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DAY 169 | Mongolia | How To Move The Stars | A bicycle ride around the world · How To Move The Stars | A bicycle ride twice around the world

• 0:00
  August 1st, 2013. Long bumpy day.
• 0:05
  I woke up thirsty and looked out at the salty lake.
• 0:07
  A haze had settled in the night, muting the colors.
• 0:11
  The day was hot as soon as the sun came up, and I'd started
• 0:14
  biking shortly after. With my water bottles empty and
• 0:18
  feeling rather parched, I searched for any little stream
• 0:21
  to drink from. As the temperature climbed, I
• 0:24
  began to feel desperate, but I knew the only way out of the
• 0:27
  torrid situation was somewhere ahead of me.
• 0:30
  Using my tattered sleeve, I wiped sweat from my eyes and
• 0:33
  focused on moving forward. I followed the shore for another
• 0:37
  20 miles until midday when I finally left the water behind to
• 0:41
  continue into the dry landscape. A single yard appeared on a
• 0:45
  hill, and standing outside was a Mongolian man and his
• 0:48
  motorcycle. He waved for me to join him, and
• 0:51
  when I got there, we went inside.
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  He was traveling to Olamatar, so 600 miles east of here, and I
• 0:58
  came to realize he didn't actually know the woman and
• 1:01
  young girl inside like me. He was just a traveler looking
• 1:05
  for a place to rest. We happened to arrive at the
• 1:08
  same time. Hosting a passing traveler seems
• 1:12
  to be customary in Mongolia. Everyone understands the
• 1:15
  harshness of this land and the need to help each other.
• 1:19
  The woman served us biscuits and hard cheese, the same as I had
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  in the other Mongolian homes. Most importantly, she filled my
• 1:26
  empty water bottles, scooping clean water from a plastic 55
• 1:31
  gallon barrel. As we sat in the yurt, I gave
• 1:34
  the man my camera to scroll through the photos while I tried
• 1:37
  to explain what he was looking at.
• 1:39
  He kept joking about the pictures and had the woman
• 1:42
  laughing, but I couldn't understand what he was saying.
• 1:45
  After 1/2 hour we stepped back out into the sun together.
• 1:49
  I thank the woman for the water and that's the man.
• 1:51
  How far to the next river? He wrote in the dirt that I
• 1:55
  would cross one in 170 kilometers.
• 1:58
  Hearing this made me feel particularly glad that he
• 2:00
  invited me inside. To maintain the purity and
• 2:05
  challenge of a self-sufficient expedition.
• 2:08
  I've taken to accepting help, but I never asked for help that
• 2:12
  year. It was the last outpost of the
• 2:14
  day and I didn't come across any more water.
• 2:17
  If the man had arrived just a minute sooner, he would have
• 2:20
  been inside when I got there. One minute later and I would
• 2:23
  have been too far past the yurt to see him.
• 2:26
  If the timing hadn't been perfect for him to invite me in,
• 2:29
  I surely would have continued deeper into the desert, hoping
• 2:32
  for a stream instead of asking for a drink.
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  I didn't realize at the moment, but he might have saved my life.
• 2:42
  The road today was jarring. Washboard, gravel and dust,
• 2:45
  along with many sandy patches that simply couldn't hold me.
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  My front wheel would sink into the ground, dragging me to a
• 2:51
  stop. I had to get off and wrestle my
• 2:54
  heavy gear across these sections.
• 2:56
  According to my bike computer, I was moving 9 hours to cross 50
• 3:00
  miles and every bit was a challenge.
• 3:03
  My legs are exhausted. Today was one of the most
• 3:06
  physically demanding days of my entire life, but here in
• 3:09
  Mongolia, this has become my routine.
• 3:13
  Tonight I'm sleeping on the ground.
• 3:16
  The soil is dry and fine. The clumps of thin golden grass
• 3:19
  shine in the Starlight. I'm surrounded by the sound of
• 3:23
  delicate thudding. I couldn't figure out what I was
• 3:25
  hearing until I was hit in the face by a falling beetle.
• 3:29
  Hundreds of them are in the air around me, apparently struggling
• 3:32
  to fly.