TIMOTHY ALLEN: This is the beginning of what
is essentially a 5-day overland migration through the Altai Mountains.
COMM: Known as Eagle Hunters, the Kazakhs
of Western Mongolia are a nomadic people whose lives revolve around the movement of their
livestock. In February and March each year, around 200 families make the harsh 150-kilometre
trek across the Altai Mountains of Western Mongolia. For 5 days, they and their animals
brave the treacherous train and temperatures that can plummet as low as minus 40 degree
Celsius. In 2015, photographer Timothy Allen became the first outsider to walk the length
of the migration. He travelled with Shohan and his two friends as well as around 1000
animals, including Shohan’s eagle, camels, cows, sheep, goats, horses and yaks. In 2016,
he returned to do it again bringing with him eight photographers from the Europe, the USA
and New Zealand.
TIMOTHY ALLEN: So, that’s the first morning
and today we all are heading off from Shohan’s family’s winter camp that you can just see there
behind me, and this is the beginning of their spring migration, the migration that
takes them up to their spring pastures. You can see they’re just putting the finishing
touches to the camels there, loading up a gear on top of their camels and we’ll be
heading off real soon. I’m really excited and I can’t wait to get on the road now.
COMM: Shohan and his wife Perna move their
livestock six times a year. Nowadays, Perna, the rest of the family and their possessions
are all transported by truck, but the animals still have to be herded over land in the traditional way.
COMM: But as they start the migration, one
of Shohan’s cows has a problem.
TIMOTHY ALLEN: One of Shohan’s cows is sort
of fainted under exhaustion, and we’ve offered to give him a ride forward another 30 kilometres
to the next camp.
TIMOTHY ALLEN: And if we hadn’t been here,
what would they have done? MAN: On the camels.
TIMOTHY ALLEN: Really? MAN: That’s why the extra camels are being
led. Now we are just making life easier. TIMOTHY ALLEN: But you can put one of those
big cows on the camel, yeah? MAN: Yeah.
COMM: To help with the logistical challenges
Tim’s party has a 13-man local Mongolian support team.
TIMOTHY ALLEN: The undertaking that they’ve
got over the next week is quite incredible really. They are gonna be moving four gears
30 kilometres ahead of our next camp each day. So we have four gears at our camp and
four gears waiting for us 30 kilometres away. And they will piggy back over each other.
We’re barely out of bed and already one of the gears is down and just the few things
left. The other one’s nearly down. Two more to go after that but these guys are just incredible.
TIMOTHY ALLEN: This is day 2. It is getting
pretty cold. It has to be said.
COMM: Even fine days with blue skies can see
temperatures of -15 degree Celsius.
TIMOTHY ALLEN: Oi, don’t spit at me.
COMM: After five gruelling days, they reach
Shohan’s family’s spring home in Tavan Bogd National Park.
TIMOTHY ALLEN: We made it up the north face.
I like the way you came at it the hard way.
WOMAN: Ah, it’s beautiful.
COMM: Once they arrive, the party spends a
few days living along side the family.
COMM: And witness the century’s old tradition
of hunting foxes with Shohan’s trained golden eagle.
COMM: Tim will return to document the next
stage of the family’s migration in the summer.