Golden Eagle Festival is a nomadic traditional festival held in Mongolia every October, in which you can join the hunting expedition in Altai Mountains for $16,000.
In the annual festival, "Burkitshi" or the Kazakh eagle hunters attend the feast with their Golden Eagles, known as "Berkut", to join the agility, speed and accuracy testing competitions. it is a celebration of hunters' traditional culture organized by the local community, according to Nomadic Expeditions.
Golden Eagle Festival CEO, Jalsa Urubshurow, founded the hunting festival in 1999 and has preserved both the tradition and the Golden Eagles up to now.
The expedition to Altai Mountains also includes opportunities to horseback riding alongside the hunters as well as local mosque, town market, provincial museum, and archaeological site visits.
Bloomberg reported that the festival runs from September 27 to October 5 which offers seven-day guided engagements with a local family. Stay in tents with hand-carved wooden beds which warmed by wood burning stoves. At night, a dinner of goat ribs or beshbarmak stew is served with Chinggis Khan vodka and wine.
In the morning, steaming cups of spiced milk tea is served with breakfast before a ride on horseback with the hooded birds to search for the trails of lynx, foxes or rabbits.
"When you find them, your hunter releases his eagle, which flies 100 to 200 feet up before it circles, locates, then dives on the animal. What these big birds lack in speed-70 mph, vs. a peregrine falcon's 200 mph-they make up for in mass. They weigh 14 pounds and have a 7-foot wingspan. The force of their attack can take out an animal as large as a wolf," Bloomberg wrote.
"Getting there is an adventure in itself. From Ulaanbaatar (at least a 17-hour flight from New York), it's a 3-hour flight west to Ulgii, then 2 to 5 more hours via Land Cruiser into the wilds. From $15,995 per person, double occupancy; 800 998-6634."
The Golden Eagle Festival is considered one of the extraordinary experiences you will have during your stay in Mongolia.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
