We are travellers invited by the road. We are guests of it for a while. And we learned again; travellers can’t be choosers.
We wanted to make camp in somewhere at the shores of Bayramiç Dam after leaving Yeniköy. We hit the road towards a woody place close to Kurşunlu Village.
Just at the beginning of the road, we were warned by extra ordinary sounds of left front wheel and the rattle of the brake. After arriving Bayramiç at a snail’s pace, we started looking for a repairman. In this place that we don’t know we found a man of this job by asking. It was about 6 when we find the mechanic who solves this little problem that could cause an important damage. We are aliens to Murtaza as we cannot do such an easy thing: fixing a screw of brake disc by ourselves. Yes, Murtaza is the name of our caravan. We don’t know why such a delicate lady caravan called like this, and we didn’t want to change it like a horse. We learned its name so long after by the way.
Saying that we weren’t stranded, we continue travelling quickly but not in a hurry with the comfort of long summer days. We reached Kurşunlu Village while trying to find the road to the place we wanted to go. We followed the road described by the villager trusting our vehicle whose bottom is high from the ground enough, maybe not as much as a jeep. We hoped the road, just a bit better than a path, take us to our target.
Small stones took the place of tracks. The road became narrower. We drove stubbornly until it’s too late to go back. While small stones were getting bigger, the sun was getting smaller at the dawn. Finally the road spoke: “you shall not pass”*. We were petrified with the sound of crashing coming from the bottom of the vehicle. We neither were able to go forward nor back. The road caught us. Murtaza trapped just like Frodo caught by the web of Shelob. We were deceived.
We turned the car off and got off. We were about to accept our destiny after many futile attempts like trying to break the stone with another stone, trying to lift the car with a jack on a sloping ground while lying in front of the wheel ready to be crushed by the car. We were thinking about finding a place to put our tent as it wasn’t able to sleep in the caravan in this situation.
And just in that precise moment, in that time when all hopes died and a miracle was needed, a shepherd appeared like Sam with the Elvish light coming out of Shelob’s Lair. First we heard the tolls. Then we saw the herd. We did whatever the shepherd said with after telling him what happened with all our excitement. We saved Murtaza by putting a stone in front of the wheel and pushed it back with the help of the shepherd. Then we passed the obstacle by raising the place where wheels would pass using stones.
There was no damage, we were moving towards the camping area. Catching the last photon coming from the sun, we stopped our car under a tree next to the barrage.
We prepared dinner for ourselves with all our stress. Pasta and salad. We didn’t light fire that night.
When the sun shone again, we began going towards Çavuşlu Village. After meeting with Iraz and Eren, who we would stay with for some time, we went to Ayazma to spend the night. Then we parked our car close to the river somewhere around Ayazma waterfall.
Murtaza in Ayazma
Everything was amazing; the river, forest, birds, fire… Murtaza liked it too. She didn’t want to go back; she wasn’t going with reverse gear. We knew that she goes till the end with us, but no way back. In the morning, this defect was healed by itself, after leaving the place where we parked by moving just forward. It was just spite.
The road goes, we follow. Without knowing we would be stranded once again, this time because of the overheating, at the top of the mountains, while passing Ida Mountains.
*In The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf stops Balrog saying this.
