GRAVEL ALLIANCE: Postcards from the Steppe – bikepacking across Mongolia

Posted By Gravel Union On 14 April 2020

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Shimano Gravel Alliance rider Omar di Felice had long planned his solo winter bikepacking adventure across Mongolia. He managed to time it perfectly and left Ulaanbaatar and head out in the wilds of the Mongolian Steppe just as coronavirus was starting to close down the rest of the world. He sent back this collection of stunning images together with some poetic insight into what makes Mongolia such a special place to visit.

There are those who say that modern man has nothing more to explore. After all, by now, just google earth is enough to "virtually" look at every place in the world. Everything there was to discover has been discovered. But perhaps this is precisely what makes modern exploration something unique and, at times innovative. To explore. How nice this term. For me it contains the meaning of life. Know the unknown. This represents for me the term "explore".

Because yes, it is true, we can open google earth or read books, stories or reports of those who have been there. But, precisely for this reason, we lose a whole world by taking everything for granted. Exploring, in this case, means not only discovering the hardness of the Gobi desert with my own eyes. But also, and above all, what it means to go back in time.

We live with a smartphone that is always connected, we drink whenever we are thirsty and eat even if we are not hungry. The great Bonatti said it and after all it is true. Raise your hand who, of you, (including myself) when hungry does not have something to put under your teeth. For me, exploring also means this. Find out what hunger or thirst means. And mind you, it may seem trivial but it is not.

It is not when you find yourself alone in a desert knowing that you have to manage water or food. When you have to learn to hold back cravings because you are not at home. Because sometimes the difference between living and dying is your ability to listen to yourself. To indulge you. Exploring, for modern man, hyper technologically connected but also from every other point of view, is basically this too. Rediscover.

I'm learning that water is a precious asset. Because it is one thing to hear it say and another is to see it in the eyes of the people you meet. Nomads who look at you like an alien because they don't even ask themselves the problem of the shower. Cold or heat are necessities to be overcome at the union minimum. Just a little wood is enough. On the contrary: it must be enough.