Mongolian Owls @ minus 50C !
Preface.
When the idea of going to Inner Mongolia (to be exact) in search of some of the world's great owls; Snowy, Great Grey, Northern Hawk, Eagle, Long Eared, Ural and numerous others, was mooted it was an idea that, despite my affinity for much warmer climes, didn't need further consideration beyond 'When & Where' ?
Our research had showed that the two places we are to visit, possessed completely different terrain, Wuerqihan (arboreal forest aka taiga) located 90 mins North of the town of Yakeshi to the East of Hulun Buir, and Xiqi (Siberian-like steppes aka ‘tundra’), a 5-6 hrs return drive West, close to the Mongolian border, being 3 hrs West of Hulun Buir, would likely be the Winter home of very different species.
Weather conditions in January were expected to be generally dry though with occasional light to strong winds helping to drop temperatures down from their atmospheric -15C to -30C to wind chilled lows of between ca. -30C to -50C. Snow covering was from ca. 10-30 cms on the tundra up to 30-50cms or more in the taiga.
Clothing : a pre-trip warning from a fellow birder who has masse this trip, Jocko, of "wear everything you've got" ! For a cold weather coward such as myself this struck fear into my very soul (face your fears !) so had me scurrying to online stores to buy my Arctic rated clothing ! Conditions and weather often being very similar.
Layer 1 was underwear from Minus 33 in merino wool (very very fine, and very very warm, wool that feels lovely on the skin) consisted of long johns (Katmai Expedition) and long-sleeved top (Kobuk Expedition).
Over those were : -
Layer 2 : a lightish 500 rated microfibre shirt with high collar (Quechua from Decathlon),
Layer 3 : a 500 rated fleece (Quechua from Decathlon),
Layer 4 : Rab Endurance 850 rated goose down filled Arctic jacket (the jacket is fantastic, not only keeping me toasty every day of the trip but the 2 huge outer deep pockets and two smaller inner pockets, enabled me to carry another 3kgs in them on flights (Leica binoculars, Sony A7 camera, 55mm lens, Garmin GPS, mobile phone and other assorted bits and bobs), keeping my carry-on camera backpack down to 11kgs (oops) on top of that I wore my usual huge birding/hunting jacket.
Layer 5 : my usual, windproof / waterproof, hunting/birding jacket from
On the bottom I had :
Layer 2 : fleece inner trousers on top of the long-johns,
Layer 3 : a pair of technical trousers from 511
Layer 4 (not used often) : Outdoor Research ski pants rated to -30C.
For footwear ; Red Wing Elk Hunters with a 1,000g of Insulate lining, two pairs of socks (JB Extreme Merino rated to -30C and JB Arctic Trail rated to -40C).
For my hands I had the fantastic Swany Arctic Toasters (mittens with integrated glove liners) plus another set of liners and fingerless cycling gloves (the chemical pads go between these and the liners).
What is so great about the Swany mittens, aside from keeping my cold-sensitive hands warm, is that they are designed for photographers and have a water-proof zip running the length of the interior side, enabling fingers, still encased in the mitten glove liners, to exit the mittens to use the camera controls and then return to their nice cosy interior without having to take the mitts off. I added long loops, made from shoe-laces, to the zips to enable me to use the zips without removing the mittens.
An Outdoor Research (OR) Frostline dog-sledding style cap, OR Gorilla balaclava, 180s Chesterfield ear muffs and a Minus 33 neck gaiter were the designated Egg Warmers.
A week's supply of chemical warming pads for each hand, each foot and for the cameras (more of that later) completed my 'Arctic' setup !
Cost of the clothing was kept down by mostly buying sale items from Amazon USA, online. The savings I made were put towards a 1st class return ticket (sounds rather grand doesn't it ! Actually quality-wise domestic 1st class seats in China fall somewhere between business and premium economy on most foreign airlines and usually there is no Business Class, as in this case. Compared to Euro prices it was pretty darn cheap).
There are perks though, such as much bigger seats and much more space in general, business/1st class lounges for free coffee and breakfast/lunches/sandwiches, usually additional luggage allowance and priority boarding - important in China where overhead bins seem to be magically full whenever you get to your seat ..... no matter where you happened to have been in the queue !
Although on this occasion there was no extra allowance on top of the standard 20kg and 5kg hand luggage I got away with 27.5kgs hold luggage, 11kgs hand luggage and an extra 3 kgs in my jacket pockets. Maybe another perk of the ticket - they aren't going to bother you for the over-weight bags.
Day 1 : Saturday 31st January 2015
And so it was that I had arrived at Hohhot airport, our interim stop on the way to Hailar airport in Hulun Buir, just south of the Russian border and just west of the Mongolian border.
From the plane the landscape below had looked mostly flat and featureless, an off white dusting of snow covered the landscape as far as the eye could see. This massive expanse of plains & mountain ranges continued unabated for most of the way from Hohhot to Hulun Buir, without any sign of life, for 2 of the 2.5 hours flying time ! Meaning ca. 1,000 kms. I know the Siberian steppes covers roughly 30 million kms2, this vast wasteland of Inner and Outer Mongolia likewise covers an unimaginably large area. I wondered how many Snowy Owls were down there.
On arrival at Hailar I collected my bag from the chaotic baggage carousel and my pre-booked driver, with her adult son & daughter (not unusual to have 'guests' in the car if you are travelling between two relatively distant points). They were very helpful with my luggage and had bought me some drinks for the 2.5 hrs drive to Wuerqihan and anyway it didn't bother me so long as we could still stop if I spotted birds along the way ... we certainly could said my lady driver, so I was happy.
Actually bar one brown bird, of maybe 15-20cms, and three large flocks of 50+ rooks, I didn't see a single other bird along the 125-130kms route. Dev & Kai, arriving the next day, had better luck.
Upon arrival in Wuerqihan I was dropped at my hotel and bid adieu to my driver and her children. Small, very clean, warm room, with clean towels and bedsheets but charging (150rmb per night) well over what should be expected for this level in this town (80 - 125rmb), there was though, no real option.
I bought some drinks/snacks from what passed for the local grocers and went into a nice little restaurant with a very friendly owner's wife who helped me choose my hot pot ingredients, suggesting half portions if she thought it too much and bringing different types of veggies out for me to choose from. Add a pot of green tea and for 50rmb I was well sated !
Everything made ready for the morn, cameras & lenses - each in its own zip-lock with a large selica gel bag as desiccant, to prevent condensation on the sensors and inside the lenses - it was time to check out the shower, clean and with ample hot (read: scalding !) water I went to bed in my nice warm room, oblivious to the -30C, or lower, outside.
Preface.
When the idea of going to Inner Mongolia (to be exact) in search of some of the world's great owls; Snowy, Great Grey, Northern Hawk, Eagle, Long Eared, Ural and numerous others, was mooted it was an idea that, despite my affinity for much warmer climes, didn't need further consideration beyond 'When & Where' ?
Our research had showed that the two places we are to visit, possessed completely different terrain, Wuerqihan (arboreal forest aka taiga) located 90 mins North of the town of Yakeshi to the East of Hulun Buir, and Xiqi (Siberian-like steppes aka ‘tundra’), a 5-6 hrs return drive West, close to the Mongolian border, being 3 hrs West of Hulun Buir, would likely be the Winter home of very different species.
Weather conditions in January were expected to be generally dry though with occasional light to strong winds helping to drop temperatures down from their atmospheric -15C to -30C to wind chilled lows of between ca. -30C to -50C. Snow covering was from ca. 10-30 cms on the tundra up to 30-50cms or more in the taiga.
Clothing : a pre-trip warning from a fellow birder who has masse this trip, Jocko, of "wear everything you've got" ! For a cold weather coward such as myself this struck fear into my very soul (face your fears !) so had me scurrying to online stores to buy my Arctic rated clothing ! Conditions and weather often being very similar.
Layer 1 was underwear from Minus 33 in merino wool (very very fine, and very very warm, wool that feels lovely on the skin) consisted of long johns (Katmai Expedition) and long-sleeved top (Kobuk Expedition).
Over those were : -
Layer 2 : a lightish 500 rated microfibre shirt with high collar (Quechua from Decathlon),
Layer 3 : a 500 rated fleece (Quechua from Decathlon),
Layer 4 : Rab Endurance 850 rated goose down filled Arctic jacket (the jacket is fantastic, not only keeping me toasty every day of the trip but the 2 huge outer deep pockets and two smaller inner pockets, enabled me to carry another 3kgs in them on flights (Leica binoculars, Sony A7 camera, 55mm lens, Garmin GPS, mobile phone and other assorted bits and bobs), keeping my carry-on camera backpack down to 11kgs (oops) on top of that I wore my usual huge birding/hunting jacket.
Layer 5 : my usual, windproof / waterproof, hunting/birding jacket from
On the bottom I had :
Layer 2 : fleece inner trousers on top of the long-johns,
Layer 3 : a pair of technical trousers from 511
Layer 4 (not used often) : Outdoor Research ski pants rated to -30C.
For footwear ; Red Wing Elk Hunters with a 1,000g of Insulate lining, two pairs of socks (JB Extreme Merino rated to -30C and JB Arctic Trail rated to -40C).
For my hands I had the fantastic Swany Arctic Toasters (mittens with integrated glove liners) plus another set of liners and fingerless cycling gloves (the chemical pads go between these and the liners).
What is so great about the Swany mittens, aside from keeping my cold-sensitive hands warm, is that they are designed for photographers and have a water-proof zip running the length of the interior side, enabling fingers, still encased in the mitten glove liners, to exit the mittens to use the camera controls and then return to their nice cosy interior without having to take the mitts off. I added long loops, made from shoe-laces, to the zips to enable me to use the zips without removing the mittens.
An Outdoor Research (OR) Frostline dog-sledding style cap, OR Gorilla balaclava, 180s Chesterfield ear muffs and a Minus 33 neck gaiter were the designated Egg Warmers.
A week's supply of chemical warming pads for each hand, each foot and for the cameras (more of that later) completed my 'Arctic' setup !
Cost of the clothing was kept down by mostly buying sale items from Amazon USA, online. The savings I made were put towards a 1st class return ticket (sounds rather grand doesn't it ! Actually quality-wise domestic 1st class seats in China fall somewhere between business and premium economy on most foreign airlines and usually there is no Business Class, as in this case. Compared to Euro prices it was pretty darn cheap).
There are perks though, such as much bigger seats and much more space in general, business/1st class lounges for free coffee and breakfast/lunches/sandwiches, usually additional luggage allowance and priority boarding - important in China where overhead bins seem to be magically full whenever you get to your seat ..... no matter where you happened to have been in the queue !
Although on this occasion there was no extra allowance on top of the standard 20kg and 5kg hand luggage I got away with 27.5kgs hold luggage, 11kgs hand luggage and an extra 3 kgs in my jacket pockets. Maybe another perk of the ticket - they aren't going to bother you for the over-weight bags.
Day 1 : Saturday 31st January 2015
And so it was that I had arrived at Hohhot airport, our interim stop on the way to Hailar airport in Hulun Buir, just south of the Russian border and just west of the Mongolian border.
From the plane the landscape below had looked mostly flat and featureless, an off white dusting of snow covered the landscape as far as the eye could see. This massive expanse of plains & mountain ranges continued unabated for most of the way from Hohhot to Hulun Buir, without any sign of life, for 2 of the 2.5 hours flying time ! Meaning ca. 1,000 kms. I know the Siberian steppes covers roughly 30 million kms2, this vast wasteland of Inner and Outer Mongolia likewise covers an unimaginably large area. I wondered how many Snowy Owls were down there.
On arrival at Hailar I collected my bag from the chaotic baggage carousel and my pre-booked driver, with her adult son & daughter (not unusual to have 'guests' in the car if you are travelling between two relatively distant points). They were very helpful with my luggage and had bought me some drinks for the 2.5 hrs drive to Wuerqihan and anyway it didn't bother me so long as we could still stop if I spotted birds along the way ... we certainly could said my lady driver, so I was happy.
Actually bar one brown bird, of maybe 15-20cms, and three large flocks of 50+ rooks, I didn't see a single other bird along the 125-130kms route. Dev & Kai, arriving the next day, had better luck.
Upon arrival in Wuerqihan I was dropped at my hotel and bid adieu to my driver and her children. Small, very clean, warm room, with clean towels and bedsheets but charging (150rmb per night) well over what should be expected for this level in this town (80 - 125rmb), there was though, no real option.
I bought some drinks/snacks from what passed for the local grocers and went into a nice little restaurant with a very friendly owner's wife who helped me choose my hot pot ingredients, suggesting half portions if she thought it too much and bringing different types of veggies out for me to choose from. Add a pot of green tea and for 50rmb I was well sated !
Everything made ready for the morn, cameras & lenses - each in its own zip-lock with a large selica gel bag as desiccant, to prevent condensation on the sensors and inside the lenses - it was time to check out the shower, clean and with ample hot (read: scalding !) water I went to bed in my nice warm room, oblivious to the -30C, or lower, outside.
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