Mongolia Travel-Doc, Part II

As you probably know, I rode my bicycle, alone, across the entirety of Mongolia last year. I began in Dornod Province’s easternmost town (Xalxgol) and finished in Bayan-Olgiy’s westernmost settlement (Tsengel). The whole trip took 3,500 kilometers and 3.5 months.

Early in the ride, I started wearing my GoPro chest mount. I kept it on all day, every day, and would turn it on for 15-30 second bursts–just enough to capture an idea of the “roads” (scare quotes are legit here, friends), trails, and paths I was riding (or pushing or cursing-while-pushing). Sometimes there were no paths, only rivers to cross. Or reindeer to ride (thanks for that, SM1&O, you know who you are).

By the time I reached my final destination, I had over one thousand of these clips, but what to do with them? Well, why not string them together–in order of appearance (no cheating)–so you could see the entire traversal of Mongolia from my point of view in the saddle. Considering I spent upwards of eight hours a day, every day, for months, it’s a pretty vital POV to establish the what it was like to be there. 

So I present you with Mongoliad (2015), Part II: The Road. These are the arteries connecting Mongolia, as real as it gets: all 3,500 kilometers, 350 video clips, and 3.5 minutes of them.

I hope you enjoy it the bumpy, chaotic ride as much as I did,
—Jim Bennett (The Transglobalist)