Behind the Scenes

HARDSHIPS OF FILMING IN MONGOLIA AND TIBET

Mark Houghton reveals some of the hardships faced during an arduous 9 week film shoot in Mongolia and Tibet.

Travelling vast distances overland often meant being cramped up for hours on end, packed into old Russian jeeps like sardines.

The chance to meet people from minority groups was a real privilege, but one not always easy to come by. In Mongolia we were on a 3 day horse trek around Lake Khovsghol. Our guides offered to take us up into the mountains in search of a nomadic tribe called the ‘Tsatan’ or reindeer people. Statistics say there are only about 140 Tsatan still living a traditional lifestyle, herding reindeer up in the mountains. I am not a horse rider but in-order to film what I wanted I had to learn quickly.

With no official public transport we were often left to negotiate rides with families to get us from place to place. This was made all the more difficult being a group of eight.

The longest journey was from Lake Khovsghol in Northern Mongolia to the town of Olgii in the far west. The 30-hour journey was the longest paddock bash ride you could imagine. There are no roads – just never ending grasslands. How drivers don’t get lost is beyond me. There are no trees, no hills or landmarks to obtain bearings from. You simply just head in the direction you want to go and hope you eventually get there.

With cameras and tripods strapped to me, I held on for dear life as we raced to the base of the mountains. From here it was a steady climb, which at times felt almost vertical. We often had to get off and walk the horses along narrow trails that hugged the cliff edges that crumbled underfoot from the weight of the horses... There was no turning back so nervously I pushed on. When reaching the top and meeting this nomadic tribe, I was grateful for what I had endured and survived. The resulting footage intrigues audiences as they see reindeer used in a way we would sheep or cattle. The only thing missing to complete the picture was Santa.

In far Western China, close to the Pakistan border, is the city of Kashgar, once a major stopping point on the Old Silk Road. Today little has changed. One could be forgiven for forgetting they are still in China. The local Uighar people here are a Turkic speaking minority and follow the Islamic faith. Walking around the colourful bazaar it is easy to think you are lost somewhere in the Middle East. This oasis out in the middle of the desert was our last chance to eat well. From here on for the next two weeks it would be canned food, dry biscuits and stale bread.

The journey through Tibet was even more extreme. Imagine driving from Cairns to Melbourne without any petrol stations or shops along the way. We had pre-arranged our jeep and needed a second truck to follow, just to carry fuel and supplies. It took us 2 weeks to travel from Kashgar in far Western China to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, across ‘The Roof Of The World’.

Most nights were spent in tents, wind blown on the flat open plains.

At such high altitude there is little to no vegetation, meaning no trees for firewood and rock hard ground for sleeping on. One night we arrived in a small Tibetan village and were humbled to be given the local school for the night. However it was basically just four concrete walls with no glass in the windows to prevent the blizzard like winds racing through. We were above 5000 metres and snow was falling heavily, which meant problems for some.

Altitude sickness seems to strike at random and has no bearing on physical fitness. That night it was my turn to suffer. I had a thumping headache and couldn’t stop shaking from the cold. I was sandwiched between two others in the group as I tried to get warm. No amount of panadol was helping me and I could have quite easily thrown it all in just to get out of there and relieve the pain.

I managed to capture some stunning mountain scenery filming from the top of the truck. I would climb up on top and try to balance myself as the truck bounced its way along the rocky roads that wound their way up through the mountains. One day as we climbed over a pass at 5300 metres, the air was so thin that I became faint and almost fell from the top of the truck.

Our final days involved trekking through Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan Province in South Western China. This gorge was carved by

the upper reaches of the Yangtze, one of China’s most famous rivers that empties out into the sea near Shanghai. Hiking through the gorge was a real challenge as we were smack bang in the middle of the wet season, which meant frequent landslides. As we meandered along narrow tracks that hugged the sides of cliffs, we were ever-weary of the raging river 2km below us, which at times was a straight drop.

I remember one day having to scamper across the side of a hill that was beginning to fall away underfoot. It may have been only minutes before the whole side of the hill would drop away in a landslide - maybe with us on it. We made a human chain and dragged each other across. The dilemma of whether to help you fellow group members or pull out your camera and capture what potentially could be great dramatic footage was again presented. There was no choice – I’ve never been able to put my filming ahead of human life. However, once safely across I did manage a shot of the road we just passed, blocked by boulders 1m in diameter – lucky again!

Looking back on the trip and now watching the resulting movie, I think to myself, “I’d do it all again”. Audiences think the film is great and after watching it hundreds of times I still get a buzz when I think of where we went and how privileged I was to visit places so remote and closed off to the rest of the world. I laugh when the audience does and get excited when I know something special is coming up. It feels good to know that maybe I have inspired a few more people to go out and explore this great world we live in.

 

 

 

Back to top