Polish adventurer Mateusz Waligora just can’t get enough of the Gobi Desert. Having slogged 1,785km across the Mongolian Gobi pulling a cart in 2018, he returned in February to cycle 1,400km by fat bike.
Waligora started in the western Altai region on February 19. At the outset, his rig was heavily laden. He dragged a trailer loaded with 21 liters of water packed in thermoses, carried 35kg of food, and had two fuel systems because he believed it would be hard to find clean white gas.
Mateusz Waligora’s approximate route across the Gobi Desert.
A mild winter
Last winter had been very cold in the Gobi, with lots of snow and temperatures as low as -30°C, and Waligora was banking on a milder year. The first stage in the Altai was very cold, but as he moved east, his prediction looked prescient. Temperatures “soared,” peaking at 4°C. However, the mild conditions worked against him. With the snow and ice thawing, the ground softened, and he found himself cycling through treacle. Worse, claggy mud collected on his tires. The mud built up until there was no space between the wheels and the frame of his bike, necessitating stops to clean it off by hand.
With the heavy bike, progress was slow, and Waligora had to change his tactics. He found that some of the local gas worked well enough that he’d be able to melt ice and snow for some drinking water, so he ditched some of the thermoses, replacing them with lighter plastic bottles.
“However, I did manage to melt a hole in my tent while melting drinking water,” Waligora told ExplorersWeb.
Waligora with his rather heavy fat bike. Photo: Mateusz Waligora
More paved roads
The Gobi had changed a lot in the seven years since his last trip, and Waligora was surprised to find paved roads and 5G in some of the villages he cycled through. It was also Lunar New Year during his journey, and the Gobi was unusually busy with people returning to their home villages to celebrate with family. This would prove fortunate.
On his way to the village of Boulgan — a tough stretch with no villages during which he had to rely on wells for water, unsure if they’d be frozen — his crank bearings broke (in the arm that connects the pedals to the bottom bracket of a bicycle). Unable to cycle and still 125km from the village, he considered pressing the SOS button on his Garmin InReach.
“I knew it was over, I couldn’t do anything [to fix it]. I considered the SOS button, but I have never used it before, and I believe that if you get into trouble, you still have to be self-sufficient. You need to do your best to get yourself out of the situation. So I calculated my water and worked out that I could walk, pushing my bike, to Boulgan,” Waligora explained.
Because of mechanical issues, the expedition required quite a bit of pushing. Photo: Mateusz Waligora
After 5km of pushing, he saw a car. But his hope of rescue evaporated when he saw it was stuffed with 14 people, doubtless returning home for the Lunar New Year. Fortunately, they were more than hospitable, strapping his bike to the roof and cramming him in as far as the village. From there, he traveled to a regional hub and arranged for new bearings to be sent from Ulaanbaatar.
Camel cheese
Getting back to the point he’d left his route proved hard. Nobody wanted to drop him by car back in the middle of nowhere. Instead, he elected to restart his cycle from Boulgan, leaving a gap of 125km in his route.
Photo: Mateusz Waligora
“On my previous expeditions, it was a point of honor to remain unsupported. In 2018, I tried to refuse gifts of camel cheese. But I don’t speak Mongolian and had to take them and then pass them on to other people as gifts. In Antarctica [Waligora skied to the South Pole in 2022], the rubber absorber that protected my back while pulling the sled broke, and I refused a new one [to remain unsupported] and screwed up my back. It was such a stupid decision. This time I didn’t give a shit…it’s my adventure, and I’m not competing with anyone,” Waligora said.
From Boulgan, he made good progress, despite plenty of broken spokes, until very close to the end. Then, 25km from his finish line, the bike’s frame finally broke from the weight. Again, it was not possible to repair. He’d have to finish on foot.
Waligora still had the GPS coordinates from his 2018 expedition and chose to retrace his footsteps, camping in the same spot before he finished in the small town of Sainshand.
Waligora had covered 1,285km in 26 days. “I was aiming for 50km each day to ensure I had enough food to finish. I would cycle further if I had enough light, but I didn’t cycle after dark because it was very cold for changing punctures, which I’d suffered plenty of in 2018 [on his cart]. At night in winter, it might be -20°C, so sorting an inner tube puncture would be very difficult.”
Photo: Mateusz Waligora
Not as scary
It was a tough trip, with brutal winds and big temperature fluctuations, but he thought it was easier than his foot crossing.
“I maybe had a 10-15% chance to finish the foot crossing. There was no one with the knowledge to help me. It took three years of preparation. I knew that this bicycle expedition would be a little bit harder because of the climate; it would be colder, with winds from the west and north because of Siberia. But I had more experience with the Gobi this time, so it wasn’t as scary.”
But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t relieved to finish. “It was a lot of fun, but I can’t recommend cycling the Gobi in winter,” Waligora said. “I lost a tooth on frozen chocolate in my second week…I had to file it down with my multi-tool to take the sharp surface off. There were hard moments.”
And yet, despite the hardships, Waligora doesn’t think he is done with the Gobi. It’s under his skin now.
“I love this place. I’d love to return, perhaps with my son. Maybe we could walk the central sands with camels.”
Photo: Mateusz Waligora
