Just Say No

Spirits are high but supplies are low. Thankfully the group came across a very remote tribe of Mongolians; unfortunately they don’t speak English. Their dialect is neither Russian nor Mongolian. Which makes bartering for supplies more difficult. AEG’s saving grace, Auggie. Through Auggie the guys are able to locate a Mongolian “grocery store.” While there, Chris takes on the task of picking out and buying the sheep they will eat later that night.

They make it back to the tribe and the small community of gers. (A ger is what the Mongolians use for shelter in extreme weather conditions. They each have a wood-burning stove inside to take the chill from the bone. This is a thankful reprieve from the bitter cold the guys are becoming accustomed to.) The guys are able to borrow a couple of horses and head to the river to fish for the day.

Photo by Peter Fong

The afternoon is crisp and the scenery unimaginable. Fifteen foot high icebergs are scattered along the river, hiding under blankets of snow, making navigation challenging. They overcome the challenge and land two nice sized Taimen. Auggie is the proud captor of his very first Taimen; it measured in at 40 inches. Chris worked the same pool and pulled in its twin, matching in size and strength.

With an accomplished day of Taimen hunting achieved they head back to camp for dinner, to be greeted by another full tribe of Mongolians that have vacated the hills to see the white westerners. These natives have never seen white people before and are truly intrigued by their presence. In honor of the distant travelers, the tribe spent the entire afternoon (while the guys fished) preparing potatoes and carrots for the sheep Chris had bought earlier. The meal is just what the wearied white westerners need. The celebration didn’t end there. The Mongolian tunes began erupting from the locals and the fire set to blaze. The moment the yak vodka surfaced though, Thad ran and hid muttering something like, “never again, never again!” Safely hidden is his ger, he left the rest of the guys to their own demise of passing the forbidden bottle.

The morning came extra early and Brian had this to say, “We’re all recovering from a heavy drinking/singing party that we had with the local families around us. Word must have gotten out quick that we had killed a sheep because people started coming out of the woodwork to join the feast. The night consisted of drinking, cooking the sheep in a pressure cooker (very traditional) more drinking, singing, and all of us getting sick and throwing up the milk vodka that we were given, and then passing out in our ger with the locals laughing at us.”

Tomorrow, before the sun rises, they will make the long journey to the scientific research camp and talk with the lead researcher Zeb about his efforts to save the Taimen population. There is still a bit of snow on the ground, so time is against the guys to get out and get going. If they wait too long after the sun rises, the horse trails known as roads will be covered in mud by mid-morning.

As our day is ending here, theirs has only just begun. With a new day comes a new opportunity to save the sacred Taimen and to just say no to yak vodka!

Base camp out.