Eighth summary – Shock at the spring camp of the Tuvan nomads
N 49°01'460'' E 104°02'800''
Day: 439
Sunrise:
07:11
Sunset:
18:32
Total kilometers:
2525
Soil condition:
Asphalt
Temperature – Day (maximum):
15 °C
Temperature – day (minimum):
minus 10 °C
Temperature – Night:
minus 12 °C
Latitude:
49°01’460”
Longitude:
104°02’800”
Maximum height:
1281 m above sea level
As soon as we reached the breathtakingly beautiful high valley, which the reindeer nomads had chosen as their spring home, Bilgee left me alone to ride to Tanja.
My camp was on the edge of the tipi settlement. I didn’t get any visitors for days. Everyone was busy with themselves and setting up their tent. The always hungry and thieving dogs of the nomads forced me to stay in the tent to look after the food and equipment. When I once visited Tsaya and Ultsan’s tepee for just an hour, I paid for it by losing all our meat supplies.
After just under a week, Tanja, Bilgee, the mare Naraa and the foal Tuya arrived at our spring camp. I will never forget how happy I was to be able to embrace my wife unharmed. “I have some bad news for you,” Tanja said after a while, a little crestfallen. “Bilgee will be leaving us soon.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and was suddenly deeply saddened. By now Bilgee was my friend and I couldn’t understand why he would abandon us for a better job offer. Even when we offered him a higher salary, he stuck to his decision. How could things go on without him? Bilgee had made herself indispensable in the months we had been together. But above all, according to the Mongols and the Tuwa, a horse expedition without a native companion was extremely risky. “You will almost certainly lose all your horses to thieves. And if you’re unlucky, you’ll be attacked and killed,” they warned us. What should we do? Our journey seemed to have reached a crossroads. A few days later, Bilgee decided to accompany us to Tsagaan Nuur and wait until we could find a replacement for him. At least that was a consolation.
Due to the altitude of almost 2,000 meters, spring was extremely slow to arrive. The buzzing of the first fly put me in high spirits.
Bilgee lived with the horses 20 kilometers from the camp. “The grass is better there,” he said. Every few days he came on horseback to get food and to help us fetch firewood and saw.
The days flew by. We had long since ceased to be strangers and were recognized as members of the tribe. We visited the tipis, ate elk and gazelle meat in the worst hygienic conditions and got on better and better as our language skills improved. Purvee, the shaman’s wife, told us openly about her life, how she saw the past and what she expected from the future. The 77-year-old Puntsel was happy to welcome us to her little tepee. We shared a bottle of her favorite drink, vodka, with the tribal elder and listened to her songs and stories.
The weather was capricious. At one point, we thought that winter had finally been defeated, only to be suddenly surprised by a terrible blizzard. The snowstorm uncovered some of the tipis and blew away some of the tarpaulins. The next morning, everyone was busy repairing the damage.
“Od’s gone!” said Bilgee as he rode in from his outdoor camp. In fact, the horse theft hit us like a blow from a fist. It was to influence the entire journey ahead of us. Because our horses were still weak, we realized that we would have to leave the spring camp on foot. We had too much equipment and now too few packhorses. Bilgee felt like a failure because of the loss of Od and fell into a depression. It took us a lot of effort to get him out of it, to convince him that it wasn’t his fault.
Still not knowing how to continue without our husband, we climbed one of the nearby mountains. Up there we had the opportunity to log into the cell phone network and make calls to Saraa. “I’ll try to find you a new horseman,” she promised.
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