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DAY 168 | 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
  July 31st, 2013. A giant lake.
• 0:04
  I stopped at a store in a little town this morning and drew a
• 0:07
  crowd of men who are deeply interested in my bike as if they
• 0:11
  had not seen one before. They pulled the brake levers,
• 0:14
  played with the shifters, and wiggled the trailer.
• 0:17
  Every one of them squeezed the tires.
• 0:19
  One of them urged me to buy him a drink, so I went back into the
• 0:22
  store and purchased a can of beer.
• 0:25
  He complained to the group, only half jokingly, that he had
• 0:28
  wanted vodka. After opening the can, he gave
• 0:32
  the beer to me to have the first drink.
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  He then passed the beer around to everyone there before
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  finishing off what was left. I've bicycled into a drier
• 0:42
  climate. The grass grows more sparsely
• 0:45
  and the herds of cows have been replaced by camels.
• 0:48
  The temperature climbed to 90° today and the land baked.
• 0:52
  I could feel the heat radiating off the ground as much as down
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  from the sun. Even when I came upon a large
• 0:58
  lake, there was no Oasis. In fact, nothing was growing.
• 1:03
  All around, the landscape was desolate and quiet.
• 1:08
  I followed the shore of the lake for 30 miles, pedaling slowly
• 1:12
  along sandy tire tracks, hoping to find anywhere to rest.
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  The complete lack of shade was hard to accept from hilltops.
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  I could see dozens of miles in every direction, and the longest
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  shadow insight was cast by me. The only shade I found all day
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  was from a single small tourist shop along the shore of the
• 1:31
  lake. The sun was high and the shadow
• 1:33
  of the building was hardly wider than my shoulders, but that was
• 1:37
  enough. I laid on the ground against the
• 1:39
  wall and tried to cool off. I slept for an hour, waiting for
• 1:43
  the heat to pass, but when I woke up I'm still sweating.
• 1:48
  Half a dozen people were wandering around.
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  I must have looked rather desperate as I laid there in my
• 1:53
  ragged shirt, passed out in a sliver of shadow.
• 1:57
  I was glad simply to have a place to be still without shade.
• 2:01
  I barely take breaks. The only thing to sit on is the
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  hot earth, and there's nothing even to lean against.
• 2:08
  When I rest, I simply lay my bike over, then stand in the
• 2:11
  stifling heat as the sun beats down.
• 2:14
  I'm not comfortable enough to stay, so after a few minutes I
• 2:18
  go back to peddling. I'm getting a sense of the
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  Mongolian roads and I like how unrestrained they are.
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  Any intrepid soul can start a new path to take them wherever
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  they want to go. In this wide open land, there's
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  nothing to get in the way. The most used route swear over
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  time until they become deep ruts, at which point an adjacent
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  track is created just a couple paces over in one high traffic
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  area. I saw this method create an 8
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  lane dirt highway with perhaps 80 more tire ruts on the side
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  that we're weathering back to neutral.
• 2:53
  As evening arrived, I laid my sleeping bag out on the ground
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  at a beautiful spot overlooking the lake.
• 2:58
  I walked to the water's edge with my empty bottles, but
• 3:01
  discovered that the water was salty.
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  That's why nothing grows here. I was counting on the water to
• 3:06
  get me through till tomorrow. I'm already thirsty and only
• 3:10
  have one mouthful save for morning.
• 3:13
  The last flowing stream I crossed was 85 miles ago.
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  I'll be in trouble if I need to go that far again.
• 3:21
  This evening I watched the silent lightning storm flash
• 3:24
  over the far shore of the lake in a slow sunset, painted the
• 3:27
  sky in vivid colors. I'm now looking up at the Milky
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  Way spilling across the heavens. The Starlight is bright enough
• 3:35
  to see my shadow. The air is still and the world
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  is silent. There are no bugs, no cars, no
• 3:42
  homes. I am alone and I'm at peace.