[原创][贴图] Beautiful Autumn Expedition in Lake Kanas

Our journey started on 22 September, when we flew from Guangzhou to Urumchi. The next day, we were supposed to meet up with our tour leader "FeiYing" and have breakfast together in our hotel. Due to the traffic jam, the driver and FeiYing were 1 hour late. "We better go now" he said. "What about your breakfasts, and where are the others?" we  asked. "We'll explain and eat on the way!" FeiYing said.

We took the Highway and off we went. After 2 hours, FeiYing said "look to your left!" and loh and behold, we saw a famous Prezwalski Wild Horse, grazing all alone by the roadside:

Then we saw 2 other Prezwalski on the right hand side:

This seems like a very lucky journey indeed. To be able to see these precious ancestors of the equine family on the first day!!!

[此贴子已经被作者于2009/10/21 8:59:45编辑过]

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Have to go off to my riding lessons now.

Will continue with the story with more pictures on Monday!(Sorry I am really slow with the computer).

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英文版！！！

一个不认识...

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看来真的是很幸运!!!我去的时候都没有这机会!!!

期待下文!

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[此贴子已经被作者于2009/10/19 9:39:16编辑过]

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[此贴子已经被作者于2009/10/20 9:57:57编辑过]

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[此贴子已经被作者于2009/10/21 8:57:43编辑过]

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Beautiful!!!

Really admire it!

Hopefully I will go to kanas again in the golden fall.

Expecting more。。。。。

Beautiful!!!

Really admire it!

h4v6sY

光影美丽,岁月留痕!good photo.

火龙驹, 无缺,云淡风清: Thank you for reading our adventures!

The next morning, Doo Doo and Chan Chan were still together and relaxing and basking in the warm morning sun. I sneaked up behind Chan Chan and touched his mane with my fingers, then I slowly gave him a hug. Most horses, even those we kept at home, would not let me hug them while they were lying on the ground, resting. Chan Chan was such a sweet, gentle soul, that he trustingly lay there motionless, enjoying the caress of a stranger:

Breakfast was almost ready, Feiying had made some really delicious noodles with the tomatoes he took from his garden. Some of the tomatoes had become "tomato paste" in the plastic bag he stored them in!!!! Now we were quite convinced that this guy could really cook:

By the time we put everything away into bags on The Spy, it was already 11:30am!! It was time to move on. "We had a long journey ahead of us!" said Siao Ma:

We were heading towards the North, into the famous Yemeneti Summer Pastures, towards the direction  of Kazastan and Russia:

The Yemeneti Summer Pasture was desserted at this time of year. The grassland had also turned brown, as if awaiting the harsh cold Winter. Riding hastily through the grassland, we could only imagine how cheerful and green everything had been, with all the sheep and cattle and horses, grazing happily here in Summer:

"We had to come back in Summer" I said. We crossed a shallow river with clear sparkling, cold water, with the horses stopping to drink:

The longer I made my journey with Doo Doo, the more I began to know him. He is a smart little horse, with exceptional intelligence to find the best path for himself and me. For example, while we were crossing rivers, instead of following the horse  in front blindly, he preferred to find his own way, the shortest path with the calmest and shallowest water:

Doo Doo was also light-footed and forward, independant and courageous. Now I understood finally why Siao Ma called him " a dream horse":

Whether we were going through sandy earth, grassland, water, bushes, rocky terrain, even snow covered ground, uphill or downhill, Doo Doo would not hesitate to take me where I wanted to go, he is really one brave little horse. Now I understood why Sio Ma was so proud of Doo Doo, it was pure joy to make this journey together with Doo Doo:

As for Little Red, we were warned by his owner (the guy who did not showed much compassion to his animals) that Little Red could be difficult to handle, that he was a "LAR BOO ZHU HORSE". Meaning you could not stop him by pulling the reins.That he was supposed to be quite fast and wild:

Well, the truth was, Little Red was one very tired horse and was no longer "LAR BOO ZHU"! We concluded that he must have been rented out so much all Summer that he had not yet recovered from all those journeys. So he was always the last one in our group and had to be encouraged a lot by Jason. According to Feiying, Little Red used to be one "fierce and speedy horse" in the past year. Honestly, we could not discover any trace of such qualities in poor Little Red: 

Being a Tour Leader, you also had to "Hold Your Horses" for the members of the expedition team. Here is a picture of Feiying "holding the horses" while we went to toilet, wakakaka :

To be continued........................

And so we trotted on, from the dried up pasture of Yemeneti into the wet marshes infront. The entire plain was covered by a purple vegetation which was also a delicacy for the horses. The ground was mostly mud, with very shallow water hidden beneath. As the horses trotted along, we could hear "sosh.....sosh....sosh...." through the water:

Then we saw 2 lakes in front of us, one bigger, one smaller.They were the "husband and wife lakes":

"We must have crossed dozens of small rivers and covered a lot of ground today?"asked Jason. We had not met a single soul in the entire journey on that day, it was just vast wilderness: 

At last we reached the highest point on a mountain, it was the only pass leading to the North. It was 2680 m high:

As we made our way down, we saw the "Friendship Peak" to the North. This was the magnificent Peak where the borders of China, Kazastan and Russia meet at one point! It was just too beautiful! "Someday we shall go there together, Doo Doo!" I said to Doo Doo:

It was approaching 6pm, but our camping ground was still nowhere in sight. Little Red was so tired, he was always the last one in the group, falling behind by 200m. Doo Doo and Chan Chan were always together in front. With Feiying and The Spy closely behind. The wilderness seemed so strange and out of this world, so desserted that it reminded us of the TV series Star Trek, where the expedition members were suddenly beamed onto a foreign planet:

Finally we got to the other side of the mountain by 7:30pm. It was the warm side of the mountain, shielded from the cold winds. A stream was nearby for easy access to water for the horses:

"First thing a horseman should do before taking care of himself, is to take good care of his horse, I remembered William taught us that!" explained Jason. William was our trainer at the the Riding School, and he had always reminded us what good horsemanship was. So before we could relax and get comfortable, we untacked our own horse, tied up three of their legs with a rope loosely (that was the local's way at night so the horse could not run away), and set them free to eat and drink nearby:

With the horses well taken care of, we began to notice how hungry and tired we were. We had been riding for close to 8 hours on that day. And we should set up the tents quickly before it got too dark:

Noodles with tomatoes was served hastily, they tasted so good:

And it got really dark when Feiying and Siao Ma were trying to cook some soggy French Fries, and eggplant, wished we had brought coffee too, but wait a minute, rain was approaching and we better covered our saddles and stuff really well:

To be continued...........

Expecting more。。。。。

We could barely covered the saddles and equipment with our raincoats, before it began to rain really hard that night. The sound of raindrops on the tent was like a music box,and I began to worry about the horses outside. "Would n't they catch cold and develope pneumonia? They were standing in the rain and had no cover!" Jason explained that these horses were accustomed to living outside and had a thick coat of hair to protect them. When day broke, the rain stopped finally and Feiying (in his magic leather jacket) and Siao Ma were already up and cooking noodles with tomatoes again:

All this time, The Spy was secretly wishing that we would not use him as a cargo horse again. "I am invisible, I am invisible............they cannot see me........they cannot see me.............I wish they would leave me alone!" We sometimes say, becareful what you wished for, cause you just might  get it:

As Doo Doo said lovingly to Chan Chan," hey, did you sleep well last night? I am so glad you are not a cargo horse this time. I am sure our master will take good care of us this time, as he always had!" These 2 horses were so inseparable that, whenever they were a hill apart and could not see each other, one would call out to the other, and the other would call back, as if to make sure each other is OK:

After breakfast, all 5 horses were standing by and ready to be tacked and go:

Then Siao Ma said to us," leave everything here, we are going with our horses for a secret excursion! I am going to show you the most beautiful place on earth":

To be continued................

[此贴子已经被作者于2009/10/23 16:39:29编辑过]

QUOTE:

以下是引用Galbie在2009/10/21 18:05:00的发言：

Lovely Chan Chan.

[此贴子已经被作者于2009/10/24 1:02:09编辑过]

QUOTE:

以下是引用Galbie在2009/10/21 18:05:00的发言：

To be continued........................

Lovely Feiying