Gypsy Journeys

Their gypsy camp, may not be as beautiful and perfumed as their last one was. It neither is as secluded, and you won’t find that many trees either. But the gypsy couple is not complaining. They are stationed just by the water; right above the big rocks and right by where an impressive dam let its waters flow down their channels in a clash of thunder—its liquid music serenating them all day long; calming their spirits and making them feel as in a sleepy haze, while the songs of birds follow them everywhere…

Because neighboring campsites are a bit closer to each other than what the gypsy girl would had preferred, she decided to make their space a little bit more private by hanging an assortment of fabrics around their tent. This not only provided instant privacy, but it also detracted them from the sun and the wind and it made everything looked much prettier! What would the gypsy girl do without her mandalas and veils, one must have to wonder!

 

They set their chairs and little table right by the edge of the cliff, and immediately went to prepare their lunch, for they were already famished with hunger. This time the gypsy girl made garbanzo soup with veggie meat and rice and the Fisherman went on preparing his favorite grilled chicken...

Then the gypsy girl got busy washing the dishes while her Fisherman went down to the river to do his favorite thing...

After the gypsy girl had finished washing the dishes, she went to sit down by the edge of the river to watch her Fisherman fish, hoping he would not caught one of those awful things-carps that were seen everywhere rising up their massive heads about the water.  Huge fishes over 30lb coming clean out of the water… 

The gypsy girl had never seen such a display of the unusual while at camping and she couldn’t stop screaming in awe, impressed as she was by the spectacular splashes that those leaping carps could make… It was sorts of like watching a horror movie.  She pondered and wondered if perhaps by night the Loch Ness Monster, Nessie, would too appeared on the calmed waters and she’d get to see it stretching up its long neck as it glided along the murky waters under a bright moon. 

She read and played with her camera and she talked to God, and followed the routs of the yellow-bellied birds that were constantly chasing each other from tree to tree... 

 

 

While the Fisherman was fishing down there, a neighboring camper approached to say hello, and he told the gypsy girl how the ancient sturgeons in this river can weight around 80 to 200 pounds and how when it is windy such as on the previous nights, you can see a ball of wind formed of dust heading towards the campsite, swirling and singing above the waters.  His stories were amazing and totally true.

Inside the gypsy caravan it felt toasty and cozy with sunshine slithering through veil covered windows. She loves it here so much she might never want to leave!

At 7:55 pm a mellowed golden sun stretched atop the water creating glowing floating stars that dazzled and glimmered and made the water sparkle with magic. The muffled sound of voices coming from people fishing at the opposite side of the river came in an incomprehensible hush; distorted and unnatural, and I had the oddest of feeling that it must had been the sturgeons talking among themselves as they splashed with a heavy thud and raised their brown head atop the star-illuminated water.

The soft light that minutes before permeated the gypsy boudoir grew dim and the room turned dark and the voices coming from outside quieted down.

They had their supper, fished some more, walked around the camp to see what others were up to and then called it a day...  and now the gypsy girl must stop here; otherwise she would keep writing until all lights are out and her computer run out of batteries. Tomorrow will be another day. Another sun another thought another moment to be lived and let live… another day to reminiscent about, and enjoy it and to be happy with what you have and what it has been gifted to you...

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Early morning came with the songs of birds—so many! It was chilly all throughout the night and I felt cold even in my dreams. The Fisherman was in charge of breakfast, while the gypsy girl remained in the coziness of their gypsy caravan with her books and a cup of coffee, waiting for the sun to warm up the earth. 

Slowly, but surely, people started coming out of their campers, tents and trailers and as the sun rose up, the river banks got crowded; expectancy warming up every heart. This is truly a serious fishing place; a fisherman’s paradise if you may… people come here to fish all day and night long… 

Late last evening someone on the other side of the camp got a mammoth of a sturgeon; a black massive head shaped like that of a dolphin and for some strange reason everyone here seems to be in a happy mood, we mingle and talk to each other and ask questions about each other’s little fishing triumphs.

Right beside our gypsy trailer, five women in an interesting diversity of ages are camping next to us. They came in a huge trailer yesterday afternoon all by themselves, and I enjoy hearing them talk and laugh with no apparent need whatsoever for their man. Deep inside me, I kind of envy them; their objectivity and detachment of what to me, it is simply sacred is admirable… would I ever attain such liberty of the soul, I have to wonder.

I’m so attached to this man I called the “Fisherman” that I can’t even begin to imagine myself being wholly happy apart from him. They are loud and quite the rambunctious lot these women are, and they make me feel contented just by looking at them enjoying their lives in such freedom. This very moment they are all sitting outside, passing among themselves some type of a sparkling red juice in a crystal jar—a magical potion I’m sure it must be, because they are overexcited, talking way too loudly and laughing way too much. I have to wonder, though, if this is genuine happiness.

This afternoon we saw a man fishing with a bow and arrow. I had never seen anything like that, and felt such excitement watching him getting one of those humongous carps which are constantly jumping up to the surface, that his dad, an especially nice gentleman standing by me, asked him if he could pose for me…

 
This man later told me that these fishes smell so bad and are so disgusting that nobody wants to eat them, so once caught, they are left on the rocks or by the edge of the river. And did you see the wild cats last night? He then said out of the blue. What? Cats! Where, here? I couldn’t believe it! And why hadn’t I seen them?

He told me that they would usually come out late in the evening to feed from the carcasses of fishes left behind. They are many, and they live among the rocks… oh I don’t think I could sleep at all tonight if I don’t happen to see these cats before we go to bed! Please pretty please Lord, would you not bring them kitties to me tonight!

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10:02 pm—what a peculiar sort those women camping alongside our gypsy trailer are; how can anyone be so remarkably overexcited at all time of day? And raucous too, I should say… still talking and laughing so loud at this hour, that even inside their trailer you can hear them alborotando the night away…

We’re taking things down early tomorrow morning, it is Mother’s Day and we’re planning on spending the afternoon with the girls. Not a single day of my life would go by without me thinking of mom. Something always would remind me of her; no night will go by that I won’t see her in my dreams. I am always frantically looking for her in my dreams. She’s lost and I cannot find her, then I wake up to the perplexing realization that it wasn’t just a bad dream. I’ve truly lost her, it is definitively, and I will never find her again. The only difference from my dreams is, I know exactly where to find her. I so immeasurably miss her.

Ps: I did see the cats that night! Three dark figures against the dimmed sky; eyes glowing in the night like magical fireflies.