Jack Brittingham's 2003 Tajikistan Marco Polo Hunt
Field Report #2, September 18, 2003
Greetings from Kyrgizstan!
Michael and I finally arrived in Bishkek this morning around 4:30 AM local time. After traveling more than twenty hours, we are almost half way there! The news of greatest concern was, once our bags arrived, I realized the duffel containing my rifle was not among them. I had been warned by my travel agent, and several different guides and hunters that it was a bad idea to entrust the shipment of a rifle to a company as proven to be antigun as British Airways. They even charged me $140 excess baggage for the bag they did not deliver. Interestingly, the bag was not lost, it simply never left Chicago. I would encourage anyone planning a similar trip, or even a family vacation, to stay as far away from British Airways as possible. As Michael was also planning to use my rifle, neither of us have a weapon, and will have to see what we can come up with when we arrive in camp.
We now have a three hour layover until our flight to Osh. Kaan Karakaya, our outfitter, has met us and we had a nice visit for an hour or so before our flight departed. Fortunately, our flight to Osh is only an hour and twenty minutes; then begins the dreaded jeep ride from hell!
10:30
We arrived in Osh and were met by some of Kaan's staff. After a quick lunch it was into the jeeps for the next fifteen hours as we ascended up the Old Silk Road that leads from Osh into Tajikistan, through Afghanistan, Pakistan, and finally into India.
From my last trip here I remembered this as one of the worst experiences of my hunting career, and it turned out that my memory served me well! Once again we were on what seemed like an endless road of twists, turns, and innumerable bumps, jolts, and teeth jarring impacts with pavement that was no longer there. I did not think it would ever end, but finally, after thirteen hours, we arrived in Murgab where we would spend the balance of the night. We stayed at the house of Attabeck, one of the most famous Marco Polo guides ever to hunt for these magnificent sheep.
The next morning we slept in until almost 10:00 and, after a breakfast of rice porridge, we were back on the road (if you can call it that) to our base camp known as Hot Springs. From this camp many great rams have been taken, some of which have exceeded 64 inches, as recently as last year.
Arrival in camp was a very welcome experience and after getting settled in, we checked to see what might be available in the way of a shooting iron. A Russian 7.62 was produced which we shot a few times and frankly, it scared the hell out of me! Out of my first three shots the gun went of by itself once! Grouping at 100 yards was almost nonexistent, and we were very relieved when Attabeck came out with a Remington Model 700 BDL in 7MM Magnum, scoped with a Bushel 3x9 scope! After just a few shots I felt reasonably comfortable with it to 400 yards.
More about the camp in my next installment. Its almost 11:00 PM and time for me to get some sleep. One final word is that camp is situated at just under 14,000 feet, and I really don't feel all that bad. If I can get a good night's rest I think our first day of hunting will be very exciting!
I hope you are all well, and I look forward to bringing you the next chapter in this unusual hunt.
Take care,
Jack