AUSTR ALIAN GEOGR APHIC SOCIETY
UPCOMING EXPEDITION
MOUNTED NOMADS of
W ESTER N MONGOLIA
Discover the ancient nomadic cultures of western Mongolia
on this unique journey with Tim Cope in 2015.TRAVEL WITH TIM COPE into the
heartland of an ancient horseback
nomad culture. The tour will take you
from remote desert landscapes to glacier-
capped peaks and the bustle of one of the
most isolated, yet vibrant, towns in Central
Asia: Olgiy, the capital of Mongolia’s
semi-autonomous Kazakh province of
Bayan Olgiy. Highlights of the journey
include a three-day trek accompanied by
nomads and their animals, and attendance
at the annual eagle festival, which is the
largest gathering of its kind in the world.
Tim will be joined by veteran local guide
Tseren Enebish to provide a unique,
exploratory style journey with a focus
on cultural encounters.ITINERARY:
Day 1: Join the tour in
Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar.
Days 2–4: Fly to Uliastai, and
take a 4WD journey through
remote Zavkhan Province.
Days 5–7: Trek through the
mountainous Kharkhirra
Turgen massif.
Day 8: Drive to Uureg Nuur,
a vast alpine lake near Russia.
Day 9: Travel to Olgiy, the capital
of Bayan Olgiy, a semi-autono-
mous province with a majority
Kazakh population.
Days 10–11: Enjoy the Kazakh
eagle festival in Olgiy.
Day 12: Drive to Tsambagarav in
the great Altai mountain range.
Days 13–14: Explore broad slopes
and open valleys of this region.
Day 16: Drive to Hovd.
Day 17: Fly to Ulaanbaatar.
Day 18: Trip concludes.DEPARTURE: 24 September 2015
PRICE AND BOOKING: 1300
720 000 or worldexpeditions.comKazakh province of Bayan Olgiy – a
place and people that have shown a
remarkable ability to weather radical,
and sometimes cataclysmic, change.
The Kazakhs, a Turkic people of
nomad heritage whose lands stretch
from the Altai to the Caspian Sea,
were violently uprooted in the 1930s
by Stalin, and forced to settle in
villages and collective farms.
Nowadays, Kazakhstan is a
highly urbanised country with only
a fraction of society living according
to nomadic ways. But in Bayan Olgiy,
perhaps by virtue of its isolation,
nomadic society has remained
relatively unscathed. The Kazakhs
there have even preserved the art of
hunting on horseback with eagles –
a skill that Mongolians themselves lost
centuries ago when they converted
to Buddhism.
Every year these hunters gather
during the first weekend of October
to celebrate a tradition that has
perhaps been unbroken for millennia;
the best hunters from across Bayan
Olgiy assemble, mounted on
decorated horses and in their full
regalia, for a one-of-a-kind spectacle.
It is estimated that 80 per cent of
the world’s eagle hunters live in this
province, and the festival offers the
opportunity for them to compete for
a variety of awards.A
S I CONTINUE TO sit by the
deer stone, eventually a breeze
begins to turn my sweat cold.
Carrying my expedition group’s
equipment, my own camel caravan
approaches, and so I stand up to
continue on to evening camp. Before I
leave, however, I glance over my
shoulder and pause once more. I can’t
help but feel that if the day comes that
I pass this deer stone and the ‘human-
ised’ backdrop of gers and horsemen is
gone, it will be very sad indeed.
Right now at least, in these parts of
Mongolia, there exists a signifi cant
living chunk of human history that I
BOTTOM: WIKIMEDIAbelieve we can all learn from. AG^September–October 2014 107ag0914_mongoliaP107 - 100 2014-08-07T16:02:52+10:00