New Zealand’s Mike Britton is riding a Yamaha AG200 2,500 kilometres across Mongolia.

He is one of 15 international riders delivering the donated Yamaha motorcycles to the Park Rangers of Lake Hosvgol National Park in July this year.

Mike and Angela, of Britton Adventures, have been organising motorbike tours in Mongolia since 2007, and have travelled to the Lake Hovsgol region a number of times.

“The Mongolians see Lake Hovsgol as their ‘Crown Jewel’, and it certainly is a picturesque and serenely beautiful place,” Mike explains

Lake Hovsgol contains 1-2% of the world’s fresh water and is the largest unpolluted lake in the world. It has remained unpolluted because of its remoteness. This is all set to change because a sealed road has now been constructed and tourism has already increased dramatically.

The rangers at Lake Hovsgol currently patrol this globally important lake on foot or horseback which means they cannot adequately protect the area from illegal mining, poaching of endangered wildlife, and illegal logging.

The Mongol Ecology Center formed a Blue Waves campaign to assist with the conservation of the lake and surrounds, and through international fundraising they secured enough money to purchase 15 Yamaha AG200’s to allow the rangers to effectively patrol the vast areas they are tasked with protecting.

When Britton Adventures heard about the Blue Waves campaign the bikes had already been purchased.

”We were delighted to hear they had chosen the Yamaha AG bike, “ said Angela. “However, when we questioned further we realised there was no plan in place for ongoing maintenance of the bikes.”

“We know the AG is a pretty tough bike but we want these bikes to last and continue to assist the rangers doing their good work, so we offered to do an annual service on the bikes when we have a free day at Lake Hovsgol on our tours,” Mike said.

“The folk at the Mongol Ecology Centre admitted that they hadn’t thought about ongoing maintenance and were extremely grateful of our, typically Kiwi, practical offer.”

Mike was asked if he would like to be one of 15 international riders taking part in a rally to deliver the bikes to the rangers and to raise funds for other gear the rangers need to do their job effectively. So, on the 8th of July, Mike will head off to Mongolia to join 14 other riders and a bunch of supporters to travel the 2500kms from the capital Ulaanbaatar to Lake Hovsgol.

A South African documentary crew will be travelling with the group, along with a number of international photographers, and a Mongolian TV crew.

For more information about this project go to http://bluewavesmongolia.org/

For more information about Britton Adventures Mongolia and other tours in amazing destinations, or about their renown New Zealand based motorcycle events go to www.adventurerides.co.nz

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