ADV Mongolia Motorcycle Tour

Ten nights across Mongolia timed to start at the Naadam Festival, with around three quarters of the riding off road. The bike hire is included, on a KTM 890 Adventure R or a Husqvarna Norden 901.

Ulaanbaatar opens it at the Naadam opening ceremony, which is the national festival and has been held in some form for centuries: wrestling, horse racing over long distances across open country, and archery, all of it taken extremely seriously.

The route then runs south to the granite formations at Baga Gazriin Chuluu, the Buddhist ruins at Ongi monastery, and Khujirt, where fermented mare’s milk is the local product and an acquired taste. The Orkhon valley follows with its waterfall, then the Tsenkher hot springs, and Karakorum, capital of the Mongol empire in the thirteenth century and now a small town with a serious museum.

Ugii Lake and the Elsentasarkhai dunes come next, known locally as the mini Gobi, then a nomadic camp with a small-scale Naadam the group takes part in, a horse show and throat singing, and a visit to a Kazakh eagle hunter’s family, where golden eagles are still flown at foxes in winter. Terelj National Park closes the riding with khorkhog, mutton cooked with hot stones, and Ulaanbaatar takes the farewell dinner and a sauna. Prices are quoted in US dollars. Three quarters off road on bikes this size asks for real competence, and the festival timing means the departure dates are fixed by the calendar rather than by preference. Naadam falls in July, which is also the one month of the year when the Mongolian steppe is reliably green and the rivers are low enough to cross.