Let down

After two resting days we want to continue our journey today. I am early up to release the horses of their pegs, so they can eat well before we start. At 9:15 o’clock I go to the tent of Khurgaa and Bumbayr.

“Get up folks! We travel today!” I shout. It stirs nothing. “Get up! Today we ride further!” I repeat my request. Again my alarm call remains unanswered. Whether they are not at all in the tent? I think. “Get up! Or do you want to sleep forever!” I shout once more. After a little while the boys attend with bad mood. “Have you been fishing again yesterday night?” I ask. “Tijmee”, answers Khurgaa yawning.

“All my limbs hurt. Do you have a painkiller?” cries Khurgaa on which I dissolve two painkillers in a mug with water for him. “Ihhh, this tastes terribly”, he says and returns me the mug half-filled. “Do you have now pain or not?” I ask him again the mug passing. “Tijmee, however, the stuff one cannot drink.” “It is not a candy this is a painkiller. Just drink it”, I request him. With reluctance he empties the mug and shudders like a small child. Then he warms his revolting soup on the fire.“Would you like a little bit of it? It is with little fat only,” now he asks more friendly the tablets show effect. “Thank you however, I prefer our breakfast”. “Your disgusting mash?” “Exactly this”, I answer and spoon the grains in my mouth.

Khurgaa and Bumbayr ride today either far behind or far before us. The incomprehensible shouting of their Mongolian rock from their small radio sounds over here to us. “Sounds thus as Dschingis Khans hordes would attack a town”, I say to Tanja. “I am glad that they not ride beside us”, she answers. “Should we get, however, problems with the load they are not here to help us. Their working morale is as bad as their music”, I answer acidified.

Because of many fenced in tourist camps which appear now every few hundred meters it is not to be found simply a suitable resting place. Khurgaas suggestion is a narrow beach piece which hardly offers feed for our horses. “No”, says Tanja pointing on little grass. “Our horses are still thin and must be at least at night able to eat well.” I ride in front and search a resting place. “Now you do the horses,” I say to Bumbayr and Khurgaa. Bumbayr refuses at first, nevertheless, is whistled back by Tanja as he wants to follow me.

Only one kilometer further I find a fantastically nice meadow itself behind a larch wood hidden and not be seen from the road. Look on the sign. There we may not camp, says Khurgaa on a half dilapidated board interpreting. “Private property”, he reads to me. We ride further and find after 32 day kilometers and six riding hours a pasture directly near the lake witch is also only with difficulty been seen from the road.

The animals are hardly unloaded Bumbayr lies down exhausted on the lawn and falls asleep. Khurgaa meanwhile lights a fire to prepare a big pot of soup with the last dry cow’s meat. Me nothing besides thinking I lift the camera to take a photo of the camp. “No photos!” shouts Khurgaa irritated and jumps out of the picture. “Why?” I ask not the first time when he is refusing to have a photo taken. “I do not want that during cooking,” he answers.

“Bumbayr will not ride with you to M¸r¸n. In Khatgal the trip has for us an end,” he says abruptly. “What? Nevertheless, from only here begins the horse thief problem. Exactly from today on we need you,” I answer amazed. “We turn back,” he says. “But you absolutely wanted to ride with us to M¸r¸n. This is the reason why we Bilgee had not asked to come to Khatgal. He suggested this to us.” “Anyway, we turn back from Khatgal.” “Khurgaa. On the way from Riginlhumbe up to here we did not need your presence is only from today on important. Exactly today it is the first night we must hold night shift. Nevertheless, you have agreed. This was translated by your sister. You have understood what it is about and why we have engaged you,” I explain still relatively calmly. “We turn back.” “Why?” “Because there is from now on in this area horse thieves and we fear our horses could be stolen,” his answer almost fells me. “If we hold night guards no one pinches us the horses”, I answer in dangerous tone. “We are not doing night watch. We turn back. Here there are thieves. This is too risky for us”, he amazes me once more. I feel like a volcano eruption in me. “Now you let down us here simply like thus? You let yourselves pay two rest days to offer us the next day to ride back? What kind of person you are? It looks almost thus as you would have planned that from beginning?” I say to him.

“If they want to go tomorrow, they will not hold night shift tonight. At least we cannot count on it. We should suggest to them riding right now”, says Tanja. I consider briefly and nod for confirmation. “Okay Khurgaa. Do you want to go immediately?” asks him Tanja. Khurgaa and Bumbayr are saddling their horses. “How wide is it to Khatgal?” Khurgaa asks me, because he knows that my GPS tells me everything about distances. “Approx. 35 kilometers”, I answer. “We make the distance today”, he says confidently even it is already 19:00 o’clock. “Will you sleep at your relatives home?” asks Tanja in friendly tone. “Tijmee”, he answers. “Tomorrow we ride back to Ringinlhumbe. We take the abbreviation over the mountains and will be tomorrow evening at home”, he says. Quick the both have risen in the saddles. “Daraa bajartaj!”, (goodbye) they shout and gallop of. As if their presence was only a haunting we are suddenly alone. In the middle of the area in we should be under no circumstances alone. What a peculiar irony of the destiny. Even before I have played for some time with the thought sending them home, a feeling of vulnerability spreads in me.

“I will sleep tonight outside beside the horses”, determines Tanja. “It is too humid directly beside the lake”, I point out. “All the same, I lay a tarp over the sleeping-bag.” “Okay”, I answer about the sense of this action thinking.

After some consideration our plan stands for the first night. We tie up Mogi directly beside Tanja. He should be our early warning system. Then I collect fist-size and smaller stones. Stones can be dangerous particularly if one can throw like me. I lay a small stone heap beside Tanjas isolation mat and one beside the tent exit for myself. Each of us owns a pepper spray which to me during my and our past trips already has saved at least three times my life. In addition we have walking sticks they are light and very stable. These are excellent weapons in the case of emergency. However, my secret weapon is a flare signal firing device. Actually we have it, to shoot a luminous rocket in the air to draw attention if necessary in an emergency case.
In our case a very good weapon, for teaching horse thieves fearing who do not reckon on such a shot fireball at night. “And God knows, if they come I will teach them fearing”, I swear to myself.