A Long But Rewarding Day

We’re up before 4 to drive to the airport for the flight to Ulgii. Check-in and so on go very smoothly thanks to the experience of our guides, I’m not sure we would have navigated it without them. The airline collect about £3 in excess baggage fees from me (and from most of the participants) but there’s a stupid system where this has to be paid right at the other end of the departures area, with no useful signage, just the guides’ help. At least Argentinian Airlines put the lady with the till right next to the check-in desk, much better.

The opportunities for retail therapy in Ulaanbaatar Airport’s domestic departure lounge are, to say the least, somewhat limited, but I do manage to negotiate purchase of a packet latte and use of the hot water boiler. The resultant drink is as white as snow, despite the packet confirming that it is at least intended to include coffee, but it’s sweet, wet and warm. The flight is very smooth. As we near the end I get a good aerial shot of a snow-covered mountain, not realising its significance for the day’s activities.

Some cities are pretty close up even if they look disorganised from a distance. Ulgii belies the obvious nominative determinism by looking quite pretty as you fly in, courtesy of a mosaic of pastel-coloured tin roofs, but once you’re driving through it the old, decayed Soviet-era buildings and the massive amounts of new construction are both very visible.

We check into our hotel, get a bite of breakfast, and then hit the road. We have a 2.5 hour drive south to meet a family of eagle hunters. Although nomadic, they are usually to be found in the shadow of Mount Tsambagarav, the same snow-covered (and very sacred) peak I had photographed from the plane.

We have lunch with the head of the family, Askhabyl Shaimurat, who answers our questions about their life and the culture of the eagle hunters, and then after lunch we alternate between a couple of portrait set-ups, and photographing a couple of the more active hunters doing action shots, riding through water with their eagles. As the sun goes down we all move up hill to capture our new friends in environmental portraits lit by the evening glow.

We wait until sundown, and then it’s another 2.5 hours back to the hotel, which we reach near midnight, Ulaanbaatar time. It’s been a very long and action packed day, but full of wonderful photographic opportunities with a great family.