In Praise of Mongolian Guides

“He can kill, clean and cook a yak in the time it takes me to put up two fly outfits. He can swim a horse across a river so high in flood that forests are being uprooted. He can ride a camel 20 hours without pause and wrestle down a wild goat. I’ve only seen him ill at ease once, when the camp was visited by a group of Siberian Tsaatan folk.” In this fascinating article about John Bailey’s pursuit of taimen, his guide Batsokh assumes an almost magical protective aura. In Gray’s Sporting Journal

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