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| Riding Ventures - Nomadism on Horseback |
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View My Guestbook
Sign My Guestbook: I am looking forward to reading your entries during my horse-treks.
Unique travel offer:
Experience life with reindeer-nomads in Siberia! On handmade skis and reindeer sleds through the country of the Evenks. Every year 2 weeks at the end of February.
Siberia 2003 The Reindeer Run Mongolia 2000
Exploring a country on horseback has become a passion for me since my first horse-trek in Mongolia in 1995 . Although it was only a short trip, followed in 1996 by another short one, I knew I just had to come back with a lot of time and experience nomadism on horseback.
During my last trip in Mongolia I met reindeer nomads living in the very north of the Hovsgol province bordering Siberia. This was the first time I heard about mountain taiga reindeer and about the few tribes in northern Mongolia and southern Siberia who still breed and live off those reindeer. Unfortunately these reindeer as well as the culture of the tribes is endangered. Together with the World Reindeer Herders Association I am working on a project to raise money and try to bring in reindeer from other parts of Russia.
As a first reconnaissance expedition for the reindeer project, Tom, a cameraman, and I will explore the area north of Mongolia on horseback, talk to the people and make a film as well as slides to bring back and use as PR matierial for the fundraising later on. In order to understand nomadic cultures better and experience nomadic lifestyle ourselves we do not want to use motorized transportation and a lot of film equipment, but choose to approach the mountain taiga on horseback. We will start in June 2003 in the eastern part of the Republic of Altai and ride through Tuva to the Sayan mountains.
Please click on the photos below to enter the respective websites.
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Riding through Siberia:
My next trip will lead me to areas north of Mongolia, to Altai, Tuva and Buryatia. It starts in June 2003.This trip also takes me to the taiga of the Sayan mountains where three tribes of reindeer people live. This trip is dedicated to them and their reindeer to raise money to aid their survival.
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The Reindeer Run
This is about a project to aid the survival of the reindeer as well as the culture of the four tribes of reindeer-people living in Hovsgol (northern Mongolia), Tuva, Irkutsk, and Buryatia.
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Riding through Mongolia
Photos from my horse-trip through western Mongolia in the year 2000. 2 people, 3 horses, 2000 km, living a dream, crossing steppe, mountain passes, swamps and taiga.
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Siberia 2003 The Reindeer Run Mongolia 2000
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About me:
Currently I live in Tirol, Austria, in the middle of wonderful mountains, where I work as a physicist and project leader in research and development. I love nature and the outdoors, love skitouring and sleeping in a bivvy bag on some mountain top. I take great interest in theatre and opera and was for a while a big 'Hamlet-o-maniac'.
Nomadism in all forms, from traditional animal husbandry nomadism to modern backpackers, fascinates me enormously. I am intrigued to see how my focus, my thinking and my approach to live changes whether I am living settled down or living on horseback. I love talking to nomads who follow their animals.
Most of the year 2000 saw me riding a horse through western Mongolia. It was a unique experience riding for months through steppe, mountains, swamps and taiga.
The last part of my trip led me near the Mongolian-Russian border in the province of Hovsgol, where you need a special permit to be allowed to ride through. The official responsible for issuing one, Tom Tarag, was travelling himself at that time somewhere in that area and we were told to go and look for him. So we rode into the beautiful Baruun Taiga, meeting first Tom Tarag and then a Tsaatan family and their reindeer.
Later in the year, while waiting at the airport in Mörön for a flight that was delayed for a day, I got to talk to a fellow traveller from Europe who had just happened to come back from the Tsaatan himself. He was Sami and president of the Association of World Reindeer Herders.
He told me how bad the situation for the reindeer in the Mongolian taiga was and thus consequently for the Tsaatan. Illnesses spread amongst the animals and the only way to save the population was to import reindeer from Russia.
Earlier travels led me twice on horseback to Mongolia, on foot through parts of Spain and Scotland, by bus and train through Marocco and along the Trans-Siberian railway.
If you have suggestions or if you want to join me on one of my next projects, please contact me.
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