Kayakasia

14 hours ago

E26 to E29 (48km) : The Lower Egiin Gol

Last night’s rain continued this morning until lunch, when the sky cleared for us to eat our lunch on a gorgeous grassland that stretched so far we could not see beyond. We stripped our outer layers to dry, sitting in the sun to get some warmth. We were in no hurry, for we knew the fast flowing river would bring us to our next camp without much effort. We took a long 2 hours lunch, just enjoying the sun and the wonderful vista, and 4G network (again in the middle of nowhere!).

The scenery was even better after lunch. Even after 5 days, there was still a wide disconnect between what we were seeing and what we thought Mongolia was supposed to look.

E29 - E36 (119km) : Eg-Selenge confluence

Still 120km from the end of Egiin Gol - which was at E36 confluence with the Selenge river - our expedition ended abruptly at E29. We still had 2 days to go.

“There is a fuel crisis. We think it is better to drive directly to UB tomorrow.”, Nara told us.

“But this means we can’t paddle the last stretch of the river to the end. We want to do that. Is there another way?”, I was surprised at the news.

Ganaa fetched a notebook and started doing his calculation. Continuing with the expedition will result in a -20 litres shortfall of gasoline. This meant we were 100km short of Ulaanbataar.

“Please find a way. We can lighten your load by almost 1000kg when we paddle to E36. Otherwise the 2 vans will be fully loaded when we drive out tomorrow with the kayaks and people.”

“Ganaa said it doesn’t save a lot of petrol whether the vans are loaded with extra 1000kg or not. Only 3-4L. He is considering only one van goes to UB. If we cannot find gasoline, we will put all the petrol in one van at Erdernet, and only one van will drive you to UB. Just enough but it is very risky .”, Nara explained.

“That could work!!”

“It is risky as we will have no reserves. There are long queues at the petrol station. We are not sure we can get more gasoline. They say the stations are restricting each car to 15L.”, Nara added.

“Could you please see if there are any other ways to save or get gasoline? Pay more?”, I pleaded.

We came so far!

At the end of the day, there wasn’t any decision…we just knew in our hearts that breakfast probably would not be ready at 530am. That we probably would not need to put on our kayaking gear. And that we would probably need to pack up all the kayaks tomorrow morning. The land team could not make the math work. They were not willing to risk it. I knew if we insisted and took responsibility we could probably paddle, but that would meant overruling their recommendation and counsel. Personally I thought it was 50:50 whether we could get more gasoline or not. We could only hope the fuel crisis resolved overnight.

I didn’t wake up to change.

~

Epilogue

We didn’t paddle to the end of Egiin Gol. We managed to pump our tanks full plus bought extra gasoline at a small village just after exiting off road, enabling us to drive back to UB comfortably. We saw hundreds of cars queuing outside petrol stations at all the major towns along the way back to Ulaanbataar. We heaved a sigh of relief that we didn’t paddle. We lamented that we could have done the last stretch the day before. We rejoiced at buying from a convenience shop. We heard the sad news of Nims missing in the Karakoram mountains.

We finally also wrecked one of the UAZs. An hour before reaching Ulaanbataar, one of the UAZ’s axels broke. The drivers were the saviours, deploying all manner of tools and spare parts to change the axel on the highway and got us going again. 20 litres stopped us a day before but the drivers saved us with their mechanical ingenuity! Another strong reason why expedition had to be self sufficient.

~

We paddled past land too dry to support extensive forests but not dry enough to become a sandy desert. Where there were some water, grass grew: steppe grasslands formed. Where there were more water and sun, trees grew. Where there were lots of water, in the meadows and flat valleys, wetlands thrived. In the short Summer, wild flowers bloomed. Insects buzzed. All living creatures under the land of eternal blue sky (Mönkh khökh tengeriin oron) were out and about, actively and busily preparing for winter.

The Egiin Gol was one of the most pristine rivers I had ever paddled on.

—
Egiin Gol Expedition
Mongolia
July 2026 ... See MoreSee Less

Kayakasia

2 days ago

E23 to E26 (50km) : Reunion

None of us were eaten by bears! Not even Pep, who had spent the night sleeping on his kayak by the river. And none of us needed to hug each other to sleep last night.

Besides cold toes and cold shivers at night, we all looked none the worse when we woke up. Spirited and eager to go. Very heavy fog however, meant we couldn’t start paddling early, or warm up in the sun. After a quick bite of whatever we had left, we were looking forward to meet the land team for lunch at E25.

When the kayak and land teams finally reunited, there was of course many stories to exchange and share. The most were between first time kayaker Ganaa and stand-in logistic manager Nara. What we heard from the land team was an off-road, overland drive through very difficult terrain, busted tire, helping people with busted tires, van repairs, and trying to set up comms with us along the way. They were kindly taken in by a villager when they arrived at Teshig village around 9pm. They didn’t continued to us because the owner of the accoms said he was coming to open the cabins. So, there was arrangement and somehow an accoms was booked, the mystery was where and which one? Along the river, we didn’t see many houses. Definitely not on the map, too!

~

The frontal storm that I had anticipated for 6 months finally arrived. For the past months, I was looking at data, books, and consulting with those who had paddled the river to understand the weather. I worried about it so much that the entire expedition plan was designed with dealing with thunderstorms. We had to start 530am every morning and end by 2pm, before any convection storms could form. We had been as the weather was perfect and we could extend our paddling till late. We had some rain but had not encountered any storms yet.

At dinner, the rolling black clouds reminded me of the southwest monsoon. Within 10 minutes of seeing these fast moving clouds, wind gusts came. I quickly threw heavy rocks into the kayaks to weigh them down, secured all the paddles, and then ran back to the safe shelter of my tent. Fat drops of rain began hitting the tent hard.

It was only 8pm. Everyone was in our tents already. We were ready looking forward to a well deserved, long night of blissful sleep under the rhythmic rain. The only downside was that the generator broke, and so no Starlink satellite wifi tonight…I drifted to sleep looking at photos of past days….

#egiingol #expedition #mongolia ... See MoreSee Less

Kayakasia

3 days ago

E23 (wild) Camp 4 : Overnight

In the middle of the night, I heard a horse galloped towards me. The horseman got off his horse and stepped on the veranda where I was wild sleeping under a table. He held a flashlight and was searching. I could hear him check the locked doors to the main house.

“We are saved!” I thought. Someone finally came with the keys.

He approached me and touched my shoulders. When I opened my eyes, he thrusted his phone to my face, and on it, was a photo.

I was momentarily confused and thought he was trying to verify our identities. I mumbled something. He pinched to zoom and jabbed his finger at a particular person in the photo.

It was then I realised the ‘horseman’ was Ganaa. He was going around to make sure everyone was still ok. He had accounted for everyone but one. Pep was missing. His finger was still pointing to Pep’s face in the photo, and grunting something in Mongolian.

I answered “kayak” and checked that it was 3am. The full moon was high and I vaguely saw him walked towards the river, his flashlight leading.

Ganaa woke up worried.

First the cold wind woke him. Then he remembered the grave warning he received from the ranger. That was why he decided to paddle with the team yesterday, despite never ever sat in a kayak before, and not knowing how to swim. He was fearful of water depths that he could not measure with his arms, having lived in the Gobi desert all his life.

No one had told us about the bear warning, which was only revealed to us after the expedition ended. The ranger had warned that this area had the most active population of bears. In fact, the locals at the village had warned Ganaa that it was much safer for us to stay on the water at night than sleep on land !

When Ganaa started, everyone was sleeping outdoors and struggling to keep warm. No one wanted to sleep inside the shitty room.

At 3am, with the cold and remembering the warning, he moved everyone indoors into the shitty wellness centre. He left me and Pep outside though!

#camping

~ ... See MoreSee Less