Bilgee’s plan

Day: 298-304

Sunrise:
05:25/05:18

Sunset:
21:12/21:19

Total kilometers:
1361

Soil condition:
Ice, snow

Temperature – Day (maximum):
10°C – 0 °C

Temperature – day (minimum):
3°C – minus 4 °C

Temperature – Night:
minus 3°C – minus 17 °C

Latitude:
51°39’155”

Longitude:
099°21’977”

Maximum height:
1858 m above sea level

In the quiet days here at the spring camp, we have plenty of opportunity to think about how to organize the rest of our trip. “What do you say I go to Tsagaan Nuur and look for a new horseman there?” asks Tanja. “How do you want to get to Tsagaan Nuur?” I ask. “When Bilgee leaves, we’ll ride with him to the point where the Tuwa receive their supplies. A jeep can definitely drive there. We can communicate with the driver via Gamba’s radio. While Bilgee and I continue to Tsgaan Nuur in the four-wheel drive vehicle, you drive our horses back to camp.” “Hm, okay. Quite good so far. And how will you get back?” “I’ll rent one of those mopeds. They can get anywhere. Even as far as the Tuwa spring camp. We’ve seen a few Mongolians arrive and leave on their cheap Chinese two-wheelers in the last few days. Tsaya said it would be no problem at all to hire a moped ride for 10,000 tugrik (€5.71).” “Okay. And you really want to do that?” “Yes, why not? We have to take action otherwise we’ll become tribal members and have to stay here forever.” “That would mean I take care of the horses while you’re away.” “Yes. I, on the other hand, will organize a horseman, the food supplies and talk to Saraa about the visa extension. I’ll be back when I have everything. I don’t think it will take more than three or four days.” “Good, that could work. We can do it that way if you like. Better than sitting here waiting for a lucky ray that might never come. Activism has always been the best problem solver,” I reply, satisfied with Tanja’s plan.

After four days of absence, Bilgee can be seen again today. He is in a good mood. Much better than last time. “How is Tuya?” I ask. “He is doing very well. He loves the algae preparation you gave me for him. He is almost addicted to it and is constantly chasing after me to get more of it. I think that has helped him. He jumps around and wants to play all the time.” “Great. That’s really good news. And Naraa? Is she now able to stand up without help?” “Yes, Naraa is getting better day by day. Bor is still a skeleton, but she’ll get better. “What do you think about you riding out to organize your further journey and I stay here and look after the horses and your tepee?” we are taken aback by his suggestion and we explain Tanja’s plan to him, whereupon he immediately offers to ride to Tsagaan Nuur. “I’ll ride along. I like that much better than riding in a jeep,” Tanja replies, and a good solution to our challenge emerges.

The following plan developed in the course of the constructive discussion. Tanja and Bilgee ride the 40 or 50 kilometers to Tsagaan Nuur with two riding horses and two pack horses. On this trip, they will bring out the first equipment that we don’t necessarily need. They search the town for a suitable, reliable and trustworthy man. (Hope dies last). If they are successful, they ride back with new food supplies. Bilgee will look after the horses for another 10 days from this point on. When they are strong enough, he rides with us and the rest of our luggage to Tsagaan Nuur, from where he sets off on his final journey home. This means that he will not leave on May 20 as planned, but on June 10. For whatever reason, he has given us almost three weeks of his time and thus ultimately demonstrated his sense of responsibility. It is unclear to us how he can suddenly stand in for his boss for these three weeks. But that doesn’t really matter. The main thing is that we can leave this remote place safely with reasonably well-fed horses and continue our trip as planned. With or without bilgee, only time will tell.

So Tanja and I have a load off our minds. It’s strange how many difficulties we create for ourselves through fictitious problems. How difficult we humans make it for ourselves even though nothing has happened in the real world yet. When Bilgee presented us with his trigger, everything was fine. Everything is still okay today. He is there, tending the horses and we are living our lives in the spring camp. And still we racked our brains, were disappointed, indignant, angry. Our emotions went crazy, and all because of one statement. And that’s actually the crazy thing. Why did we let a single sentence, I’m leaving on May 20, spoil our mood? Did that make sense? No, it did not. The only result of our depressed mood was that we suddenly stopped enjoying our days. And now it turns out that this bad mood, this bad energy was completely pointless. Waste! Oh, it would be nice if you could take every statement, no matter which one, completely calmly. By that I also mean when you find out you’ve won a million in the lottery. Because the danger in great psychological heights is the great psychological crash. And, as we all know, you have to get over that first. So it would indeed make more sense to accept a lottery win without too much emotional fluctuation. By which I don’t mean that you shouldn’t be happy. But you can cope with the statement if the supposed lottery win turns out to be a transposed number.

Regardless of this, it would be a feat to leave the spring camp with damaged horses and all the equipment. The Tuwa would not help us. Unless we were to hire their horses and labor at normal conditions. It doesn’t matter how long we’ve been here or what we’ve given them or done for them. This kind of help does not seem to exist in this tribe. On the whole, everyone looks after themselves. Each family functions like a small city-state and mainly looks after its own affairs. Not even Ultsan or Tsaya came up with solutions. I don’t mention this with negative feelings towards the people with whom we survived a hard winter. It’s just another experience of how merciless life in the wilderness can be. Strong people are needed here. Weakness is not an option, it is spat out or expelled. A law of nature that is not exactly funny but is an incontrovertible fact.

Since the three-month school vacation starts in a few days, I could well imagine that Bilgee didn’t get a job offer but wants to move to his yurt camp to spend the summer there with his sons and relatives. This would allow him to pursue his passion of marmot hunting at the same time. Each marmot skin brings between 15,000 and 25,000 tugrik. (€ 8.57 and € 14.28). From what he told us at his interview last year, he is able to shoot up to three animals a day. This would mean that, in the best case scenario, he would turn over up to 75,000 tugrik (€43) a day. If I use the realistic half of that, he could make around 35,000 Tugrik (€20) a day. That would be 700,000 Tugrik (€400) per month for 20 working days. He himself spoke of being able to earn 500,000 tugrik (€ 286) a month with his hunting without any difficulty. With us, he receives 300,000 Tugrik (€ 171) plus full board. Although the average income in Mongolia is currently around 188,000 Tugrik (€107), our wages will no longer keep him. Another important factor is probably being able to spend evenings and weekends with his children and family during the hunt and not having to go on an exhausting expedition. The verbal contract that we signed with a handshake at the beginning of the trip obviously plays no role here.

As I type this, I am reminded of Bilgee’s almost indescribable shrewdness and his extraordinary negotiating skills, which began with his salary negotiations in Erdenet last year. Then the 5 million tugriks he suddenly wanted in Mörön for feeding the horses, plus the 700,000 tugrik wages that went with it. When we were forced to place the horses with the military, he just as suddenly didn’t want to ride them back from Tsgaan Nuur to Mörön. With this decision, too, he almost caused the expedition to fail. That was the reason why we hired young Tulgaa to ride the horses back. With his sudden decision to leave the expedition three months earlier than agreed, he once again caused us great mental and psychological difficulties. Even if Bilgee appears to be reliable, lovable and trustworthy, we have to be careful. Consciously or unconsciously, he chooses dramatic moments to present us with new unpleasant facts. I’m sure that he never expected that we would be able to come up with a workable alternative plan in every situation. It’s not nice, but it keeps our minds flexible and sometimes makes this expedition trip unbearably exciting. I could do without it, but an expedition trip is not a trip booked through a travel agency with a safety net. It is not a trip at the end of which you can sue the organizer for unpunctuality, unreliability, poor service and food, dishonesty, fraud, etc. Our great journey is an adventure with unexpected challenges that are almost always served up to us at inopportune moments. And perhaps it is precisely this aspect that makes up the word adventure. I don’t know. The fact is that we are happy to accept the challenges, even if they occasionally become too much for us. It is also a fact that I still cannot and would not like to imagine a more instructive, more beautiful, more exciting and more profound life. And if someone were to ask me today what I would do differently in my life if I could, I would answer. Nothing! It is perfect exactly as it is. Absolutely fine. It couldn’t be better so far. Simply fantastic. And if reincarnation really does exist, then Dear God, please let me become an adventurer again.

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