Through Paphlagonia with a Donkey

Like many others my travel plans have been restricted since the spring of 2020.

Recently however I was able to take a literary trip along with Simcoe writer David Beasley with the re-release of his book Through Paphlagonia with a Donkey. The book, originally published in 1983, documents David’s travels in remote northwestern Turkey in 1958.

He was 27 when he set out with a donkey he named Bobby along a route that ran parallel to the Black Sea through a wild area in modern day Turkey which carries the ancient Greek name Paphlagonia.

Unlike most of us when travelling David “deliberately avoided researching the history of Paphlagonia” as he “did not want to ruin the element of adventure and surprise…”

David believes that to know other peoples you must “enter into the spirits of their ways.” Present day travellers may not subscribe to this view.

Prior to actually hitting the road David was mistaken for an Englishman and had a pistol pointed at him.  A crisis was averted when there was clarification that while he spoke English, he was in fact a Canadian citizen.

“Travelling through a foreign land amongst people who more often than not mistook me for an enemy was not pleasant.  Like a refugee, I fled from one town to the next, always a subject of curiosity, never feeling part of the land or the people.”

Further along the road David was also misidentified as a Russian, a spy, a travelling salesman and a German.  These characterizations typically came from those with some position of authority in the many villages he passed through. On the other hand, ordinary Turks seemed quite accepting of his visits and offered hospitality and generosity that one would not find in western society.

The book also provides insights and background in to the complex history of the region.

“My journey with a donkey into ‘nature was not to escape life but to find it; not to escape self but to find self,” wrote the author.

 A good reason to read an excellent book.

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ON Saturday May 27^th from 2-5 David Richard Beasley will launch his Through Paphlagonia with a Donkey at The Ledge, 31 Norfolk St North, Simcoe.

Copies of his other books, including Sarah’s Journey will be available. Also, a new release Operations of the Army Under General Wolfe by Adjutant-General Buller with Major Richardson’s A Canadian Campaign of the Right Division in the War of 1812 and Richardson’s Recollections of the West Indies will be available.