What's on Your Travel Bucket List?

Monday May 18 2020

In this bizarre, incomprehensible earthly time of not traveling, I'm savoring a lot of memories of travel that I've been lucky enough to do throughout my life. Starting with my first 6-week backpack trip in Europe in 1989, an adventure that opened up my eyes and mind to - well, a whole new world, I've come to learn that travel is in my blood. I love maps. I love travel adventure books. I love discovering unknown (to me) places. I love travel.

There is nothing that compares to experiencing new cultures and places and people. Nothing else feels like waking up in a new country and smelling the morning scent of a place on the other side of the world. Each one is unique and lodges in your memory cells, and decades later, a photograph from that place can trigger those smells and feelings again.

I like how adventure traveler Mark Jenkins described it in To Timbuktu: A Journey Down the Niger, how he felt after living for a year in Europe as a kid: 

"We were just dirt and snow kids from the high plains of Wyoming when the rest of the world got lodged inside us like an arrowhead too close to the spine." 

That same travel arrow lodged in my small-town Texas spine. I've spent several cumulative years of traveling (some horse related, some not), to some 36 or so different countries, and it never fails to intrigue and fascinate me, to quicken the pulse and have all my senses on high alert to all the possibilities, when stepping off a plane or train or bus in a new country.

Ever since that first trip to Europe, travel always seemed natural. See a picture of a foreign place, think, wow, I want to go there - and you just go. Our world is here for the visiting - go see it!

And note, I'm less an adventurer than a traveler, though plenty of unexpected adventures often tended to come my way. For the first backpack trips I always went solo, but most often met up with travelers along the way. In my backpack travels, I've hiked the Himalayas, 

sailed in Norway, walked in Alexander the Great's footsteps in Greece and Turkey, rode a camel on a multi-day trek in the desert of Jaisalmer, India, ridden a mad-house solidly-packed third class train across half of India, paddled Zimbabwe's Zambezi River through crocodiles and hippos.

Some travels were completely horse-related, and I've met cool horse people around the world. I've ridden a beach in New Zealand, 

galloped by pyramids in Egypt, ridden a horse on the sacred Curragh in Ireland, tolted beside an ice-covered volcano in Iceland. 

I have more horse stories to tell. I have many travel stories to recount. Some of my travel journals will make their way into book form. My first travel book, which should be out soon, will tell the tale of my first visit to Egypt. 

And there are sooooo many more places on my Travel Bucket List, so much more of the world to visit: I want to trek to K2 basecamp in Pakistan, tramp through Greenland, hike Patagonia, ride in Argentina, ride in Lapland. 

What's on your Travel Bucket List?

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Peeping Dude

Friday September 5 2014

Sometimes Dudley has a free choice day - he gets to choose the trails we ride. This particular day, he chose to come back down our home canyon, and halfway down, since he never forgets the location of a food source, he chose to detour past Connie's house. Connie wasn't home, but he didn't know that. What he DID know, is that when Connie IS home, if he waits long enough, (and if I call to her to come out), she will come outside bearing horse treats.

The Dude walked up to her house, and waited for her to come out.
 He stood there and looked around and waited, and waited…

And when she didn't come outside, he walked up to her porch and waited…
 

and when she didn't come outside, he walked up to the windows and checked to see if he could see her inside.


He finally realized she wasn't home, so, disappointed, he ambled on homeward.

Don't worry, he got plenty of treats from me to ease his disappointment!

Happy Trails, My Friend

 

Wednesday July 30 2013

He cut a dashing figure, astride a horse beneath the pyramids of Egypt. He loved to ride, he loved to share the trails, and he loved to share his horses.

“It was obvious that Borcan - the blustery, formidable, woman-hating, breast-biting white stallion - loved Paul, and Paul definitely doted on this blusterball - and in fact all of his horses,” I wrote in Chapter 15: My King in my book Soul Deep in Horses.

“Norwegian Paul was one of the happiest middle-aged little boys I had ever had the pleasure to know. His wife was the Norwegian ambassador to Ethiopia, and while she was away, Paul played with his beloved horses. Just ask one little question about his kids - his horses - and his eyes widened and sparkled like sapphires and his face beamed with proud delight. Pull up a chair on his porch, above his stables, and he'll serve you a great cup of Ethiopian coffee (or a good cold beer), and instead of pulling out his wallet and dropping an accordion sheet of photos, he will point to his horses in the paddocks below and tick off their accomplishments as proudly as a father giving you a blow by blow of his kids' soccer games."

I wrote of riding Paul’s blustery stallion Borcan in the Egyptian desert, and of riding his rocketship Raad, one of the most thrilling and the utterly fastest, horse rides of my life.

“She got it right!” he wrote, reviewing Soul Deep in Horses. “Being the happy owner of two of the horses featured in this book, I have to applaud her take on horses who love people who love horses! She gets it terrifically right! Thank you Merri!” I could see his face beaming as he read the stories then wrote these words.

I’m glad Paul got to see his much-loved Borcan and Raad ‘immortalized’ in the pages of my book.  I’m glad he knew how much those rides meant to me.

I’d always figured on seeing him again and having more riding adventures with him next time I visit Maryanne in Egypt. But he left us unexpectedly, far too soon.

I have another tale or two to tell of riding Paul’s horses. I’m sorry he won’t read my stories about his beloved Prince. But somehow, I think he will still know, and I think he’ll be beaming, his eyes twinkling again, delighted with shared appreciation and mutual love for his horses.

And I know he’s already busy up there, riding new horses, finding new trails, telling entertaining horse stories to those who come to join him.

Farewell and Happy Trails, Paul, I’ll ride with you again one day over those new trails.

My King: Borcan

Saturday April 19 2014

I couldn't wait for our ride among the Pyramids in Egypt… until I learned I'd be riding Borcan:

Borcan, the blustery, formidable, woman-hating, breast-biting ("He's bitten three breasts so far," owner Paul declared adoringly) white stallion, who lunged at anybody, mouth wide open and teeth bared, who walked by his paddock. 

The Breast Biter himself was already tacked up and standing at his paddock fence, with his lips peeled back to expose his enormous nine-year-old teeth, which were grabbing one of his reins and clamping down tightly, grinding the rubber till it squeaked in protest, exhibiting what he'd do to me if he managed to get a hold of my breast.
  

Was it too late to back out of riding? Surely, I reasoned, Paul would not put me on a horse that would hurt me. And I really wanted to ride in the desert... 

Once I had mounted, how silly it was of me to think that Borcan would stand still and wait for the others - that was far beneath his Great White Dignity. Oh, no, it was time for the Great White Peacock Parade down the long drive. Neck bowed, white mane billowing, Borcan consented to a walk, but only so everybody could get a very long look at his magnificence. He strutted, he waltzed, he erupted with absolute equine masculinity. 

And there you have it - against my better judgement, I had already fallen for him. He was such a blustery show off, but he was simply magnificently breathtaking...

"My King" is one of my favorite chapters in my book Soul Deep in Horses. I'll be featuring tidbits from my book on this blog from time to time.

You can get the book as soft cover or ebook on Amazon.com here, or autographed copies will be available starting Monday on my website: www.TheEquestrianVagabond.com.