A Polish extreme traveler has become the first person to cross the Gobi Desert by bicycle, covering a remarkable 1,285 km in 26 days while braving temperatures as low as -30°C.
Mateusz Waligóra rode his bike through Mongolia, from Altai to Sainshand, in an expedition that tested him and his equipment to the limit.
It was a solo adventure, except for an unplanned 120 km, during which he was forced to seek help from locals to get his bike repaired. Locals helped him get to the nearest city, where he managed to get it fixed after having parts sent from the capital, Ulaanbaatar.
“I'm exhausted. I'm happy. This is the moment when I feel that despite the hardships it was worth crossing the Rubicon a second time to experience this brief moment of happiness. Hug a tree, cry more than once and more than twice,” he posted on Instagram shortly after finishing.
It was a solo adventure, except for an unplanned 120 km, during which he was forced to seek help from locals to get his bike repaired. Locals helped him get to the nearest city, where he managed to get it fixed after having parts sent from the capital, Ulaanbaatar.
“I'm exhausted. I'm happy. This is the moment when I feel that despite the hardships it was worth crossing the Rubicon a second time to experience this brief moment of happiness. Hug a tree, cry more than once and more than twice,” he posted on Instagram shortly after finishing.
“Toughest Polish bicycle expedition ever?”
During his adventure, along with the bike problems, his electronic devices malfunctioned due to the temperatures, which plummeted as low as -30°C.
Having thought he had weathered the worst of it, with just 25 km to go, the frame of his bike cracked. With the vehicle unrideable, Waligóra had to complete the remainder of the journey on foot, pushing the broken bike for a dozen or so hours.
“Is this the toughest Polish bicycle expedition ever, as stated before I began? I don't know. However, I think I set the bar pretty high,” Waligóra posted on Instagram.
The Polish adventurer was returning to the Gobi Desert for the first time in seven years. In 2018, he became the first person in the world to cross the Mongolian part of the desert on foot.
This time around he fended off hurricane winds, sandstorms, bitterly cold temperatures and thawed-out sections of the desert, which had become a huge muddy mess.
He also had to cope with a lack of access to water, including one 250 km stretch. He packed four thermos flasks with enough water for 5.3 days but had to keep heating them to prevent them from freezing when temperatures dropped to -15°C inside his tent and to below -30°C outside.
The extreme traveler pushed his bike, loaded to its limit, up mountain passes and high dunes. He also rode hundreds of kilometers wearing a mask to make breathing a little easier in the airborne dust.
Following his 2018 Gobi crossing, Waligóra subsequently marched across Greenland from west to east, reached the South Pole and became the first Pole to reach the summit of Mount Everest after starting at sea level.
He has also completed a bicycle traverse of the world's longest mountain range—the Andes, a solo bicycle ride along the most difficult route marked out on Earth—the Canning Stock Route in Western Australia, and a solo pedestrian traverse of the world's largest salt desert—Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia.
Having thought he had weathered the worst of it, with just 25 km to go, the frame of his bike cracked. With the vehicle unrideable, Waligóra had to complete the remainder of the journey on foot, pushing the broken bike for a dozen or so hours.
“Is this the toughest Polish bicycle expedition ever, as stated before I began? I don't know. However, I think I set the bar pretty high,” Waligóra posted on Instagram.
The Polish adventurer was returning to the Gobi Desert for the first time in seven years. In 2018, he became the first person in the world to cross the Mongolian part of the desert on foot.
This time around he fended off hurricane winds, sandstorms, bitterly cold temperatures and thawed-out sections of the desert, which had become a huge muddy mess.
He also had to cope with a lack of access to water, including one 250 km stretch. He packed four thermos flasks with enough water for 5.3 days but had to keep heating them to prevent them from freezing when temperatures dropped to -15°C inside his tent and to below -30°C outside.
The extreme traveler pushed his bike, loaded to its limit, up mountain passes and high dunes. He also rode hundreds of kilometers wearing a mask to make breathing a little easier in the airborne dust.
Following his 2018 Gobi crossing, Waligóra subsequently marched across Greenland from west to east, reached the South Pole and became the first Pole to reach the summit of Mount Everest after starting at sea level.
He has also completed a bicycle traverse of the world's longest mountain range—the Andes, a solo bicycle ride along the most difficult route marked out on Earth—the Canning Stock Route in Western Australia, and a solo pedestrian traverse of the world's largest salt desert—Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia.
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