CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
105 km from Dashbalbar to Dashbalbar, about 1 h 49 of riding. On the way it passes Mongol Daguur SPNA, Landscapes of Dauria, Forest steppe part of Daursky SNBR and back through Landscapes of Dauria. It crosses from Mongolia into Russia - carry ID and check the toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 59 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go — slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did.
For about 38 km this is Chita to Dauria Reserve, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Open steppe, a few shallow lakes and a very large sky: that is the landscape of Dauria, the borderland where eastern Mongolia meets Russia and China. The Chuh-Nuur lakes lie in the Mongolian part of it, a region of rolling grassland dotted with salt-edged basins that fill and shrink with the rains. UNESCO lists the Landscapes of Dauria as a transboundary site, because it is the migration crossroads that matters, not the border drawn across it.
Read the complete Chuh-Nuur Lake cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chuh-Nuur Lake cluster is where the day begins. Next is Mongol Daguur SPNA.
Mongol Daguur is a strictly protected area in the far east of Mongolia, in Dornod province, where the steppe rolls away towards the Russian and Chinese borders under a sky that seems twice the size of any other. Together with Russia's Daursky reserve across the border, it forms the Landscapes of Dauria, a World Heritage site covering one of the last great intact steppe ecosystems on Earth. There are no fences, no villages, barely any tracks, just grass, lakes, wind and wildlife.
Read the complete Mongol Daguur SPNA write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mongol Daguur SPNA comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Landscapes of Dauria.
Dauria is the great steppe that straddles the border between Russia's Zabaykalsky region and northeastern Mongolia, and it is one of the last places on earth where you can see a grassland ecosystem working on its own terms. UNESCO listed the landscapes of Dauria in 2017 as a joint Russian and Mongolian site, recognising the importance of its steppe, wetlands and wildlife. The scale is vast: rolling grasslands stretching to the horizon, dotted with lakes, under a sky that seems to go on forever.
Read the complete Landscapes of Dauria write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 31 km into the recorded legs you reach Landscapes of Dauria. Next is Forest steppe part of Daursky SNBR.
Dauria is the name for the open steppe where Siberia runs into Mongolia and China, and it is one of the last great undisturbed grasslands in Asia. The reserve called Daursky protects a slice of it in the far south of Zabaykalsky Krai, in an area of rolling hills, shallow salt lakes, and a sky that feels twice as large as normal. Forest steppe is the term for the zone where patches of larch and birch push out into the grass, and here the mixture is dry, windy and bright, with long winters of fierce cold and short summers that can be surprisingly hot.
Read the complete Forest steppe part of Daursky SNBR write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Forest steppe part of Daursky SNBR, about halfway. Next is back through Landscapes of Dauria.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Landscapes of Dauria write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Landscapes of Dauria sits at 70 km, about halfway. Next is back through Mongol Daguur SPNA.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mongol Daguur SPNA write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Mongol Daguur SPNA comes up about 86 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chuh-Nuur Lake cluster.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chuh-Nuur Lake cluster write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chuh-Nuur Lake cluster closes the day.
Chuh-Nuur Lake cluster → Mongol Daguur SPNA is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mongol Daguur SPNA → Landscapes of Dauria is 12 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Landscapes of Dauria → Forest steppe part of Daursky SNBR is 21 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Forest steppe part of Daursky SNBR → back through Landscapes of Dauria is 21 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Landscapes of Dauria → back through Mongol Daguur SPNA is 12 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mongol Daguur SPNA → Chuh-Nuur Lake cluster is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.