Netherlands to Mongolia by Motorcycle: Pieter and Mandy’s 2014 Ride

In early 2014 Mandy Brander and her partner Pieter left their jobs, bought two motorcycles and rode out of Utrecht in the Netherlands with one goal on the map: Mongolia. Three months and sixteen countries later they reached the steppe, and the photographs from the road trace a journey across Turkey, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Siberia.

Quitting jobs for a motorcycle trip to Mongolia

The couple described the departure as “the beginning of a new life”. Their stated aim was “to take traveling to the next level”, and the blog they kept along the way, We Want Adventure, became the record of that first long ride.

When their story was picked up by Bored Panda later in 2014, they had already moved on from Mongolia and were staying in Nepal, with India next on the list. Mandy later wrote that after the trip the couple planned to settle in Nepal, and her travels went on to include India, South-East Asia, Myanmar and a motorbike journey in Africa.

The route: Turkey, Armenia and the Caspian states

The photographs are grouped by country, and they read like a lesson in Eurasian geography. Turkey is the gateway from Europe into Asia. From there the route ran into Armenia, the small, mountainous country of the southern Caucasus, before crossing towards the Caspian Sea and the Central Asian republics.

Turkmenistan lies on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, and Uzbekistan beyond it is the land of the old Silk Road cities that drew traders for centuries.

Central Asia: Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and the Pamirs

Tajikistan is the most mountainous stretch of any overland ride to Mongolia. The country is crossed by the Pamir Highway, the road known by its Soviet number M41, which runs for more than 1,200 km through the Pamir Mountains from the Dushanbe and Khorog side to Osh in Kyrgyzstan. Its highest point, the Ak-Baital Pass at 4,655 m, makes it the second-highest international highway in the world.

Altitude, gravel and long distances between fuel stops are what make Central Asia the hard middle chapter of a Netherlands-to-Mongolia ride. Plan fuel and water stops carefully on these roads: services can be hundreds of kilometres apart.

Kazakhstan, Siberia and the Mongolian steppe

From Central Asia the vast spaces of Kazakhstan and southern Siberia lead to the Mongolian border. Mongolia itself is an extraordinary destination for riders. Squeezed between Russia to the north and China to the south, it covers more than 1.56 million km² yet has only about 3.6 million people, making it the most sparsely populated sovereign state in the world. Roughly half of them live in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, the coldest capital city on Earth.

Around 30 per cent of Mongolians are still nomadic or semi-nomadic herders living in the traditional felt tent, the ger. Bactrian camels graze the desert steppe of the Gobi in the south, and the country enjoys more than 250 sunny days a year, which is why most overland riders aim to arrive in the short summer.

Planning a long motorcycle journey across Asia

Pieter and Mandy’s trip shows the basic shape of the classic Europe-to-Mongolia overland route. Riders who follow it usually work through a checklist like this:

• Visas in sequence. Several Central Asian countries issue visas with fixed entry dates, so the route and timing need to be planned together.
• Vehicle papers. Carry the registration documents and international insurance for every border.
• Season. The high passes of Tajikistan and the Mongolian steppe are best between late spring and early autumn.
• Simple bikes. Machines that can be repaired with basic tools are a blessing far from dealers.

For more long journeys, read about Leaving Work to Travel: The Journey in the Gallery and Planning Your Own Break, Jérémy Marie’s Round-the-World Hitchhiking Journey, 2007–2013 and Low-Cost Travel and Hospitality Exchange: What “Free” Really Means.

Related reading

• Five Alaskan Landscape Photographs: Mountains, Water and Northern Light
• 27 Mountain and Rock Landscapes: A Gallery Across Continents

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