We had an amazing opportunity to take a long weekend and travel with friends to the annual Kazakh Eagle Festival in Bayan-Ulgii. Of course the kids were thrilled... Zeke has been waiting over a year to see the golden eagle hunters! We even met the youngest hunter, who got 4th place and was Zeke's age - 10! I don't think that they would trust any of us with their eagles, but we got to hold this falcon.
There were horse and camel races, a tug-of-war game on horseback, and lots of local crafts, but of course the eagles were the best part. They would take off from a small mountain and pounce on a fur being dragged behind their trainer. Some would wander off, some missed, but most were deadly accurate. I think the fastest eagle was about 12 seconds from peak to pounce. The hunters themselves were quite impressive as well, dressed in their furs and colorful embroidery.
Not only that, but creation itself was most impressive. We stayed in a ger camp next to a large, clear river (I didn't know they HAD any large OR clear rivers in Mongolia!). There were even a few trees (right next to the river). But the mountains were awesome - jagged with a few perennial snowcaps. As we went through the highest pass our intrepid teammate (Larry) ran up to 9000ft... after we set up this base camp at 8800 ;)
We had an amazing opportunity to take a long weekend and travel with friends to the annual Kazakh Eagle Festival in Bayan-Ulgii. Of course the kids were thrilled... Zeke has been waiting over a year to see the golden eagle hunters! We even met the youngest hunter, who got 4th place and was Zeke's age - 10! I don't think that they would trust any of us with their eagles, but we got to hold this falcon.
There were horse and camel races, a tug-of-war game on horseback, and lots of local crafts, but of course the eagles were the best part. They would take off from a small mountain and pounce on a fur being dragged behind their trainer. Some would wander off, some missed, but most were deadly accurate. I think the fastest eagle was about 12 seconds from peak to pounce. The hunters themselves were quite impressive as well, dressed in their furs and colorful embroidery.
Not only that, but creation itself was most impressive. We stayed in a ger camp next to a large, clear river (I didn't know they HAD any large OR clear rivers in Mongolia!). There were even a few trees (right next to the river). But the mountains were awesome - jagged with a few perennial snowcaps. As we went through the highest pass our intrepid teammate (Larry) ran up to 9000ft... after we set up this base camp at 8800 ;)
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