrol stations were far from the refineries, but I think they also enjoyed no competition. The road quality was not good and there were quite a few roadworks ongoing. Unstraight temporary road markings again. And no speed cameras! The road itself was a gentle and regular up and down while we were driving through the Stanovoy range. This is where we started playing a game of guessing a region by a car registration plate and it was quite amusing to see vehicles from all over Russia. Most trucks went to China I think, because as we moved further we saw fewer of them. I believe it is in Zabaykalsky Krai where the rain finally caught up with us. From now on we were driving in rain until we got to Khabarovsk.
Amurskaya Oblast - no man's land very similar to Zabaikalsky Krai continued up until we were nearing Svobodny. It was raining and we started to see floods near the road. From Svobodny, we turned South towards Balgoveschensk: many more villages, agricultural fields and quite beautiful winding roads that reminded me of rural single carriageways in England.
Jewish Autonomous Region - flat and flooded. Agricultural fields were suffering quite a lot from non-stop rains, which made me very sad to realise that the entire South East of Russia will lose much of its harvest this year driving up prices and making farmer's tough life even tougher. The road now went along the railway and we were reminded of its importance watching the passing trains.
Khabarovsky Krai - it started from the long bridge across the Amur River leading directly to Khabarovsk. We entered the city some time between 7 and 8 pm, it was pouring rain. We were lucky to find a 3-day window in between rain and enjoyed good weather while visiting the Komsomolsk and Amursk areas. Driving towards Komsomolsk-on-Amur made me realise how flat the Amur valley is - Khabarovsk is only 70m above the sea level. Hence all this territory is susceptible to flooding and a lot of it was marshland: taiga forests alternating with marshes. Although the area is located in the Sikhote-Alin mountain range, the mountains here really are hills. With all the rains Amur level near Khabarovsk was the highest I've ever seen (still below the catastrophic floods in 2013) and while we were driving East plenty of lands, including agricultural fields were flooded. Along the road, there were people selling forest mushrooms and berries, as well as home-smoked sockeye and keta salmon and red caviar. Driving inlands near Komsomolsk was not what I had imagined: I was expecting sad abandoned villages and towns, but what we saw did not look as bad. Komsomolsk surprised me in that respect - the Sukhoi aircraft factory does mean a lot for the town (this is where we witnessed tests of the newly-built fighter jets). Many villages depend on mining, forestry and fishing and there is plenty. We encountered many trains and even exchanged a friendly honking with a passing train while waiting at a crossing. While driving Eastwards, we saw a concept of portable cameras being pre-emptied by a portable camera roadsign - so the road police actually warned drivers of their presence. The road quality was not great. A few kilometres of the road were an ex-military airdrome, so we were imagining a take-off while driving along it. The road towards South was better in quality, but didn't impress me much: except the Chinese lorry driver that turned from a secondary road ignoring us completely. Not to forget the oversized hornets and horse flies that surrounded our car every time we stopped.
Primorsky Krai - feels like we were somewhere in the tropics. Sikhote Alin with its compact hills was very picturesque: high humidity in the air made the landscape look like somewhere in the South-East Asia. After all, South of Khabarovsky Krai and Primorsky Krai are where South meets North: there are vines and cork trees growing here and the mighty tiger lives in the taiga. And monster hornets and horse flies again. We decided to go off the motorway and take a winding gravel road in taiga towards the Pacific shore. It was very empty and I enjoyed driving. Here is where we saw a wild bore that was too scared of us and quickly ran away. We reached the Pacific Ocean to view oddly shaped rocks and beautiful sandy and pebbly beaches. The roads were full of locals selling their garden produce. There were a lot of agricultural fields - makes sense in such a great weather! Vladivostok was another major surprise. I knew it would be different, but I was not expecting it to be so beautiful with its long majestic bridges. The road near Vladivostok was very good and this was the first time we saw a speed limit above 100 km. The gravel roads were not a match! We were in Primorsky Krai right in the middle of a tourist season so we spent some time in traffic jams of holiday makers. We timed our trip to Primorsky Krai just right - as we were leaving, the first typhoon arrived. We later heard about floods in the area, but we were already safe and relaxed at home in Khabarovsk.
This is how we made it through Chuyski Trakt, Sibir, Baikal, Amur and Ussuri motorways. What about Mongolia?
Driving in Mongolia was fun. First of all, it was beautiful - quite similar to what we already saw in Russia, just much more of it. Second, and most unusual, was the feeling of absolute freedom. As roads were pretty bad in most places, people would create alternative roads and there could be many - take whichever you like! This is when I understood the fun of a rally. And of course gers - those portable folding houses that you can take anywhere with you and move on to the next place whenever you like. Although Mongolia is very scarcely populated, people were everywhere - one or two gers, but we saw them quite regularly, even in the desert. Of course, we drove along the main roads and tourist attractions. I can imagine that stepping out in the wild would be different. But there would still be roads - dirt tracks - and some of them were known by our MapsMe app! We took them to drive to tourist attractions in Gobi and even between two villages to avoid a lengthy drive to the main road. Gobi was quite an experience: the main road between Ulaanbaatar and Dalanzadgad was appalling at quite a few long stretches - this is where we damaged our wheel the second time. The road from Dalanzadgad to China was a marvel - new, smooth and very beautiful. Unfortunately, it did not last long: as we turned towards the Khongoryn els sand dunes we had to drive along a terrible corrugated dirt road for about 3 hours. Camels were quite a usual sight in Gobi - we even had them crossing the road in front of our car. Mongolia seems to take their bad roads seriously. Roadworks were ubiquitous. As we drove from Russia towards Ulaanbaatar, we already saw quite a few roadworks - we even had to take a diversion at Darkhan, which took us a while to figure out. Imagine our surprise when, driving out of Ulaanbaatar, we saw the road we took earlier closed - just a few days ago we passed by and saw it operating and now, when we needed it, it was closed. We took a lengthy diversion, which led us to a picturesque ger camping site and then continued along dirt roads parallel to the main road being repaired. When we were able to climb to the main road, we saw excavators preparing dirt tracks to be soon used by drivers. And to finance this massive infrastructure building, many toll booths were in place - this is the most tolled country I've ever seen - although the fare was peanuts for us, I imagine it could be hefty for locals if one needs to use it regularly. Traffic in Ulaanbaatar is worth mentioning - I've never seen it so bad anywhere else! Just for this reason we decided not to stay in Ulaanbaatar on our way back from Gobi - although we had to enter it, we did not go to the centre of the city.
Novosibirsk - crazy traffic! Getting out of the city was a pain. For an hour or so we were moving from one traffic jam to another. At some point we got off the road to see the mighty Ob' River - the beach was not yet ready for tourists and looked quite sad.
Altai Krai - flat lands and agricultural fields - big and endless. Occasional factories. Good road quality, quite cheap petrol. Birds - sparrows, crows, magpies - in Altai Krai are smart. They were waiting at the roadside to pick any insects that collided with cars - this is something we haven't seen much of in other regions. Sparrows would fly towards a radiator of a parked car to pick stuck insects.
Altai Republic - beautiful! Breathtaking views of hilly winding roads, tall mountains and mountain rivers (Katun', of course!). We crossed several climate zone within 5 hours: a desert with oases in the South (1800m above the sea level), tall snowy mountains, tundra like plateaus, steppes, lush green forests, lakes, rivers, hills - all you can wish for. Susliks (ground squirrels) were often crossing the road in front of moving cars. Chuyskiy Trakt - the mainline connecting Russia and Western Mongolia - is of very good quality. Road works had temporary traffic lights, which felt very organised; traffic regulation during roadworks was mostly done by people as we moved towards East. B roads were quite bad. This is where we had our first wheel damaged - somewhere between Chuyski Trakt and Katy-Yaryk. Katy-Yarik mountain pass is a story on its own! 500m down over 2km. Yes, there is a sign which reads Be Extremely Cautious and yet there were a couple of car wrecks, probably left as an additional warning sign. Rather expensive petrol - very expensive in most remote areas.
Tomsk Oblast was quite a glimpse and I don't have much recollection of it: just forests and the Tom' River.
Khakassia Republic - the land of menhirs. They were everywhere. I can imagine they are a pain for local farmers who seem to preserve them - I guess by law, but maybe also as a reverence of ancestors. The area was quite hilly, but with mostly low hills. Well, we didn't get to the mountains that are in the West of the region. We mostly were in the steppes. Beautiful Belyo lake with its own charm.
Tuva Republic - endless steppes and very dry lands. Beginning of the Yenisey River. Beautiful mountains and fells. Shamans practicing at the roadside. My first sighting of an owl. Salty lakes with small red creatures and strong smell. This is where I learnt the concept of being able to close a road completely for renovation and letting traffic pass on both sides without building a temporary road: no need to cut trees, no marshlands. Unstraight temporary road markings gave us a good laugh. It was also a surprise to drive small dirt tracks between villages, which were in fact roads known to the car navigation system. And of course my constant concern about being outdoors during late hours and overall concern about unfriendly and drunk people. They actually did get quite unpleasant when drunk - even locals were not happy to handle them - what a shame for such a beautiful land...
Krasnoyarsky Krai - plains, lakes, hills and of course the mighty Enisey River and the Sayan mountains - very beautiful. Quite impressive mountain pass near Ergaki. Evidence of a lot of forest fires (and more fires came after we left...). And plenty of agricultural fields - very big ones. This is where we had butterflies bombard our car, well we just smashed poor creatures and then spent quite some time cleaning the windscreen and the radiator. This is where we took the ferry to cross Enisey River. And of course the hydropower stations on Enisey - Sayano-Shushenskaya being the biggest one. Not to forget the massive coal-powered station over a lake in Sharypovo. Why did we not take a picture?! Roads were quite good overall. Oh yes - plenty of police cars with speed radars. Although we were not speeding up, it was still nice to have a quest: oncoming vehicles would signal with their front-lights indicating a portable speed camera and we would look all around to find a car hidden in bushes. Krasnoyarsk - unexpected experience. The city that regularly boasts top ratings of the worst cities to live in Russia was actually great. Felt very European - they even have palm trees in the streets that they move to a warm place during winter, and plenty of fountains. The place just felt great on a sunny summer day.
Irkutsk Oblast - plenty of agricultural lands as well, much flatter lands than what we saw before. This is where we felt that the railroad is the artery which links East and West of Russia. If it is so important, why not make bridges? The amount of time we spent waiting for trains to pass was somewhat exaggerated. I remember having lunch in the car while waiting for 5 trains to pass. Enough complaining, let's talk about how beautiful this place is - it's the Baikal Lake territory after all! When we were approaching Olkhon Island by road, I was quite surprised to see the landscapes similar to Khakassia and Tuva. We were told that it seldom rains there and Olkhon Island is actually translated as Dry. Although it rained when we arrived :) On Olkhon Island, we discovered the concept of alternative roads: the main road (gravel) was so corrugated, that locals created several parallel roads to avoid it. We were silly tourists when we arrived and drove the main road all the way through, but we got smarter on our way back. Here we had the second ferry during our journey - although much quicker than the one in Krasnoyarsky Krai. It is also the land of susliks (ground squirrels) - we sighted a new generation of them in Olkhon. Olkhon is stunning and we enjoyed watching the mist forming different shapes in the air. Baikal indeed seemed like a sea: I could not see the opposite shore and the water colour was very sea-like. There were a lot of foreign tourists here: we heard quite a few languages on Olkhon. When we were driving South from Irkutsk, the road crossed mountain ranges - although not very tall, but making the road winding and quite dangerous at places. To make it worse, there was a lot of traffic and road works. I was surprised to see so many cars - I thought we were stepping into a no man's land - but that was further East.
Buryatia - dry, very dry - there was some agriculture going on, but I wonder how plants survive there. Landscapes very similar to what we saw in Tuva and Khakassia - hilly and with few trees. At the border with Mongolia, we crossed a very beautiful pine forest. In fact pine trees were different everywhere we traveled. It is quite interesting to see them change from one region to another. This is where we were driving along tanks doing their routine exercises. We also visited Baikal Lake in Buryatia - the East Shore, which was also very beautiful - we were driving between small sand dunes at the Holy Nose peninsular. And of course - the Tunka Valley with its Love Peak. Tunka Valley is amazingly rural - cows were resting at the roadside and even on the road, hiding from the sun at bus stops and in general very annoying for drivers. It is in Buryatia, where we were filmed crossing the white line an got a hefty fine. The region is littered with police cameras - this must be a very good source of money for the local budget! By the way, Buryatia is a new border between Siberia and the Far East. It was Siberia until a few months ago and it is now the Far East for better or worse.
Zabaikalsky Krai - this is a true no man's land. After Chita, the traffic all but disappeared. We could drive for several kilometres without a sight of any other car. Just endless pine and birch tree forests and occasional ivan-chai (fireweed) fields. There were quite a few birds of prey - owls and others - smashed by cars on the roadside - quite a sad view considering how few cars there are. I don't think we saw any kites from now on (and we saw many in Siberia), but plenty of other birds of prey. We didn't encounter many villages or towns and those that we crossed were sad! Lost in the middle of nowhere... And fuel was expensive! I understand petrol stations were far from the refineries, but I think they also enjoyed no competition. The road quality was not good and there were quite a few roadworks ongoing. Unstraight temporary road markings again. And no speed cameras! The road itself was a gentle and regular up and down while we were driving through the Stanovoy range. This is where we started playing a game of guessing a region by a car registration plate and it was quite amusing to see vehicles from all over Russia. Most trucks went to China I think, because as we moved further we saw fewer of them. I believe it is in Zabaykalsky Krai where the rain finally caught up with us. From now on we were driving in rain until we got to Khabarovsk.
Amurskaya Oblast - no man's land very similar to Zabaikalsky Krai continued up until we were nearing Svobodny. It was raining and we started to see floods near the road. From Svobodny, we turned South towards Balgoveschensk: many more villages, agricultural fields and quite beautiful winding roads that reminded me of rural single carriageways in England.
Jewish Autonomous Region - flat and flooded. Agricultural fields were suffering quite a lot from non-stop rains, which made me very sad to realise that the entire South East of Russia will lose much of its harvest this year driving up prices and making farmer's tough life even tougher. The road now went along the railway and we were reminded of its importance watching the passing trains.
Khabarovsky Krai - it started from the long bridge across the Amur River leading directly to Khabarovsk. We entered the city some time between 7 and 8 pm, it was pouring rain. We were lucky to find a 3-day window in between rain and enjoyed good weather while visiting the Komsomolsk and Amursk areas. Driving towards Komsomolsk-on-Amur made me realise how flat the Amur valley is - Khabarovsk is only 70m above the sea level. Hence all this territory is susceptible to flooding and a lot of it was marshland: taiga forests alternating with marshes. Although the area is located in the Sikhote-Alin mountain range, the mountains here really are hills. With all the rains Amur level near Khabarovsk was the highest I've ever seen (still below the catastrophic floods in 2013) and while we were driving East plenty of lands, including agricultural fields were flooded. Along the road, there were people selling forest mushrooms and berries, as well as home-smoked sockeye and keta salmon and red caviar. Driving inlands near Komsomolsk was not what I had imagined: I was expecting sad abandoned villages and towns, but what we saw did not look as bad. Komsomolsk surprised me in that respect - the Sukhoi aircraft factory does mean a lot for the town (this is where we witnessed tests of the newly-built fighter jets). Many villages depend on mining, forestry and fishing and there is plenty. We encountered many trains and even exchanged a friendly honking with a passing train while waiting at a crossing. While driving Eastwards, we saw a concept of portable cameras being pre-emptied by a portable camera roadsign - so the road police actually warned drivers of their presence. The road quality was not great. A few kilometres of the road were an ex-military airdrome, so we were imagining a take-off while driving along it. The road towards South was better in quality, but didn't impress me much: except the Chinese lorry driver that turned from a secondary road ignoring us completely. Not to forget the oversized hornets and horse flies that surrounded our car every time we stopped.
Primorsky Krai - feels like we were somewhere in the tropics. Sikhote Alin with its compact hills was very picturesque: high humidity in the air made the landscape look like somewhere in the South-East Asia. After all, South of Khabarovsky Krai and Primorsky Krai are where South meets North: there are vines and cork trees growing here and the mighty tiger lives in the taiga. And monster hornets and horse flies again. We decided to go off the motorway and take a winding gravel road in taiga towards the Pacific shore. It was very empty and I enjoyed driving. Here is where we saw a wild bore that was too scared of us and quickly ran away. We reached the Pacific Ocean to view oddly shaped rocks and beautiful sandy and pebbly beaches. The roads were full of locals selling their garden produce. There were a lot of agricultural fields - makes sense in such a great weather! Vladivostok was another major surprise. I knew it would be different, but I was not expecting it to be so beautiful with its long majestic bridges. The road near Vladivostok was very good and this was the first time we saw a speed limit above 100 km. The gravel roads were not a match! We were in Primorsky Krai right in the middle of a tourist season so we spent some time in traffic jams of holiday makers. We timed our trip to Primorsky Krai just right - as we were leaving, the first typhoon arrived. We later heard about floods in the area, but we were already safe and relaxed at home in Khabarovsk.
This is how we made it through Chuyski Trakt, Sibir, Baikal, Amur and Ussuri motorways. What about Mongolia?
Driving in Mongolia was fun. First of all, it was beautiful - quite similar to what we already saw in Russia, just much more of it. Second, and most unusual, was the feeling of absolute freedom. As roads were pretty bad in most places, people would create alternative roads and there could be many - take whichever you like! This is when I understood the fun of a rally. And of course gers - those portable folding houses that you can take anywhere with you and move on to the next place whenever you like. Although Mongolia is very scarcely populated, people were everywhere - one or two gers, but we saw them quite regularly, even in the desert. Of course, we drove along the main roads and tourist attractions. I can imagine that stepping out in the wild would be different. But there would still be roads - dirt tracks - and some of them were known by our MapsMe app! We took them to drive to tourist attractions in Gobi and even between two villages to avoid a lengthy drive to the main road. Gobi was quite an experience: the main road between Ulaanbaatar and Dalanzadgad was appalling at quite a few long stretches - this is where we damaged our wheel the second time. The road from Dalanzadgad to China was a marvel - new, smooth and very beautiful. Unfortunately, it did not last long: as we turned towards the Khongoryn els sand dunes we had to drive along a terrible corrugated dirt road for about 3 hours. Camels were quite a usual sight in Gobi - we even had them crossing the road in front of our car. Mongolia seems to take their bad roads seriously. Roadworks were ubiquitous. As we drove from Russia towards Ulaanbaatar, we already saw quite a few roadworks - we even had to take a diversion at Darkhan, which took us a while to figure out. Imagine our surprise when, driving out of Ulaanbaatar, we saw the road we took earlier closed - just a few days ago we passed by and saw it operating and now, when we needed it, it was closed. We took a lengthy diversion, which led us to a picturesque ger camping site and then continued along dirt roads parallel to the main road being repaired. When we were able to climb to the main road, we saw excavators preparing dirt tracks to be soon used by drivers. And to finance this massive infrastructure building, many toll booths were in place - this is the most tolled country I've ever seen - although the fare was peanuts for us, I imagine it could be hefty for locals if one needs to use it regularly. Traffic in Ulaanbaatar is worth mentioning - I've never seen it so bad anywhere else! Just for this reason we decided not to stay in Ulaanbaatar on our way back from Gobi - although we had to enter it, we did not go to the centre of the city.
