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Golden Eagle Festival

After getting to bed at 6.30am this morning we were up and en route to the Golden Eagle Festival by 9.30am, determined no to miss a minute of the action. I was hoping to see a bit of Olgii town and get in a quick shower before we left but there was no time and Ospan’s family don’t have one of their own. They got to a public bathhouse once a week.

I cannot tell you how nice it is to be out walking around after such a long time on a bus. The weather is perfect; Cold and crisp and not cloud in the sky. The backdrop is equally as impressive with rugged yellow mountains surrounding the event ring.

I am surprised to see so many foreigners here. There is probably only about 60 of us but it is more than I was anticipating for such a remote festival. Most of them are professional or amateur photographers with their massively fat lenses trying to capture that perfect picture of an eagle in flight which I’m sure they all hope will one day feature on the front of National Geographic. There is quite a buzz amongst them as they swap stories about their gear. Some were here last year and have returned determined to get the shot. The Mongolian Ambassadors from the US and UK are also here. I wonder what they make of all this. There is a rugged excitement to this event that can’t be matched. It is simply fabulous. But it’s a long way from the White House and Number 10. Lets hope they weren’t expecting Dom Pérignon and a corporate marque. You’d be lucky to get a cold water out here!

The first event was a Miss Universe contest of sorts which I found highly entertaining. Each eagle hunter had to present up to the judges on horseback in his finest regalia. They were then judged by a panel of three. As to what the criteria was it’s a little hard to say. Those who joked about and flashed the biggest smiles got perfect 10s while others who seemed to be taking the event a little more seriously and who I thought looked the most authentic, were randomly given scores of 4 out of 10. First time competitions always received full marks, I guess to entice them to come back again next year.

The afternoon competition was what people came to see however with hunters trying to lure the eagles off the mountain top with a piece of meat. I paid close attention since this is what I want to learn to do in the coming days. It turns out it’s kinda harder than it looks. Most of the eagles answered the call of their trainer and came off the mountain but then turned and flew in the complete opposite direction. D’oh! It was pretty funny. One did kamikaze dive through the crowd sending everyone ducking for cover before landing on top of the 4WD of the chief investigator of Olgii’s police force. A spy eagle perhaps? 🙂

I chose to watch most of the action from half way up the hillside so I could see the birds being release at the top but also them sailing down to collect the food from their trainers. I also sat on the mountain because it was the only place I seemed to get intermittent mobile phone coverage. Today was the Australian Rules Football grand final and I waited nervously for text messages from home  with updated scores. GO CATS!

The feeding competition was followed by picnic races-style games and contests which made for some fantastic vision and photos.

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