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.
1514 km from Tooromt to Tooromt, about 26 h 04 of riding. The stops in between: Ubsu-Nur, Uvs Lake and back through Ubsu-Nur. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Mongolia into Russia - carry ID and check the toll rules.
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 49 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Where the Tes river comes down from the Mongolian highlands to the Uvs basin, in the far north-west of the country, the land is open, stony and almost without trees. It flows toward Uvs Nuur, the largest lake in Mongolia, a shallow body of salt water that has no outlet, shared with the Russian republic of Tuva, and the whole basin is a UNESCO site, listed in 2003 as one of the best preserved steppe ecosystems in Central Asia. The delta of the river is a wetland where reeds, marsh and pools attract migrating birds, including swans, pelicans, cranes and many ducks.
Read the complete Tes River write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tes River is where the day begins. Next is Ubsu-Nur.
Ubsu-Nur, or Uvs Nuur, is a lake in a land of extremes. It lies in a closed basin on the border between Mongolia and the Russian republic of Tuva, in the middle of Central Asia, where there is no outlet to the sea, so the water simply evaporates, leaving it too salty to drink. It is the largest lake in Mongolia by area, shallow, with wide marshes and reed beds, and it sits between the Altai mountains to the west and the Sayan range to the north. The Tes river, which feeds the lake, gives its name to a part of the basin, and the whole area was listed by UNESCO in 2003 as the Uvs Nuur Basin.
Read the complete Ubsu-Nur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ubsu-Nur comes up about 345 km into the recorded legs. Next is Uvs Lake.
Salt water in a landlocked basin, with snow mountains behind it and a horizon that goes on and on: Uvs Lake is a strange, quiet sight. It sits low, at around seven hundred metres above sea level, in a basin on the Mongolia and Tuva border, and it has no outlet. Water arrives from the rivers, mainly the Tes, and leaves only by evaporation, which is why the lake is salty and why its shape changes from year to year.
Read the complete Uvs Lake write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 757 km into the recorded legs you reach Uvs Lake. Next is back through Ubsu-Nur.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ubsu-Nur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ubsu-Nur, late in the day. Next is Tes River.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tes River write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Tes River. That is the ride.
Tes River → Ubsu-Nur is 345 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ubsu-Nur → Uvs Lake is 412 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Uvs Lake → back through Ubsu-Nur is 412 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ubsu-Nur → Tes River is 345 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.