Today saw an early early start
flying from Ulaanbaatar northwest to Ogiiy
the Mazaalai is the Gobi bear.;
a subspecies of the Brown bear and critically endangered.
(we did not see any, but then again, we were not in the Gobi)
On the other hand, what we did see, is almost impossible to describe.
But being me, I will try 🙄
Ogiiy is the regional ‘city’
It is the capital of the Bayan-Ölgii Aimag (province) of Mongolia,
located in the extreme west of the country on the banks of the Khovd River.
Populations 50 000
and if you look carefully, you will see a massive land slide
and destroyed homes.
The entire suburb had to be moved and rebuilt.
and then off we went to our new ‘home’
not a great distance in kilometres,
but an enormous distance in experience.
Helping along the way……
And it was so so cold, I felt so sorry for this woman, pillion and half frozen.
That is Yerlan, our amazing driver, cook, mechanic, clown,
general Great Guy.
This was to be our home for the present.
A very humble, beautiful, warm, friendly home.
Two doorways. The first into a small, shall we call vestibule.
It houses animal food, animals, and general ‘stuff’
like baby bleating goats brought in from the cold at night.
Our generous hostess Minekhan;
who opened her home to a stranger, me,
who when I left, felt like family
and the famous Khairatkhan, eagle hunter, our host.
He has lived with eagles for 40 years and had about ten of his own.
(they release them back into the wild after 5 years)
The eagle (almost always female) are fed once a day
and never too much (ie kept alert to hunt)
There is a fascinating video for those that are keen to know more about
eagle hunting.
Meanwhile, we stayed with him and his wife.
and I had the BEST time.
Language was no barrier as we muddled through the day,
laughed, pointed, showed and shared.
There is dung to collect
Fires to stoke
There was patience required as the tea heated
Tea, dates, biscuits, bread and honey. 🥰
Meals to share – for some reason our faces are not as happy as our souls were 😂
But here our smiles matched our soul connection.
The ubiquitous mobile – the link to the family, the country, the world.
Down Time.
Before bed
Our rooms for the night.
Beds, a luxury.
I was honoured with sharing our hosts‘ room at their insistence.
I am sure they sleep each in their own bed usually,
but they ’snuggled’ up into thesmall stretcher bed –
honoured.
And here is an attempt to highlight the eagle hunter,
his magnificent bird
his great horse
and his life.
Did I say HORSE?
Did I say RIDING?
Did I say EAGLE HUNTING?
Yup, well next blog will bring you that…….
😂🤣
Brave New World of Blogging 