"The Wandering Camel's Caravan" TheWanderingCamel's Profile

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The oldest statue in the world?

Tucked under a staircase in a small provincial museum in south-eastern Turkey, this statue of a man exudes a sense of quiet melancholy that is tangible and quite mesmerising. You feel that you could lose yourself in the gaze of his black obsidian eyes. Carved out of limestone, he stands well over a metre in height, giving credence to the claim that he is the oldest statue in the world - figures such as the Venus of Willendorf date back 10, even 20,000 years deeper in time, but they are tiny, small enough to be held in the hand, figurines, not solid statues. Nick-named - very aptly - the Snowman - this enigmatic figure is just one of the wonders we encountered on out recent travels through Turkey.

Why the Wandering Camel?

Back in 2005, a group of online friends with a shared love of travel - especially in the Middle East - thought it would be fun to share their adventures on this VT site. Since then our numbers have dwindled and now there's just one camel remaining to keep the caravan going. The others have all packed their humps and disappeared over a dune somewhere, maybe they'll be back one day.

A few of our pages such as Mexico (Khadi and leyle)and Paris (lulu and leyle) are joint efforts, Lulu has contributed most of the stuff on Jordan and Megypt's Cairo offerings are a mine of practical information.
I'm the one who caught the VT bug however, so pretty well everything else is the result of my travels over the last few years.

so ....

Ahlan Wa Sahlan! Welcome to The House of TheWanderingCamel

Fellow travellers are always welcome here.
Join us for a while,
Listen to our tales,
Tell us of your own adventures
The Caravanserai is open.

leyle

A taste of Libya

Living up to the name

Wandering camels indeed - whilst most of the original caravan have wandered off - as unhobbled camels are wont to do - there's still one of us, leyle, keeping the caravanserai open, and there are plenty of tales still to be shared.

March 2009 found me heading off for three wonderful weeks in Libya - a great place for camels. The photo montage here shows some of the sights that caught my eye on that trip.
This time, as well as returning to Tripoli and the Sahara, our travels took us east to Cyrenaica - Libya's Jebel Akhdar, the Green Mountains, where the ruins of ancient Greek cities rival the splendors of Roman Leptis Magna in the west, tales of wartime heroism become real, and quiet homage is paid to Libya's greatest hero of modern times.

Croatia in June, Uzbekistan in October - it was a good year.

*****

Famagusta

The best laid plans ....

2011 promised something more - for only the second time in my life (and the first time ever for MrL) we had plans for embarking on tours that we had no part in planning. First up was February when, after leaving Australia's sunshine a bit of English winter, we planned to head to Egypt, to revisit Cairo and take a cruise down the Nile.

So much for that plan! Cyprus in February is very pleasant, quiet and still a little wintry - a few days in the north and a few in the south made a satisfactory Plan B for our aborted Egyptian trip. The Nile will have to wait for another year.

Late May it's Vienna and Croatia - a great mix - and then in September, Eastern Turkey's the drawcard - Trabzon, the Black Sea, Lake Van, Mount Ararat, the great stone heads at Mount Nemrut and more. Another organized tour but led by friends who have a long association with Turkey through their involvement in the DOBAG Project.

It's going to be a good year.

******

Khokand to Khiva

Travelling the Silk Road

Samarkand, Khiva, Khokand, Bukhara - wonderful names that ring with the romance and mystery of the ancient Silk Road. October 2009 took us on a second visit to Uzbekistan (and a day in Tajikistan) with memory cards full of photos and my mind's eye even fuller of the sights and sounds of that extraordinary place. New pages followed that trip - Shahrisabz and Fergana. Updates to older pages written after the first trip - Bukhara and Tashkent are completed as are Khiva and Samarkand. Here's a taste of some of the fabulous places we saw and people we met along the way

*****

Palm Valley - central Australia

Even camels stay home sometimes

2010 was a fairly quiet year for camel-travel. The old saddle bags only came out for Easter in New Zealand, a brief two weeks in Barcelona and England in June and Alice Springs in August when some bold VT sailors needed a cheer team for their assault on the Henley-on-Todd regatta - a VT meet with a difference.

Gorgeous Jess

Meet Jess

Having been cat-slaves for years, we always thought, much as we love them, dogs were not for us. Then unforseen circumstances brought Jess into our lives and what a joy she is. A seven-year old rottweiler, she has firmly entrenched herself as an indispensable member of the family.

And the cats? One has come to an "accommodation" of the big black monster in the house, tolerating her presence, facing her off occasionally, certainly not prepared to be friends but not allowing it to faze her or keep her from where she wants to be. The other is not so sanguine - she's gone into a huff, spends most of her days under the cover of MrL's WWII jeep and rarely consents to come inside the house until she knows the monster has been put to bed for the night. Jess couldn't be less interested in them if she tried, as long as she gets her walks, her pats on the head and her cuddles, she's as chilled out as a dog could be.

Wonderful as the sights and sounds and smells we encounter on our journeys are, it's the people we meet along the way that really matter.

(Can you work out where the people pictured here are from? They're all to be found somewhere on our travel pages)

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Borrowed (with permission) from June.b, this statement expresses my sentiments re my photos perfectly -

Unless flagged otherwise, the photographs on the pages are my own and no copyright infringement shall be imposed upon anyone who wishes to utilize any of them for decent, moral, respectable, and legal purpose - within VT's rules and regs. of course and providing those that feature friends or family are not used. And, I would certainly appreciate your mentioning the source or quote VT or URL where you've taken the photo/s. Thanks.

Intro Updated Feb 1, 2012
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Comments (451)

kokoryko May 14, 2012 at 12:40 PM Report Abuse

Thanks for visiting a bit of Middle East with me Leyle; Mts'khet'a is an interesting place, specially the museum. Yes, long time; I am very busy last times, travel a lot but not very active on VT. I have to catch up with Georgia, Armenia, Turkey, Moscow, Russian Caucasus, Paris, Ukraine, Romania and more. . . I must confess that if writing or reading about past travels is nice, travelling is even more (nice). Best from here.
Maryimelda May 13, 2012 at 6:35 PM Report Abuse

Thanks for the visit leyle and especially for the info re the swans. I will change it on the tip. I'm just going on what I was told last time I was there, but it's great to know the right info. Thanks again.
brendareed May 11, 2012 at 10:51 PM Report Abuse

Leyle~ Thanks so much for your comments on my Warsaw page! I was stunned at how wonderful the city was - and at how my presuppositions were so wrong! It taught me a valuable lesson about making assumptions. I would love to go back and see more of Warsaw. ~Brenda
Nemorino May 10, 2012 at 2:57 PM Report Abuse

Great that you are going to Copenhagen in June! I hope you have a fine time. Thanks for coming back for another look at my Copenhagen page. I’m glad you like the photo collages and my "wheelie take on the city", even though you aren’t planning on cycling yourself.
Rumi-fan May 6, 2012 at 6:45 PM Report Abuse

Thank you so much for the birthday wishes. Hello from Sydney.
gwened May 6, 2012 at 8:04 AM Report Abuse

Thanks for your nice comments, in my profile have more on brittany just search Bretagne. Yes nice Honfleur, more than a place to me, many times in the year there as my mom rest in the ocean there with the braves. Cheers
MM212 May 5, 2012 at 9:14 PM Report Abuse

Greetings from Abu Dhabi! Thanks for your comment on my Granada page. My visit was too short so I'd love to return.
a2lopes May 4, 2012 at 2:45 PM Report Abuse

Hello Leyle.
Hej Toshio.
just now I saw your birthday wishes. Thanks. How are you? any plans to revisit Lisbon?
Greetings from Lisbon
sachara May 4, 2012 at 6:42 AM Report Abuse

Leyle, nice you visited my pages. Yes, there is always too less time to make updates and work on the new pages. In 2-3 months I have my early retirement. My plan is then to continue travelling, but also to work more regularly on my pages.
kyoub May 3, 2012 at 2:34 PM Report Abuse

Hello Leyle, We haven't been doing much bird watching and no traveling lately. That has got to change. Good hearing from you. I hope you are
keeping busy.