1st of February 2022, Steppe FM : Four humans, three horses, three dogs
My scholarship files are finished, Ibrahim has just returned from Istanbul. Over a few beers, we mourn the loss of the young foal that died the day before, probably because of a kick from its mother.
Despite this sad introduction, the adventure continues.
Marie has just returned from France. We both organise to join Aymeric and Akim already in the south with the three dogs (Poncho, Mousse and Jehol of course!).
We check that we have all the necessary equipment: tarpaulins, harnesses, pegs, bags of tarpaulins...
From time to time, we hear from the South: they are looking for horses or donkeys around Fethiye. From what we understand, everything is getting complicated and it's raining quite a lot, the few horses for sale are not in our budget and the few donkeys for sale are not adapted to the trip. And then, they have three dogs to manage with hitchhiking and never a fixed place to sleep. They will spend a week criss-crossing the region, visiting ranches and asking old men in the chailevi to try to find mounts. Aymeric will tell you more about their adventures and encounters in the next Steppe FM podcast which will be released next week!
So, because of this news, which is actually rather bad, Marie and I are back to looking for horses in Cappadocia. Fortunately, since we've been in the area for a long time and after a lot of shopping trips, we have some contacts. So we go back to Ahmed, a friend of friends who is a horse dealer. We explain him our problem: we want to buy two horses and transport them to the south (800 km away) for a maximum of 10 000 TL (700e). He offers us some horses, tells us that if we take two he can sell them to us for 5000 TL and guarantees to find us a transport for 5000 TL (which for us was impossible because of the drastic increase in the price of petrol these last weeks). After two hours, we hesitate between three horses. We decide to come back tomorrow to give him our final decision and to agree with Aymeric and Akim.
The next day we decided on the two horses, where the transport would bring the horses, the stuff and Marie and I and that we would leave as soon as the final preparations were done. So we tell Ahmed all this. He agrees. We send for the farrier to fit the shoes on the two horses. As he finishes the first one (the chestnut that we renamed Patate), Ahmed comes to make us a new proposal: for 1500 Tl (100e) more, he sells us the third horse that we liked. We negotiate his shoeing and especially his equipment (saddle and harness), we call Aymeric and Akim. And we accept. At 6pm, after an intense day, we bought three horses, they are shod and the transport to take us all to the South will be there tomorrow at noon.
Last evening with Ibrahim. Last moments in Cappadocia. Adrenalin. Excitement: we have three horses and we leave tomorrow.
Short night, the morning is spent putting away the things and the place that Ibo entrusted to us, feeding one last time Ibo's horses that I know so well. At noon, Ibo takes us to Ahmed's house. We check the condition of the horses. The truck arrives at 1pm. The horses are loaded into the truck (normally for two horses) without difficulty. A few goodbyes and we leave for a minimum of 12 hours of driving: snow is expected all day. I'm sitting awkwardly between Marie on the window side and the half-mute driver. Too bad for them, I'm overexcited, and even more so with the snow falling for 8 of the 12 hours. The driver has taken two three-minute breaks, shows no signs of fatigue, and doesn't even seem to have blinked during the journey.
It's 3am, the truck stops, I open the door, the dogs are barking, it's messy, it's dark, the team is together.
We take the horses and all the equipment out of the truck. We tie them to the stake in the nearest pasture. Akim and Aymeric stand guard for this very short rainy night in a hut with broken windows. 4 hours later, we are woken up by noise around us. It's normal, it's 9am, it's Sunday, in the middle of a picnic area by the sea.
Rain is forecast for the next four days and we are still missing a package from Istanbul. We set up camp a little further away, in an old building under construction that has been abandoned for a long time. We found a grassy area for the horses. We set up a small room for ourselves after clearing out a few kilos of broken glass. We even made another room for the horses, we managed to install strong ties and pierce the walls.
For four days we stay there. The rain never really comes, but it's very windy and freezing at night. We are busy testing the packs and the luggage on the horses, taking them to graze in the nearby hills and going back and forth to town to find grain, hay, and above all all the necessary equipment that we need to adapt the luggage to the best of our ability.
We spend an afternoon with François and Sandrine, friends of ours who travelled by bike and whom we met in Cappadocia. By an unfortunate coincidence for them, but happy chance for us, they offer us two nights in a hotel in the next town. Akim and Marie enjoy the first night. And Rico and I go the next day. Strange feeling to enter a four stars hotel without having washed since..., to enjoy a heated swimming pool and especially an unlimited breakfast! This is how we found ourselves, without a penny in our pockets, in the most chic hotel in Dalaman.
A good news rarely arrives alone, we decide to start the next day.
Wake up at 7am, the first light on the terrace of our magnificent dilapidated squat. It takes us more than two or three hours to take off, but here we go!
3 horses, 4 humans, 3 dogs twirling around a dirt road. We slowly move along the Mediterranean coast. Finally, Akim and Marie hold Potato.
Akim and Marie are holding Potato in their arms and shouting the name of their dog, who has gone to chase a rabbit. Rico laughs softly, keeping up with Grandpa's rhythm. I turn around to look at them but Koko calls me to order by pulling brutally on his tether to go graze.
Smile.
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