Early start – 8am with no breakfast to meet our eagle hunter. It was a two hour drive along some very gusty valleys. The scenery was, as per usual, amazing. We weren’t allowed to take photos on the horses in case they spooked, so I didn’t get many photos at all.
We sat and had a few bowls of tea (the milky, salty variety) and rugged up. I had so many layers on I could hardly move. It wasn’t enough, either. My toes and fingers were so cold they were close to falling off (literally). It was at least –15 degrees outside not including wind chill. We rode our horses for about 3 hours. It was a long ride. My bum is surprisingly not sore, at all. I’m pretty sure I was given the best horse, with the best saddle which made for a nice change. My bum was also significantly more padded than usual with some extra winter fat I’ve accumulated of late, as well as multiple layers of thermals, track pants and ski pants.
We rode and rode. My horse was great until he decided he wanted a drink but I couldn’t let him. It was downhill from there. To hunt for foxes and rabbits, you have to walk along the tops of ridges to get the best view. The hunter spots an animal, takes off the hood on the eagle’s head and sets him free on the prey. We were walking along ridgelines on our horses that were cranky, with gusty winds, freezing (well below freezing, actually) temperatures and a guide that wasn’t much help. We gave it a good shot but had to give up, it was too cold and too dangerous to be up there.
I don’t regret doing it but it certainly wasn’t comfortable. The scenery was unlike any other Mongolian scenery. The hills were like massive plasticine mountains thumbed up in to perfect peaks. The valley was unkept and uninhabitable. The winds blow such a gale that all the houses are tucked away in secret hiding spots. Animals in herds dotted the valley but were few and far between. The view continued forever and was just amazing.
Our horses finally got a drink at the bottom of the valley and we prepared for a decent ride home in the freezing, gusty winds. But no! We stopped! At a house! With a fire! And hot tea! We didn’t mount the horses again, they were too cranky and we were too cold. We sat and made friends while the nice eagle hunter rode home to ask our driver to pick us up. I know that sounds mean of us, but it was seriously cold and the horses had become so dangerous to be on (remember, they’re mostly wild to start with) that it wasn’t worth it. He could gallop home in 20mins. We could walk home in 1.5hours.
So we sat and drank more tea. It was a sparsely furnished house, with an old fire in the middle and a single bed on the side. There were blankets and kids toys, as well as kitchen gear in another corner. There was a bowl with a big stomach filled with milk. It was very soft yet tactile. It was tied together with a shoelace. It was a cow tummy, filled with cow milk that was being fermented to make dried yogurt curds. I showed a little too much interest and the guys opened it to show me. Then I had to try it. OH MAN IT WAS TERRIBLE. It was a thicker consistency than I imagined, quite like yogurt. It was lumpy and very salty and had the most horrible, concentrated fermented taste in the whole world. I put a tiny bit on my tongue and couldn’t even close my mouth. The guys thought it was HILARIOUS. They started to tease me with a spoon full of it. Do you want some – here, have a spoon full… NOOOOooooooooooo YUK! And they’d laugh out loud at the face I would pull. So they’d eat the spoon full of it as if to say ‘ner ner, it’s delicious and you don’t know what you’re missing out on’………….. They were really fun!
We waited for a good hour or so for our driver to come and collect us. I forgot to say goodbye and thankyou to the eagle hunter, and I still feel terrible. The lady of the house gave us all some dried yogurt curd to take home with us because I’d shown so much interest in it. I WISH I could bring some home and introduce you all to the variety of preserved dairy products in Mongolia. Unfortunately, I can’t, and the gift of dried yogurt curd has to go elsewhere as I can’t eat it.
One of the men who dropped in, a real character, had the BEST hat in the world. He guarded it like his newborn baby. I asked to try it on, and then got a whole spiel. He had used his eagle to hunt the fox. He skinned, tanned and cut up the fox and sewed it in to his hat. It was bloody fantastic. And so warm. He was obviously very proud of it. It was very new.
The driver arrived, we alighted and drove back to Olgii. I am now clean, fresh and fed, ready for bed. Tomorrow is our last Olgii day and my second last day in Mongolia. Scary freaking shit, man. Scary shit. This place is amazing. Mind you, courtesy of the terrible weather today I’m getting sick. OH NO!
xox
2 comments:
did they know their dog is dead?
It's a wolf. If it was a dog, it would be buried. A wolf is a completely different kettle of fish. It's so cold outside, the wolf is just frozen. It'll stay there for a while, until I assume they'll use its fur. Wolf fur is very special, as wolves are hard to catch. They are like dingoes in Australia, or wild dogs. They eat all the sheep.
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