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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Traveler Tales: The Mighty Zambezi

Tuesday October 8 2013

A series of Traveler Tales, short stories by me, are available on Amazon, iTunes and Kobo.

(The first one, Traveler Tales: The Other Side is here.)

The second Traveler Tales: The Mighty Zambezi, is a turbulent rafting trip down one of the world's wildest navigable rivers, the Zambezi river in Zimbabwe. How or why I didn't die on this tempestuous whitewater, I don't know. It still curls my toes thinking about it!

An excerpt from the short story:

We had time to exhale and laugh and joke and regroup before our next rapid, #5, Stairway to Heaven. Our guide Warren gave us the lowdown. “It’s the highest commercial-run rapid. The drop is 16 feet.” (16 feet?!)

He told us how to technically negotiate it which I immediately forgot, except for the very first step. “We MUST hit this dead center, and paddle HARD! and then…” Whatever, I forgot. That’s all I could retain. My heart was still slamming at 180 bangs a minute, but now the physical exertion was gone and the fear had crept back, worse than before, pounding the adrenaline out to my fingertips. This time, I'm going to die, I thought.

I jammed my right foot under the center inflated cross-tube – my only anchor – and choked down a swallow with a dry mouth.

“Here we go!” Oh, shit. We hit the lip of the second rapid, the roar becoming deafening, and when the nose of the boat pointed down that big drop, I saw a bottomless pit.

“DIG!” yelled Warren. “DIG!”

I dug, I yelled to Janet, “DIG!” She yelled “DIG!” and dug with her paddle. Down, and down, the nose of the raft pointed. It was like going over the brink of a roller coaster – down and impossibly more down while it left your stomach up top. I screeched in panic as our boat slid down into the HOLE and bucked back up through the wall of water the surface of the HOLE formed.

I felt the boat go up, and up… like it was heading over backwards. “SHIT!” I screamed at the water, and stabbed at it with my paddle. I chopped through air. I sliced again and again.

The raft objected to the whimsy of the white-water, bucking and folding in half like a piece of paper. I was thrown again, into the center of the raft. We were all hurled about, but Warren kept yelling out commands. I didn't know if he was in the human pile or if he was the only one left paddling...

You can get the rest of this story, which is available on Amazon, iTunes and Kobo (and soon on Smashwords - but sorry, Nook is not an option for the time being!) here at my website:
http://www.theequestrianvagabond.com/E-Books.html

Traveler Tales!: The Other Side

Saturday September 7 2013

Writing. Travel. Horses. Photography. Not always in that order, but they've always been intertwined, all spiraled together in my DNA.

I never kept a 'diary' growing up. It was Budget Traveling that started my writing: detailed hand-written journals that I'd spend hours on keeping up at the end of every day, no matter how exhausted I was, be it trekking in the Nepal Himalaya, wading though chaos in India, working on a racehorse farm in Ireland, or after a long day of barfing from rough seas crossing to a Greek island. I wrote, and I wrote.

In addition to the travel journals, I'd hand-write letters (back in the day!) regaling some of these adventures - the funny, scary, ridiculous, amazing, and exasperating - and send them home. They always got great reviews from friends and family. Most were thankful to read about the entertaining adventures, and not have to experience them personally!

Some of these Traveler Tales were so popular, they have now been turned into e-short stories!

The first Traveler Tale: The Other Side, a trek on one of the world's most beautiful - and toughest - hikes on the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal's Himalaya. Some of you originally read this short story as a blog entry on here. It's now off my blog, but available on Amazon, Barnes N' Noble, (and soon),  iTunes and Kobo.

More Traveler Tales are available; they'll be featured soon on here.

And coming soon: Racehorse Tales! I kept journals of my days as a groom on the racetrack. I had a great variety of horses: some that could run like the wind, some that couldn't run a lick; lazy ones, crazy ones, delightful ones, mean ones, funny ones, egotistical ones. More to come on these later.

The Traveler Tales on my website:
http://www.theequestrianvagabond.com/E-Books.html

Out-bound

Monday August 20 2012

Tomorrow we are off to England for the World Endurance Championship (you'll be able to follow tweets, live updates, photos and stories at the link at the bottom if you are so inclined, and Steph made a cool video of a preview of the course!)

It should be a fascinating race, with returning double World and European champions Maria Alvarez and Nobby of Spain returning, and facing 153 other riders from 38 countries (at last check), including the Prime Minister of the UAE Shaikh Mohammed and his 3 sons (who seem to win every ride they enter, unless a horse is pulled at a vet gate), and Steph's friend, the King of Malaysia. (Actually, he's back to being a Sultan now, but he is Steph's friend : ).

The USA is excited about their chances, with an astonishing cumulative endurance record, including Valerie Kanavy (World Endurance Champion in 1994 and 1998), Becky Hart (World Endurance Champion 1988, 1990, 1992), plus 8 Tevis Cup wins among Becky, Jeremy and Heather Reynolds, and John Crandell and his amazing Heraldic.

We get back from England next week at midnight drive straight to Arizona meet John climb on our horses for the 5-day Grand Canyon ride then I head to Durango to shoot possibly the most beautiful endurance ride in the world the inaugural Purgatory 60 then come back here and help Steph get ready for the 5-day Canyonlands ride which is 2 weeks later then I can breathe. (Or… perhaps we'll just collapse after England?)

This evening, before we leave, a few words come to mind:

frantic

last minute packing

Everything but the kitchen sink

what have I forgotten

Good thing The Raven is around to supervise everything!

http://www.endurance.net/international/GreatBritain/2012WEC/ is the link to the ride, which is on Saturday, August 25, England time.

(and - top picture is only a fraction of the packed gear…)

Missed

Wednesday June 15 2011

I was gone only a week from Owyhee, but it was a whole week. I missed the busting out of the locust tree blossoms. I missed the baby Raven fledging down the crick. I missed a week of riding. I missed the horses.

And they missed me!

Stormy doesn't always notice when I leave, or particularly get excited when I get back. He doesn't always stop his eating to come up to me, because he knows he can keep eating and I'll come up to him. This time he was happy to see me return, and he walked up to greet me. And it wasn't just about treats. He had some serious bug bites on his chest and belly and armpits that he couldn't reach and needed some serious scratching.

Jose always notices when I'm gone, he always misses me and he's always happy to see me when I get back. He walked up to me to say hi, to get some neck hugs, to nudge me for treats, and get some scratches for his bug bites.

And when I walked away from them, they kept following me.

It's good to be missed!

Irons in the Fire

Sunday July 11 2010

"Have you lost your mind? Crewing!!" Barbara White (39 Tevis starts, 29 Tevis finishes) said to me, when I told her I was going to crew Tevis this year.


I probably have lost my mind. Although Nance has offered me her horse Quinn to ride again (!!), I figured after shooting and reporting on Tevis one year, and riding it last year, this year it was time I crewed it, to get the full spectrum. (One of the main draws is, we crew get to eat at In N Out Burger in Auburn as we are moving rigs and racing to crewing spots!!!)

I am afraid Barbara is right: I expect that during and after crewing Tevis, I will wish I had ridden it! However, I am committed to crewing for Nance and the Yosts (we rode with 3 Yosts last year), and whoever else I can step in to help, by dousing them with a cool bucket of water when they come into Robinson Flat and Forest Hill (after I douse myself of course). Besides, I have to admit, I'm pretty darn proud of my 100% one-for-one Tevis record - the whole thing was an unrepeatable magical first experience - and I want to hold onto that for a while. : )




After Tevis, I'll be home in Owyhee a few days, then it's off to St Paul Minnesota for my alternate life as a sound mixer for The Gospel at Colonus - a black gospel version of Sophocles' tragedy, Oedipus at Colonus, featuring the 4-time Grammy-winning Blind Boys of Alabama, Chicago's Legendary Soul Stirrers, Minneapolis' Steele Family (you might recognize the voice of Jearlyn, who's often a guest on the Prairie Home Companion), and many other extraordinarily talented singers and actors and actresses. We have a week-run of the show at the Ordway Theatre. (You can see my June 2008 archives for the last show we did in Athens).

You can get a glimpse of the Athens show (a promo for Ordway theatre) here on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij6t_ofrZFA .

Then it's home in Owyhee a few days before heading off to Edinburgh Scotland (!) for a 3-day run of The Gospel at Colonus at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Here's a promo for the EIF on youtube (also clips from the Athens show):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO8ncyNZCMM&feature=related .


Afterwards, I'm staying on in Europe for a couple of weeks, visiting Seren Arabians in England, and covering an endurance ride in Belgium and at Florac, France - the pre-ride for next year's European Endurance Championship.


Then I'm back home a few days before taking off for the World Equestrian Games - covering the World Endurance Championship in Kentucky. And I'm looking as much forward to that as I am to riding in the Shawnee National Forest with Genie Stewart-Spears, before the WEG!

I get back to Owyhee the night of Day 1 of the September Owyhee Canyonlands... and I hope to saddle up Jose and ride 50 miles starting on Day 2!

Of course The Raven will be accompanying me on my travels, as well as doing some reporting on his Forevermore The Raven blog.

Stay tuned for some fun adventures - and look for me at Tevis - I'll be the one wearing my silver Tevis buckle : )

No Mas Paella

Sunday March 22 2009

I will never eat another dish of paella again.

I got one of those invites from strangers for dinner: a Catalonian family, the brother of Nuria, who runs the Spanish Fisiocrem business for Paul, the New Zealander, whose El Moli I'm staying at.

Angels and Jordi and their two children welcomed me into their home, with Nuria, Marc and 1-year-old Aniol, and Paul, as if I were another old friend.

We found out we had more than just horses in common. There was also art, music, birds (owls in particular), and travel. Angels and Jordi have been to Iceland and that is my Mecca. And they were all, this evening, discussing their upcoming family trip to New Zealand (where I've been once, but want to return to actually sight-see, so I got jealous listening). And we had a common appreciation for good food.

You know how men do the barbecue thing in the US - Jordi was doing the paella pan thing over the wood-and-brush fire pit here - first artichokes simmering in the bubbling olive oil, then garlic and onions and rice and calamari and green peppers. And it was a huge pan.

Paella originated in Valencia - the Spanish Autonomous Community just south of Catalonia. I've had paella before, and it has not been my favorite, and I'm definitely not a seafood lover. So when I heard paella was being served, while I was a bit squeamish, I know how to be a good guest and be grateful just for being invited for a home-cooked meal, especially by some new Spanish friends.


Well. Maybe it was the wonderful place (Catalonia), maybe it was the old and new friends (treasured), maybe it was the talk, maybe it was the way we ate it - in the traditional way, all digging in with a spoon from the original pan. Or, maybe it was simply the BEST paella I have ever eaten. I ate, and ate, and I kept eating. We all did. Wiped the huge pan out.

Then came the champagne, and dessert, followed by coffee - more time to sit back, relax, enjoy the company of strangers who immediately make you feel like family, time to let the food and ambience and camaraderie soak in, while the sun slowly dipped behind the hills in the west. It was one of the best evenings ever.

Seriously, that was the last dish of paella I will ever have. I know it can never be as good again.

For me, no mas paella.

Walk Across Spain

Thursday March 19 2009

Walk Across Spain

Step outside in the morning on the balcony of El Moli (the Mill) outside of the small village of San Julia de Vilatorte in this corner of Catalonia, Spain, and breathe deeply of the crisp clean air under the bright early sunshine. it is bracing, fragrant with spring and a nuance of... pig doo.

This area produces a lot of pigs, and I dare say, a lot of pig fertilizer that is used on the ample farmland. It's not enough to make you gag, but just enough to put a slight crinkle in your brow, or raise an eyebrow, or wrinkle your nose just a bit, depending on which way the wind blows.

But anyway...

Put on your hiking shoes, grab your backpack and your walking poles (or, in my case, the Raven), and head out across Spain. Or Europe, for that matter. How about destination: Poland, or Norway?

I started right outside El Moli, walking the Ruta dels Moulins trail along the creek, which soon joined up with the GR2 Footpath.

The GR Footpaths in France and Belgium (Grande Randonne'e), Holland (Grote Routepaden), Portugal (Grande Rota), and Spain (Gran Recorrido) are a network of long-distance hiking trails in Europe, that are connected with the European "extremely" long-distance footpaths, covering 60,000 km, that will take you in every conceivable direction over Europe: middle of Norway to the middle of Italy, tip of Greece to the bottom of Spain, Ireland, Great Britain, top of Finland to tip of Turkey, Portugal to Estonia or Poland.

Designed by the European Ramblers' Association, founded in Germany in 1969, today it is composed of 50 ramblers' organizations from 26 European states, with over 5 million individual members. The local ramblers' organizations maintain the paths, markings, huts and campsites along their routes, some of which have been in existence for over 100 years; work on preserving rights of way; and promote the history and culture of the areas through which the trails pass.

The trails vary from forest trails to paths along fields, roads through villages, dirt roads between fields; past old Roman ruins, ancient walls, old mills, castles, farms. You can follow the silk routes of Europe, the Troubadour routes, the European parks and Garden route, the Wenceslav route, or the Hanseatic route.

Simple markings indicate the route, on tree trunks, rocks, walls, signposts, or on the ground, of (most often) red and white paint: white stripe over red stripe indicates the correct path; a red and white "X" indicates the wrong direction. They aren't always easy to see, (for instance, sometimes a tree trunk is overgrown by vines), and sometimes you take a wrong fork in the trail or road a dozen yards before turning around to try another fork or two until you find the correct way.

The Raven and I followed our GR2 path skirting Sant Julia on side paved roads, then onto dirt roads and trails between planted fields. After we passed a private castle and some old pig farm sheds, the route began climbing, until we had a decent view of Sant Julia in the distance below us.

I don't think horses are prohibited, although I didn't see any signs of horses; though on another part of the GR2, Paul used to ride his New Zealand horses. That was a good long stretch, and good underfoot, though the area I walked had a lot of pavement, and plenty of stones on the trails. I met two other walkers today, and have seen bicycles on the trails also.

And the route went on - beckoning to just come around the next corner, just come over this next hill. And after that - just one more corner, just one more hill. And then the next one... Indeed, we could have just kept going. I think Norway would have been our ultimate destination. : )

Spain: Ruta dels Moulins

Wednesday March 18 2009

In the region east of Vic, Spain (an hour north of Barcelona), you can follow, for about 2 miles, the Ruta dels Moulins - the Route of the Mills - a series of old canals and mills that used the water flow from the spring-and-run-off-fed creek, to grind wheat and sharpen farm tools over the centuries. Many of the old mills have been restored and are now residences, having first been built between the 12th and 16th centuries. Some are crumbling and disingegrating ruins, half hidden under vines.

El Molí de la Calvaria, where I'm staying, has evidence that the old lock was built in the 11th century; the first document is from 1236 AD. The original mill is on the ground floor, and the house above was built in the 16th century. Above the door is carved in stone: IHSENMO TI CALVARI MORT DELS DE ASI TE RECORT, in probably a mix of some old Catalon and Latin, meaning, roughly, "The Dead here will think of you," which I'm sure is meant to be some sort of blessing. (Or, if you try googling the translation: "...agony of death by now well pruned." Hmmm...)The inscription is, you can still clearly see, from 1596. The mill is now a museum, and the owner still runs it on Sundays to show how it worked (and to feed the resident ducks with the seeds : ). A lock is opened in the retention pond, water is funneled under the mill to turn the two large wheels (and a smaller one outside, connected to a small circular stone, which was used to sharpen tools), which turn the millstones in the mill, which grind the wheat.

The millstones have grooves, or furrows, separating flat areas, or lands. The grooves furnish cutting edges and channel the ground flour out from the stones as the wheels turn. The furrows and lands are carved in repeating patterns, or harps. This millstone has 8 harps.

Outside the ground floor mill doors, there are still the ancient iron rings in the stone walls where you can tie up your horses while you visit. : )

Hot Ticket

Thursday February 5 2009

Or, "Merri Travels, Steph Stays : ) "

It's my turn to travel, because Steph swears she is staying home this time. Well, except for one trip to Patagonia. And except for one trip to Uruguay. Well, and there's that trip to Morocco with the Bahraini endurance team. And...

(You get the picture.)

I hope I got my fill of snow and cold here in Owyhee, because where I'm going, there's only one recorded snowfall that completely covered the Al-Jees mountain range (at 5700') in Ras as-Khaimah, the most northerly state of the 7-state United Arab Emirates. Down at sea level where I'll be it's unlikely I'll see even a drop of rain. In fact, it is highly possible the temperature will rise above my PWL (Personal Whining Limit) of 75*F. Well. Maybe I should take a comfort bottle of Owyhee snow with me.

It'll be my first visit to the UAE (and, hopefully, Qatar). Primary event is the 160 km President's Cup endurance race in Abu Dhabi on February 14. This will be the 10th anniversary of the event, which has produced some astonishing finish times from some incredible endurance horses. The last two years the Cup has been run in less than 7 hours for 160 km - 100 miles - a figure I cannot wrap my head around. I mean, I rarely ride 50 miles in less than 7 hours! There are many aspects to endurance around the world, and this will be my first look at this distinctive atmosphere.

Then it's back home to Owyhee briefly to kiss my horse in March before heading to Spain, for the Cron 120 km ride near Barcelona, (where my digs will be El Moli - owned by Kiwis Paul and Madonna - a restored 16th century mill : ), then on to the south of Spain, for a return to the the 4th renewal of the 9-day Al Andalus ride, the fun, exhausting, equine merry-making, unique endurance ride that takes you on a whirlwind journey around southen Spain and the beautiful land of Andalucia with the beautiful Andalucian people. (Note to Ines: Mi espanol es tal vez poquito mejor, and my suitcase will be half as big and half the weight this year!)

I will be back just in time for the Tough Sucker ride here in April, and the 2-day Fandango ride in May. Somebody get Jose ready for me!

And then maybe it's onward again, maybe some re-visits and some new visits... because there's always some endurance, somewhere in the world, either here in my backyard or on the other side of the planet. We really are one big family, whether you ride or race, whether you do it for fun or for business.

So, I'm scrubbing my lenses, sharpening my pens, and putting my travelling sandals on. For the next 6 days I'm going to do a snow dance for one more dumping before I leave, (possibility of snow tomorrow!), smooch on my horse, snort some Owyhee snow, make a few snow angels, and eat as much Ben & Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch as I possibly can, all to excess.

And the Raven's already got his bag packed : )