Caravanserai
The band "Santana" played a famous and memorable tune called
"Caravanserai". It starts with desert music and goes into a West
African rhythm followed by the beats and drummings of various
other Countries.
Santana both tries and succeeds in capturing the essence of the
caravanserai in the ever changing musical patterns in the life
of just one, and at the same time gives you an insight into many
more.
caravans have
been traversing vast circuits of the earth for thousands of
years without any need for mechanisation or even wheels. Where
most caravans go, no vehicle can follow. Wheels cannot follow
Afghan mountain passes or roam the desert in soft sand. The
trade routes of hundreds of generations of desert and hill
people throughout the world rely either on two or four legs and
a lot of stamina.
In Nepal if you want to bring anything really heavy to a village
high up in the mountains, for a new bridge or a major building
undertaking, the whole village will turn out, go down the
mountain tracks for a few thousand metres, and bring it back up
in a caravan. It may take them a few days.
Every now and then they stop from their labours at a rest place
or guest house for sustenance and to sleep until they can start
in the light the next morning. Sherpas will toil all day, every
day, at high altitude to supply villages with essentials. They
also stop at the same establishments.
In South America the problem of getting goods over hilly terrain
is similar, so groups of porters form a caravan for the 10 day
walk to the villages they are supplying.
In the desert, apparently a wilderness to a Westerner, there are
routes along which camels have travelled for thousands of years.
They go between oasis' but there are no traffic signs in the
middle of the Sahara and so the camel trains of merchant
travellers along these routes navigate by the stars, the sun,
local knowledge and an in-built sense of direction. There are no
tracks, but they know where the caravan wants to get to, and
they have travelled the same route many times over the years.
Whether travellers are in Nepal, Afghanistan, Peru or Mali they
are all heading for a caravanserai. A place to stop, get water
and food, and often a bed. The English equivelent would be an
inn, but the resources and needs of caravan people, who survive
meagrely, are less onerous than the comforts required by
holiday-makers. They do like a bit of home comfort as well on
their travels.
Nowadays caravanserai are decked out with all sorts of
electronic gadgets, fridges, freezers, hot water, showers,
toilets, televisions, comfy beds and computers; you can even tow
them behind cars and go for miles off the traditional route, on
roads, in them. Everyone can get a good night's sleep and still
get up and watch TV, have a cooked breakfast, go into cyberspace
and it's just like being at home.
Meanwhile, back in the deserts or the mountains of the world
where there are no roads, the travellers find an oasis for their
camels to drink at, some good fodder for their mules, a hot cup
of tea when it's freezing outside, or an ice-cold coke when it
is 50C and a proper bed for one night and food. These
caravanserai have been here for 5000 years without much change.
If you own, stay in, rent, hire, holiday in, or otherwise have
dealings with the modern day caravan please don't forget that
historically it is your own personal caravanserai, and should be
called by it's full name, if only in your own mind. And the
tune's good too.
Interested in motor homes and caravans? Try this link for more of the same.