I had dreamed and imagined for over thirty years of meeting the mighty golden eagle known as the berkut. All the Kazakh’s who fly trained golden eagles are known as Berkutchi’s and at long last here I was holding my first berkut.

After the long journey I climbed out of the rugged jeep to greet “Kakiyat” and his family who were to be my hosts for my first visit to western Mongolia, it was his berkut that I was really keen to meet.

She was as rugged as the country and bore the scars of many a successful encounter and I knew as soon as I picked her up that she was an eagle that I could trust.