120. Day 77 – A speedy transit through the Mongolian/Russian border

Monday 5 May 2008

We had a good sleep-in at Ulaan Baatar before going down to the Ford dealer at about 10.00 am.  Baagii insisted on taking us for a test drive – and what a test drive!  It was to a high mountain overlooking UB, around about 1,500 feet higher than the town itself.  We almost needed 4WD to get there.  At the very top of the ridge we climbed out of the Earthroamer.  Walking along, we could look down through the beautiful pine trees to UB below.  Unfortunately there is a lot of smog around because of the huge power stations and the coal powered heating plant.

The road was magnificent and we managed to average 69.5 kilometres per hour to the border. We passed Mongolia’s second largest town, Darhan, which is based on coal mining and steel work.  Beside the road as we drove were ploughed fields.  Spring is arriving and there were even some green shoots coming through.

Houses and gers in Darhan

We turned right just as we reached the town of Suhbaatar, which is classed as the border town.  It is where the railway line heads north into Russia.  There are huge silos which seem to be almost falling down.  They are probably from the days of the collectives.

As we got within about 60 kilometres of the border, the scenery changed quite dramatically.  Most of Mongolia is completely treeless, but here we were in trees for the first time.

Twenty minutes later we reached the border at Altanbulag.  It was only 5.37 pm, so we thought we would give it a go to pass through the border today – the border closes at 7.00 pm.

It was incredible!  We did have Eldos with us, which helped tremendously.  At 6.15 pm we said goodbye to Eldos, so it only took around 40 minutes to do all the formalities. 

We were then on our own, but Pip had it all organised.  She had kept copies from previous border crossings and we were able to use those to encourage the Russians to get us through quickly.  Knowing that their border closed at 7.00 pm really motivated them.  We paid the Russian insurance (about $100) and got approval to import the vehicle for two months.  That is an ideal length of time, even if we break down a few more times!  We finally left the Russian border post at 7.09 pm.

 Instead of turning north, we somehow ended up on the wrong road and found ourselves following the border fence to the east.  Yes, we were heading towards Vladivostok, but on a shocking road that we couldn’t believe even Russia would have.  Fortunately, by looking at the GPS we realised we were going the wrong way and we backtracked.

As we headed north towards Ulan-Ude we were in magnificent pine forests.  We have a feeling we are going to be in treed areas right through to Vladivostok.  It will be interesting to see.

At 8.30 pm, still in good daylight with the sun out, we stopped at a small town.  We think it might be called Kalshina, but if you have a look on the Spider Tracks you might be able to locate it.

We knocked on a few doors and many of the houses seemed to be unoccupied.  The kindly Russians came out and read our sheet, which says in Russian, “Can we park our vehicle in a secure location for the night?”  We finally agreed that we would park right outside one of the houses, and here we are – cosy, with the heater working.  We are in the Earthroamer with the engine working, and the new batteries ran the frypan to cook macaroni and cheese.

Today  421 kms.    27,892 kms since Anchorage, Alaska.  We have over 3,800 kilometres to go.

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