“Bayarlalaa,” I say to the waiter, thanking her for the steaming bowl of Mongolian dumplings placed on the table in front of me. I leave them untouched as I continue to monitor the MotoNomad Rally’s tracking portal on my phone. The youngest participant of the event had set off solo early in the morning from his campsite, and I can see that he made great time until 55km ahead of my current position in the dusty Gobi Desert village of Mandal-Ovoo. However he’s only moved 500m in the past two hours in the featureless and mostly flat desert – my mind goes straight to worst-case scenarios; is he injured, lost or worse?
It’s in these moments I really start to question the idea of starting my own motorcycle rally with a unique and largely untested format in the most remote country on
