Benjamin Bunny was on a mission. He wanted to find a tiger for Ava and in Kazakhstan of all places. He had missed his perfect opportunity in China but never mind. He was undaunted. A baby girl born in the year of the Tiger just had to have her own tiger.

A five mile trek into the beautiful Charyn Canyon, Kazakhstan’s answer the Grand Canyon but with snow capped mountains was the first stop, but the trek was fruitless. Susie saw a Kazakhstan version of a carpet snake. She was pretty chuffed as she is not always the best spotter but she saw it. It quickly wriggled away and disguised itself as snakes do, amongst the sandstone and granite outcrops. But tigers don’t eat snakes so it was unlikely that a tiger would inhabit this area. Next stop was a  beautiful and pristine lake but again not a good place for tigers or rabbits for that matter.

Benjamin Bunny thought he better ask some key questions so he quickly whispered in Ken’s ear. As a consequence of his action, Ken asked Egor and Vadam, the guides, to tell him something about Kazakhstan. With such direct questioning the following facts became evident.

The group was travelling in the south east corner of Kazakhstan, you know the points on the compass stuff, Benjamin Bunny started to ponder did the sun rise in the east and set in the west in the northern hemisphere?? No keep focussed he thought.  Basically after a bit of human waffle it became evident that these were the facts. Kazakhstan is the ninth biggest country in the world and no one knows much about this place. It is resource rich with oil, gold and gas. The country is the home of the Kazakhs who historically were nomadic horseback animal herders. There are 16 million Kazakhs. Most of the country is open steppes but the area that Benjamin Bunny was travelling through is very picturesque as every vista is framed by the snow capped Tian Shan mountain range.

The Tian Shan Mountains are home to the illusive snow leopard. This information sent a chill down Benjamin’s spine, so he blocked out such negative thoughts and did a little positive self talk. He realised that finding a tiger for Ava in south east Kazakhstan was nigh on impossible but he could still get some interesting and instructive information for her. For both of them really, cause Benjamin just loves learning new stuff.

Kazakhstan’s national symbol is the golden eagle. Pretty scary for a rabbit but that’s life, sometimes you have to confront the scary stuff before you can move on. So Benjamin Bunny was going to embrace this information.  The Kazakhs hold this huge winged monster of the sky dear to them because the eagle has served them so well. Even today falconers can train eagles to hunt prey like ibis, ducks, foxes, wolves and  rabbits to provide food and clothing for the nomadic horsemen and their families. The sleek and beautiful Tazi dogs are also part of this cycle of purposeful hunting. Benjamin sneaked a sideway glance at a beautiful Tazi dog that had killed forty wolves the previous spring.  It was too much information so he scurried off back to the MGBGT and the safety of the back pack. He better get out of Kazakhstan he thought. With so much emphasis on hunting and outdoor sports it probably wasn’t the safest of places for a cuddly little bunny and self protection is the name of the game. But with foolhardy resolve some would say, he determined he’d keep trying to find a tiger  for Ava but maybe  another country is a better chance.