Latest / How To Move The Stars | A bicycle ride twice around the world / DAY 166 | Mongolia | How To Move The Stars | A bicycle ride around the world

Transcript

DAY 166 | 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 29th, 2013. Down the mountain a cow woke me
• 0:05
  up just as the sun was rising. She bumped me with her nose and
• 0:09
  wandered away. Children with sleepy eyes were
• 0:12
  coming out of the yurts to herd the animals toward uneaten
• 0:14
  pastures. Thin clouds in the sky glowed
• 0:18
  with warm colors. The grandmother invited John,
• 0:22
  Anna, and I into the yurt for breakfast.
• 0:24
  The inside was warm and homey. Colorful rugs covered the ground
• 0:28
  and vibrant details were painted onto the yurts wooden frame.
• 0:32
  A little boy slept on the floor when he strips of meat drying on
• 0:35
  the wall. Small blocks of homemade cheese
• 0:38
  the size of butter sticks hung from lines of strings that
• 0:42
  crossed the ceiling in the middle of the yurt.
• 0:45
  Said a small stove heating a steaming black cauldron.
• 0:49
  A box of cow dung sat on the floor and I watched the
• 0:52
  grandmother use her bare hands to move a few chips of feces
• 0:55
  into the stove and go straight on to picking up biscuits and
• 0:59
  cheese and placing them on a plate for us to eat.
• 1:02
  I picked up a biscuit and tried to think of the last time I
• 1:05
  washed my own hands. We're also served fresh yogurt
• 1:09
  that was quite good, and from the cauldron we were given a cup
• 1:12
  of clear liquid. The drink was distilled from
• 1:15
  horse milk and tasted slightly alcoholic.
• 1:18
  Flavor is mild, like coconut water with a splash of vodka.
• 1:23
  After breakfast, I said goodbye to Anna and John.
• 1:26
  They're heading to the far eastern edges of Russia, where
• 1:29
  the road will eventually end and then they'll turn around.
• 1:32
  We left together, but they are quickly out of sight and I was
• 1:36
  alone again. I crossed another wide valley
• 1:40
  and at the pass on the far side I came to a large corn where
• 1:44
  Ovu, as the markers called in Mongolia.
• 1:47
  The base was a 10m wide pile of boulders as large as a man could
• 1:51
  lift and their collective bulk supported a 10 foot tall wooden
• 1:55
  pole sticking straight out of the middle.
• 1:58
  The pole was draped and wrapped with wide soaking ribbons the
• 2:01
  color of deep blue sky. I've seen a couple of these
• 2:04
  oovoos and I'm struck by how beautifully they fit into their
• 2:07
  surroundings. I believe they look so natural
• 2:10
  because unlike a built object, they grow organically.
• 2:14
  Their seeds germinate on mountain tops and high passes,
• 2:17
  and very slowly, across centuries even, they become
• 2:20
  larger and more ornate, a gathering material up to a short
• 2:24
  walk away. The ovus grow from the stone
• 2:27
  where they live. Their form is achieved without
• 2:30
  guidance, helped along by many hands over many generations.
• 2:35
  Each ovu is a little different, and they are all magnificent.
• 2:40
  Frequently drivers will stop at an ovu to take a break.
• 2:44
  All the passengers get out to walk a slow circle around the
• 2:47
  stone shrine, A ritual to bring safe travels.
• 2:50
  I haven't taken up the practice myself.
• 2:53
  I need to believe that my luck is innate because I will still
• 2:56
  be going when the Ovus are far behind me.
• 3:01
  I rolled over the pass into a 3000 foot descent that deposited
• 3:04
  me onto a wide flat expanse at the bottom of the hill.
• 3:08
  I spent a few minutes with four high school age boys waiting for
• 3:12
  their friends at the intersection.
• 3:14
  Pavement started there, so we tried chatting while I took the
• 3:17
  time to pump up my tires. I learned that they were going
• 3:20
  into the mountains for a camping trip, but we struggled to
• 3:23
  communicate much more than that. They had a bottle of juice and a
• 3:28
  single cup that was filled for each of us, then passed around.
• 3:31
  The first guy drank the cup of juice, then threw the last few
• 3:34
  drops into the air. I thought he's performing some
• 3:37
  customs such that after I finished the cup he poured me, I
• 3:41
  also threw the last few drops into the air and added the
• 3:43
  exclamation Mongolia as a toast to the country.
• 3:48
  The four of them looked at me bemused but said nothing.
• 3:51
  I handed the cup back feeling a little embarrassed.
• 3:54
  After the next guy finished, he did nothing with the last few
• 3:57
  drops and neither did the other two guys.
• 3:59
  I think they were worried for me.
• 4:01
  Before I left, they gave me bread and a cane of fish.
• 4:06
  Across the wide open land, I could see the weather starting
• 4:09
  to take a turn. As the first drops fell, I
• 4:13
  stopped to take shelter under a bridge.
• 4:15
  The storm would not actually hit me for another 45 minutes, but I
• 4:18
  knew the bridge would be the only cover for miles around.
• 4:22
  A local couple on a motorcycle join me as the rain started
• 4:25
  coming down hard. The hills to the South turn
• 4:27
  white from hail in the stream, which was nearly dry when I
• 4:31
  arrived, swelled as a shallow flash flood swept across the
• 4:36
  sandy land. I sat with the couple as we
• 4:39
  waited for the rain to pass this evening.
• 4:43
  The road began to run parallel to a row of high voltage power
• 4:46
  line towers, each with four legs perfectly spaced to hang my
• 4:50
  hammock. The sky was filled with
• 4:52
  lingering Gray clouds and the flash flood was on my mind.
• 4:56
  I wasn't keen to sleep on the ground and biked over to the
• 4:59
  tower. I considered the deadly amount
• 5:02
  of electricity running through the high voltage lines above me,
• 5:05
  then hung my hammock. The electricity up there,
• 5:08
  shouldn't it affect me down here?
• 5:11
  I feel good being back in my hammock.
• 5:13
  From where I'm lying, I can see 60 miles to a solitary stripe of
• 5:17
  rainbow shining over the mountains like a beacon.