What is a caravan? When saying this word, most of us will imagine the endless desert, a line of heavily loaded camels, drivers in loose clothes, heads wrapped in blankets from the heat, and footprints in the sand…
Indeed, in the original definition, a caravan is a group of people crossing desert or steppe places together. Whether they were merchants delivering goods from one settlement to another, whether they were pilgrims to holy places, whether nomadic tribes, or simply travelers. All these groups went with different goals, together people united only in order not only to reach, but also to survive.
Caravan routes on land
Caravan routes were originally laid in such areas where the climate is harsh and there is a risk of meeting unfriendly natives or predators. The most famous of these "roads" was, for example, the "Great Silk Road". It was laid back in the 2nd century BC and connected the Mediterranean coast and China with other Asian countries.
Camels, donkeys, mules and horses were used to move and transport goods. Basically, of course, camels - as the mostunpretentious, hardy and strong animals. It is well known that they can go without water for a long time even in the heat of the African desert.
The German zoologist and traveler Alfred Edmund Brehm, in his famous book Animal Life, reports that camels
constitute the greatest we alth of the nomadic tribes who breed them, support the existence of many people and, in addition, determine the possibility of trade and travel, and, consequently, civilization in countries that would hardly have been inhabited without them…
Today, all this is true only in relation to the past, since caravans of people and pack animals in the 80s of the last century, if they were also used to transport ammunition, weapons and drugs, in particular, across the Pakistani border to Afghanistan, subsequently increasingly began to be replaced by vehicles, that is, car caravans. They are less ste althy, more convenient as a mode of transportation, and much faster.
And here is the road connecting Moscow with the Buryat town of Kyakhta, which was already on the border with China. This transport corridor carried out political and trade relations between Russia and European powers with Asian countries.
Day after day, all year round, convoys with goods drove this economic caravan, merchants, settlers, travelers, service people carrying postal items moved. Finally, along the Great Siberian Highway, as it was called by the people, they ledDecembrists to hard labor. And not only them, of course. And it was a caravan - but already a caravan involuntarily.
And once the gypsies still roamed in their motor homes. Today, these are no longer horse-drawn carts, but residential trailers designed for caravanning.
Across the seas, over the waves
We have already understood that a caravan is an association of people walking or following each other. And for what purposes could the ships unite?
Marine vessels could follow the icebreaker, which toiled their way in the Arctic Ocean. Thus, to this day, navigation along the Northern Sea Route is carried out.
Just as in the case of convicts, a sea caravan is a convoy, which is a few slave ships with prisoners on board, which followed the flagship - the main warship.
Tugboats, as a mode of transport, were specifically designed to carry non-self-propelled barges and rafts to their destination. Most often they were used in the waters of rivers and canals.
In the sky
Follow, lined up one after the other - that's what a caravan means. It is not for nothing that the "bird" synonym for such a movement exists. They say: "In single file".
During long-distance migrations, birds fly after the leader of the flock - this is how geese, ducks, cranes, pelicans fly. True, cranes and ducks fly in a wedge - a kind of caravan, diverging in two. And herons and geese fly in a real line.
All because - and for large birds this is especially important - that under the flapping of each of the wings of a flyingin front of the wedge (as a rule, this is the strongest and most experienced bird in the flock), two paths of rarefied air, air turbulences are formed at the corner. The wings of fellow tribesmen flying behind, such air provides less resistance, which significantly reduces their energy consumption for the flight. None of the birds, being in such a formation, will leave it - otherwise the flight loads will increase, and, of course, it will immediately feel it.
But it turns out that the caravan is not for small migratory birds. This aerodynamic nuance is completely unimportant for them, therefore, without forming any formation, thrushes, larks, finches, etc. fly to warm climes in a common flock, so to speak, "a bunch".