Mongolia 2018 Trip Report

It really is no coincidence at all that Mongolia is known as the land of “eternal blue sky”. Over a 10 day period, Samantha Reinders took a group of ORYX clients to the Western reaches of the country where they were treated to the best a Mongolia photography tour has to offer: landscapes with no end, cultural hospitality that humbled them all and action and adventure that kept them on their toes…

Sam had this to say –

“The Golden Eagle Hunters Festival – the main event our Mongolia photo tour is organized around – is a once in a lifetime experience. Part ‘Mongolia’s Got Talent’, part ‘Faulty Towers’ and part rodeo meets Olympics with a little splash of Hollywood thrown in for good measure, it’s difficult to sum up in words. There were horses galore, and eagles bigger than you can imagine. Camels with wobbly humps smiled for the cameras as did archers and ladies in traditional Kazak clothing. The crowd highlight was definitely the traditional game – called Buzkashi – where two men wrestle over a goat carcass while on horseback. The festival drew over 1000 people from 17 different countries. We set up a ger as a base camp at the festival and were treated to a visit from many of the eagle hunters including Aishlopan – the star of the Eagle Huntress, and the area’s resident A-lister.”

“Like all difficult-to-access-off-the-beaten-path destinations, this photography tour does come with its hardships. There’s no hotels or hairdryers on this one. Or showers for that matter. But having shared a local ger with my clients for 5 days made the experience all the more intimate and all the more fun. We learnt as much from each other as we did from the local families we were staying with. This is what makes a cultural photography tour with ORYX so great!”

“I, for one, will be back in Mongolia next year – to reconnect with old friends and make new ones.”