Mongolia | Gov-Altai Aimag | Camel Stampede

Towards evening we reach the northern ramparts of Buuriin Khyar Uul. We follow a ravine up to a pass and walk our camels down to a canyon that opens to the south.

Uyanga leading the camels through the mountains

Mojik taking the lead

At places the narrow defile at the bottom of the canyon is just wide enough to allow our camels to pass. The camels do not like these confined places.

Proceeding through the mountains

They peer anxiously at the overhanging ledges as if expecting some predator to leap down on them. We have to beat them to keep them moving. At one point a camel revolts, starts bucking and throws off Uyanga. She lands in a mass of sharp-edged boulders and could have easily hurt herself. She gets up laughing, brushes the dust off her deel, and we continue. She is one tough woman.

A few kilometers further on the canyon bottom widens to a hundred yards or more. Here the camels are even jumpier. They hold up their noses sniffing the air and keep swiveling their heads around, peering at the surrounding hills. “Chon,” shouts Tsogoo. Wolves. These mountains are notorious for wolves and the camels are sensing their presence, he says. We keep moving on and soon reach the southern edge of the mountains. The suns goes down at 6:54 and I shout to Tsogoo that we should camp. He explains that we must keep moving and camp out on the level desert a few miles away from the mountains. Otherwise the presence of the wolves in the mountains will disturb the camels all night and they won’t rest properly. The moon will not rise until 10:36 and soon we are moving forward in near-total darkness. The four riders and three pack camels go first in a tightly packed bunch and I follow along by myself about fifty feet behind.

I heard a camel snort, Tsogoo shouted something, and suddenly there was pandemonium. All I could see in front of me was a seething mass of rearing, jumping, snorting, bellowing, and shrieking camels. Even in the darkness I clearly saw one body go flying through the air and land with a crash on a dead saxual bush. Then my camel, spooked by the others, threw a fit and started bucking like a bull in a rodeo. I’ve ridden over a thousand miles on camels but I had never experienced an out-of-control camel like this. I was very nearly thrown off, but finally managed to get control of the camel by jerking back on the lead rope until its head touched its front hump and shouting “Ho, ho, ho,” at the top of my lungs. Tsogoo materialized on foot out of the darkness, his mouth and chin black—from blood I suddenly realized, and grabbing my lead rope made my camel kneel. He frantically motioned me to get off the camel, then grabbing the taishir out of my hand leaped on the camel, which immediately jumped up, and then pounded off into the darkness.

Suddenly all was quiet. Peering around in the dark I saw one other camel tied to some saxual bushes. Other than that I was alone. Where were the other riders and camels? I yelled for Mojik but my shouts died in the wind and no one answered. Tsogoo had left on my camel but what about the others? Had their out-of-control camels stampeded off with them still in the saddle? Or had someone been thrown off, injured, and was now unable to answer? I shouted again and still no answer. It was downright eerie.

It had been quite warm at lunch and I had rode on that afternoon in only a shirt and a pile vest. The temperature had dropping rapidly towards evening and after the sun had gone down it had gotten much colder. What’s worse, the wind had picked up and was now blowing a relentless thirty or forty mile an hour. I was suddenly aware that all of my clothes, including my jacket and winter deel, were on the camels that now appeared to have run away. I checked my thermometer. The temperature had already fallen to 20º F. Within a few minutes I was shaking uncontrollably from with cold. I had to get a fire going. Fortunately I had matches and a candle in my vest pocket. I had used them to start the fire at lunch. I huddled in the lee side of a big saxual bush and using some pages ripped out of my notebook for tinder finally got a fire going. Besides keeping me warm I hoped the fire would serve as a beacon for our now dispersed group. I shouted again and still no reply. What in the name of all that’s holy had happened to everyone?

Suddenly I saw a tiny light out in the darkness beyond the fire. I knew Mojik had a flashlight with her. I shouted again and she answered. Soon she materialized out of the dark carrying one of our water cans. The top had come off and there was only three or four liters of water in the can. She said one of the pack camels had thrown its load, including our water, and she had been only been able to find one of the cans, and this one was nearly empty. This was not good news. It was over forty miles back to the last water at Otgonii Bulag and over a sixty miles to the next water at Shar Khuls. Then Uyanga appeared out the darkness. Her camel had run away and then thrown her off, but she was okay. She had stumbled upon one of the thrown off loads in the dark and found the other two water cans. They were still full. So we had water. But the other two pack camels had run off with their loads, which included all of our cloths, tents, sleeping bags, cooking gear, and most of our food. Tsogoo and Sükhee had ridden off in the dark to look for them.

We huddled by the fire waiting for them to return. They showed up about an hour later. Two pack camels had thrown their loads and one had apparently ran off with its load. We had two cans of water, our meat but no other food, the camel men’s tent, and my two carpets. Our clothes, the rest of the tents, our sleeping bags, and our cooking gear were gone. The camels, Tsogoo said, would probably return by themselves to his ger, some eighty miles to the north. Our only hope was that the third camel had also thrown its load and we would be able to find it the next morning. Tsogoo himself did not look good. I knew he had gotten at least a bloody nose when he had been thrown off his camel. Now he thinks he broke one or two of his ribs.

For now we have to rest. The wind is still blowing thirty or forty miles an hour, but we finally manage to get Sükhee’s tent set up. All five of us crawl in the two man tent. The door zipper had broken seasons ago so the tent is open on one side. The camel men and the girls had their deels and I covered myself with a carpet. By curing up in a fetal position I was just able to keep myself warm enough to fall into a fitful sleep.

I automatically woke up at my usual time, just before daybreak. The strong wind had completely blown out the fire and there were no coals. I tried again to get a fire going with paper from my notebook but my hands were shaking so bad I could not strike the matches. Soon I was shivering uncontrollably. Then Uyanga appeared. She was still wearing her deel and was not as cold as I was. She finally managed to get the fire going. As soon as my shivering stopped I went out and gathered big armloads of saxual wood and soon we had a huge bonfire blazing. Tsogoo and Sükhee finally got up. Tsogoo’s face was gray and he hunched by the fire without saying anything. He was clearly in pain.

The situation looked grim. We had only one tent, no sleeping bags, no cooking gear, no food beside meat, no warm clothes, Tsogoo was hurt, and it was sixty-two miles back to our starting point. If we went back we would have to spend at least three more nights without sleeping bags or warm clothes. And we had no way to cook, not even to heat water. Finally Tsogoo rallied and he and Sükhee rode off to look for the missing load. We did find a tin cup in which we were able to heat water. We had meat, but no knife. Uyanga tore off some chunks of meat and broiled them on stick. Hot water and barbecue for breakfast. I asked what had happened the night before. Mojik thinks a pack may have dropped off one of the loads into the tightly grouped bunch of camels. This spooked at least one of the camels and it spooked the rest. Then they all stampeded.

Uyanga barbecuing some mutton for breakfast

Mojik surveying the wreakage of our camp

Tsogoo and Sükhee returned at ten o’clock. They had found one of the camels with its load still on. The other two camels were gone and would presumably return by themselves to Tsogoo’s ger. So we now had all of our gear back. But we still had a big problem. Tsogoo collapsed in a heap beside the fire. His face was the color of ashes and there was a ring of dried foam around his mouth. He could barely talk. He said he was almost sure he had cracked one or more of his ribs. Well, I thought, we will have to return, and even that is going to be a grueling trip for Tsogoo. Uyanga busied herself cooking and we had a big hot lunch of boiled sheep ribs and potatoes and a couple of pots of invigorating Puerh tea. Finally Tsogoo said we should pack up and get going. Where are we going, I asked? First to Shar Khuls and then to Ülzii Bilegt, like we had planned, he answered. What about your ribs? I asked. He shrugged and said he would okay. He explained that we would divide all of our gear between the one remaining pack camel and the riding camels. Then he would ride on top of the load on the pack camel. That way we could proceed with six camels instead of eight. Would we have enough water to get Shar Khuls, fifty miles south of here, I wondered? No problem, said Tsogoo. I realized then that Tsogoo belonged to the Old School of Camel Men. He had contracted to take me to Ülzii Bilegt and he wasn’t going to turn back just because of a couple of cracked ribs. We loaded the camels and by one o’clock were once again heading south.

Heading south with six camels instead of eight