Category: Mongolia 2010
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Adventures Off The Map In Outer Mongolia
It was on the sixth day after leaving Hatgal that the trail petered out. In its place, a tangle of tiny channels began to eat its way westwards down a long valley floor, paved by fist-sized, weather-rounded stones. On either side of the river basin rose steep, jagged walls of rock enthusiastically smothered in green by the spring’s new growth of larch and pine. A whopping green trout flashed past beneath the clear waters that trickled and filtered down from the lofty whitewashed crags. But for all its unspoiled splendour, the landscape was accompanied by no soaring Hollywood overture, no… Continue reading →
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VIDEO: Bikepacking Outer Mongolia (Part Four)
This is the last part of my series of videos from mountain-biking in Mongolia last year (start with Part One if you just found this). In this episode we find ourselves spending several days pushing our bikes down a deserted valley in search of a town whose name we are unable to pronounce, lured on by the faint hope of a big plate of deep-fried dumplings with which to celebrate the end of our trip. I really hope you’ve enjoyed these videos. Now’s the time for you to help me improve the next project. What was your favourite scene or story?… Continue reading →
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VIDEO: Bikepacking Outer Mongolia (Part Three)
This is Part Three of my series of videos from cycling in Mongolia last year (here’s Part One if you missed it). In this episode we travel along the banks of Lake Khovsgol, which on a heavily loaded bicycle is a bit more difficult than it might sound. We meet some local holidaymakers and embark on what begins to look like an unrideable ‘shortcut’ to a town on the far side of a mountain range. Please leave your comments below! Continue reading →
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VIDEO: Bikepacking Outer Mongolia (Part Two)
This is Part Two of my mountain-bike adventure video series from Mongolia (here’s Part One by the way). In this episode, we’re searching desperately for something more interesting than riding across the endless steppe. I unfortunately get ill and we have to lay up for a couple of days in the town of Moron, and then we decide to head north to Lake Khovsgol. Please leave your comments below. Continue reading →
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VIDEO: Bikepacking Outer Mongolia (Part One)
I recently spent several weeks bikepacking across Mongolia with my good friend Andy. We decided to pool our filmmaking experience to try to create a really entertaining bicycle adventure video which also captured the scale and diversity of the country. This is the fruit of our labours — please take 10 minutes out of your day to give the first episode a try. The remaining three episodes will appear on this blog over the next few weeks. My main reason for producing these videos has been to practice the craft of editing, so your feedback on the series would really help… Continue reading →
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Video: 3½ Years Into 3 Minutes
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A super-short blast through my time away from the UK, from bolshy beginnings in 2007 to humble homecomings a few weeks ago. [vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/18113861[/vimeo] Look out for more video coming very soon. Merry Christmas! Continue reading →
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Four Spectacular Moments From Mongolia
These composite shots are from moments during my time in Mongolia when I made a special effort to capture the essence of the landscape and the atmosphere. You can be the judge of how successful I was! Continue reading →
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The Long Road Back To Yerevan
Coming home meant two things: a very long journey by public transport, and lugging an unwieldy collection of funny-shaped bags and bits of metal through a variety of cities in the summer heat. Choosing to travel exclusively by land meant that the excursion was really much more than just a bike ride in Mongolia. It was also an opportunity to spend a few days watching the world go by, and to experience one of the world’s great train journeys — the Trans-Mongolian from Moscow to Ulaan Baatar (and back). There was also the logistical challenge of it all — anyone… Continue reading →
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Mongolia: The Cream Of Adventure Cycle-Touring
In 2006, Andy and I took our mountain-bikes up to Inverness and spent a week riding an off-road route to Fort William, which we had put together from detailed Ordinance Survey maps. We made a lot of mistakes — carrying all of our kit in heavy backpacks, relying for a good night’s sleep on a £10 tent from Lidl, and being rather optimistic about our daily distances cycling on hiking trails. This, my first ever bike trip, was about trial-and-error, climbing the steep learning curve of our inexperience. It was the most fun I’d ever had on a bike, or… Continue reading →
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Off The Map In Northern Mongolia — Another Photo Essay
After I’d recovered from a sudden illness, we hit the road again with fresh enthusiasm. We set out from Hatgal at the southern tip of Lake Khovsgol, knowing nothing about the state of the route other than that two Finns and an Aussie told us on returning from a mountain-biking trip that it wouldn’t be possible to get through the first 25km with luggage on the bike. That sounded like an excellent way to keep things interesting. It was 10 days before we reached the next settlement. During that time, we rode swooping forest singletrack and dragged our bikes up… Continue reading →