Day 13 (06/06/08) Tsarevo (Bulgaria) to Selimpasa(Turkey)
Turkey border – Green card needed and can only buy at the border. Cost us US$40.
Travelled: 285km
Debbie: We decided not to hang about in the dodgy campsite so hit the road around 8 this morning. We had to go about 100km along the worst road we have experienced to date – although I think we will drive on worse in Africa. The border was easy as pie. Both Bulgaria and Turkey sides were very helpful and polite and even spoke English. We had found a campsite 30km out of Istanbul and we decided to camp there mainly because they said they had a washing machine! We also couldn’t find anything closer to Istanbul and also didn’t want to get caught in city traffic and get lost ... again! We were also a bit against paying for a hotel when we knew that the camping site only charged E14 a night. It was a good decision!! We were the only ones in the site as the camp manager told us it’s just about to become peak season. They camp manger can’t speak English but we could converse again with hand signals. It’s so funny cause he knows 3 English words and won’t stop repeating them very loudly so we keep hearing “Hallo, camping Istanbul” coming out this mouth. Washing machine was brand new and we also got to set up camp on some lush green grass rather than the gravel that most campsites seem to have. We spent the afternoon cleaning, repacking boxes and Andrew did bits and bobs of mechanical stuff. Tomorrow we will go to Istanbul but via local transport (bus) as it will only cost us about E8 each and means we don’t have to pack up our camp, drive into the city and then try to find parking and then come all the way back to the campsite for the night and have to set everything up again. We will gauge tomorrow how long we will take to see Istanbul and then go from there. Des and Katja will be in Turkey next week as well as Gordon and Helen Treweek and they will all be along the West coast so we are hoping to be down their way when they are there.
Camped at:
Istanbul Mocamp, Selimpasa
aip@poyrazdanismanlik.com.tr
Day 14, 15 & 16 (07/07/08 – 10/07/08)
Istanbul.
Debbie: We caught local transport into the main site seeing part of Istanbul – this took us about 2 hours! But only cost us E8 each in total so we didn’t complain. We were pleasantly surprised by the transport – it was clean and on time – better than London! The cost of a hotel in Istanbul (plus parking is rare especially when we are 2.5m in height) and meals etc we are saving ourselves a packet by staying at the campsite and getting local transport even though it takes 2 hours. We spent our days going to the sites of Istanbul along with millions of other tourists. Needles to say it was not that pleasant mingling with the crowds as so many of them seemed to be bus loads of kids who were more interested in each other than the history of Istanbul! I think we were a bit put off by the crowds and probably didn’t take in as much of the sites as we should have but when you have a gazillion of Chinese pushing you from behind and you can smell the person’s armpits ahead of you there is only so much you can take in before needed to get out!
Sites we saw:
Aya Sofia
Blue Mosque
Basilica Cistern
Topkapi Palace
Istanbul Archaeological Museum (so boring!)
Bazaar District (spend a couple of hours here – its huge! Think Andrew was pleased that I couldn’t buy anything as I seriously could have packed a suitcase full of stuff.)
Spice Bazaar (really great – loads of spices, Turkish delight and tea’s)
Boat ride up the Bosphurus.
We liked the city of Istanbul and our only regret was not being able to see it at night and possibly go out for a meal in the city. Some people say you can spend days in the city and I can see why but there is only so much we could take so 3 days was enough.We spend all in all 4 days at the campsite so got to speak to the few people that arrived – mainly Dutch and German (we were lucky in that it was out of season as there were a lot of sites but only 2 showers and 3 toilets). On day 3 we got back from Istanbul and surprise surprise but there was a Landy parked right next to us and with a rooftop tent – we were so excited by the site of it and had to go and introduce ourselves right away! Cid and Rachel were the owners and all the way from Invernesse in Scotland and they were doing a 6 week trip around Europe. It was great to meet them as they were FULL of tips and suggestions – thanks guys, hope you got home safe and sound!!
Andrew: I got stung on the foot by a bee yesterday when we arrived at camp. These bees have a bit of power to their venom, so I ended up hobbling about Istanbul today not doing it any good. By the end of the day I just want to sit down or even better be in my bed with my foot as high up as possible. I was really pleasantly surprised by Istanbul the history of the place is quite difficult to fathom. Sculptures and buildings are marked by the centuries and always need the AD part as there are many that are actually BC. We got around a saw quite a lot, many of the sites are quite close together and the public transport (trams) are very good and cheap. You really do need a few days to see Istanbul, tomorrow we plan to mingle with the shop keepers in the Grand Bazaar do a spot of bargaining, although we don’t really have much place to put anything and then do a cruise up the Bosphurus.
Day 17 (11/06/08) Selimpassa – Assos
Travelled: 325km
Debbie: Today we packed up camp and said goodbye to Cid and Rachael who were heading back home. We hit the road and decided to take a D road down the coast – as it had plenty of campsites marked on the map we thought that the road could not be all that bad ... wrong. It got down to a gravel dirt road that went up and down mountain passes. We just took it slow and managed to get to the main road without any hassle. Then it was a short ferry ride from Eceabat to Canakkale where we met 2 couples from Australia who were on holiday and were on their way to a place called Assos. We hadn’t planned our stop yet as we were unsure of the ferry so once we were on the road again we looked up info on Assos and decided to head that way too. In the Lonely Planet it says “don’t go here in a caravan or big vehicle” and I can now understand why. The Landy just fitted down the cobbled streets. Assos is a beautiful little village right on the beach and Im glad we came here. Tomorrow we head to Kusadasi where we will meet up with Des and Katja who are due to arrive at their hotel tomorrow night.
Andrew: Yesterday we spent the day in camp, I did an oil change and tinkered with a few things on the landy. Then by early afternoon I felt I had deserved a well earned beer. When Cid and Rachel arrived back from being in Istanbul being Scots, out came the whiskey and boy was I paying for it this morning. It was good fun comparing all our toys though, they also had a Landy with roof top tent.
Day 18 (12/06/08) Assos – Kusadasi
Travelled: 388km
Andrew: Quite an eventful day, after being disturbed all night by some local couple having domestics we decided to make a dash early doors. Around midday we hit the outskirts of Izmir, we were just admiring all the crazy drivers when I commented on one in particular, when I realized he was trying to flag me over. So I pulled over and he turned out to be a mechanic, Ahmed, and spotted problem with my back wheel. We had a quick look under the landy and noticed some oil just starting to leak out by the brakes, how he spotted it I will never know. It turned out that the bearings were shot. He took us a short distance into a quiet street took off his nice white shirt and proceeded to take the rest of the day finding spare parts and fitting them. What a legend! If he hadn’t have helped it may have been pretty difficult to arrange. Anyway nobody does something for nothing and he sat us down in front of his family for a cup of tea and wrote down the US$’s on a piece of paper. I couldn’t really negotiate in front of his family, but in the end we didn’t feel too ripped off as he did save us a lot of hassle and a dealership probably would have probably come to the same. He drove us out of his home town on the outskirts of Izmir and put us onto the highway to Kusadasi at about 7pm. We arrived at Kusadasi at +/- 8pm to still be greeted by about an hour of beautiful sunshine and a fantastic little campsite (Onder camp) in the heart of the port town. We will enjoy a couple days here at hopefully meet up with Des and Katja again.
Debbie: What a night! The campsite we were at had little pension rooms and camp pitches. We parked next to a room where the wife and husband had a huge domestic at about 10pm which went on for a few hours. We have no idea what it was all about as it was all in Turkish but he certainly had the most evil voice I had ever heard! She cried and we also head some slaps and things being thrown about. I didn’t sleep all night and as soon as I saw the sun rise I woke Andrew up and we shot out of there. We didn’t eat any breakfast so pulled into a local cafe about an hour after departure for a traditional Turkish breakfast called Kahvalti which consisted of cucumber, tomato, lettuce, olives, bread, butter, honey and tea. On our way down to Kusadasi we stopped in Bergama to see some Roman ruins before the fun and breakdown games began... After fixing the bearings we were invited to Ahmed’s home to have tea with his family. We felt obliged to go and it was a very pleasant experience although I learnt after cup number 5 that if you were finished drinking tea you should not finish the glass otherwise they refill!! No one spoke English so we tried to converse but it was more hand signals and eventually we all just sat there and admired the view. Our campsite in Kusadasi is quite nice. Good location in that its on the marina, next to a swimming beach (where they have imported sand to cover the pebbles and rocks), next to ATM’s and shops.
Day 19 & Day 20 (13/06/08 – 14/06/08) Kusadasi
Debbie: We spent the mornings in the campsite doing bits and bobs. Andrew cleaned goodness knows what under the Landy and popped out 3 hours later covered in grease! Thank goodness he brought overalls otherwise he would have ruined the few items of clothing that we have. I repacked the Landy as it had become a bit messy and things were out of their places. After that we went to the campsite restaurant which served nice Kebabs and we found out they had free wireless so we got to do some emails. Then it was a stroll around the town which is quite like Ballito. It was hot so our walk didn’t venture too far before we found ourselves back in camp under the awning with an ice cold beer. Same routine for day 2 except this time we walked the other direction and hit the town square along with all its shops which sold much the same as Istanbul. We were hoping to see Des and Katja but for some reason we can’t reach them . Huge cruise liners keep pulling into the harbour so I hate to think what this place is like in season with all the hotels here and then the cruise liners.
Camped at:
Onder campsite, Kusadasi
http://www.onderotel.com/camping_ing.html
Day 21 (15/06/08) Kusadasi to Oludeniz
Travelled: 296km
Debbie: We hit the road toady and meandered down to Oludeniz to see what all the fuss was about. If you google “Oludeniz” you will see the famous picture that they put in all publications for Oludeniz – its a huge sandbar which juts out into a blue lagoon. Well the picture was right – its pretty and the water is blue but it’s full of people. We found a campsite called “The Sugar Beach Club” and decided to camp there for the night – bad idea! It’s full of youngsters or single people who are there for night after night of party party party. It was also full of Brits and ones from Essex so a few times we got to hear some Essex lingo (which I was able to translate for Andrew thanks to some Essex language lessons Id been given by Jo Higgins while working at DB). So it was very noisy as they have a huge bar and cause of the Euro soccer the bar was open till after midnight. Anyway we got to spend the afternoon on the pebble beach which was nice.
Camped at:
The Sugar Beach Club
http://www.thesugarbeachclub.com/
Day 22 (16/06/08) Oludeniz to Sultanhani
Travelled: 594km
Total km to date: 5916km
Debbie: Today was not supposed to be a long days drive but it ended up being one as somehow we got on the wrong road and ended up passing where we had planned to camp. But all was not in vain as the roads were good as was the music we had so we just kept on trucking. Today’s drive for me was the best in terms of scenery. We started off in what I called Turkey’s Grand Canyon and by the afternoon we were on what I called the Cederville Flats! Very dramatic boulders to flat flat land. We had been told by Rachel and Cid of a campsite in Sultanhani and so decided to make it our stop for the day.
Camped at:
Kervan Pansion-Camping, Sultanhani
kervancamping@mynet.com
Day 23 (17/06/08) Sultanhani to Goreme
Travelled: 195km
Andrew: We are now in Cappadocia, this morning we visited the Lhlara valley which we meandered around for a couple of hours. It’s a valley sunken between dry rolling hills, it has sheer cliff faces either side and tree filled bottom with a stream running through it. The monks have carved little churches in the valley cliff faces which are quite amazing. It was a pleasant mornings walk with not many other tourists. We then headed across to Derinkuyu to see the underground city. It is quite unbelievable how they must have carved all the tunnels into the rock, apparently it goes down approx 8 floors but after about 2 Debs got a bit claustrophobic so we followed the blue exit arrows and made our way out. In which ever era all these churches and cities were made they must have discovered some diamond rock munching machine, to do all this by hand must have taken millennia.
Debbie: This afternoon we found ourselves in Urgup / Goreme at a wonderful campsite called Kaya Camping – it’s the best campsite so far in Turkey. We overlook the most amazing rock formations and as we are on a hill the cool wind helps us deal with the hot sun. We will spend the rest of the day planning our next move and making full use of the swimming pool!
Camped at:
Kaya Camping,Cappadocia
kayacamping@www.com
Day 24 (18/06/08) Cappadocia to Aleppo (Syria)
Travelled -
Debbie: Today we planned to drive to Sanliurfa which is 50km from one of the borders into Syria. We would spend the night in Sanliurfa and then head to the border early tomorrow morning. We decided to go on the C roads which took us cross country through some very pretty country. We started out early and go to see the local farmers starting their days and the Sheppard’s taking their flocks out to graze. Well at 11.00 we found ourselves on the outskirts of Gaziantep which is about 60km from the main border crossing between Turkey and Syria. After a pit stop to look at the maps we decided that as we were low on fuel (and its VERY expensive in Turkey) and for the sake of staying in Sanliurfa for a night when we didn’t have anything to see there that we would rather just cross into Syria. That’s the beauty of our tour – we can change our minds whenever we want! The Turkey border was pretty straight forward. Syria was ok but all confusion broke out over my 2 passports.
Andrew: Well that’s Turkey done. We’ve spent almost 2 weeks here and I’ve really enjoyed it. The people have been very friendly and more so polite even between themselves. When we caught the public transport youngsters would stand for any woman or man with a few flecks of grey hair, you certainly don’t see this in London. The public transport is very extensive and prompt as well. There has been so much to see and I’m sure we’ve only scratched the surface of what there is to see. We drove through some vastly different landscapes this morning, from the arid hills with weird rock formations in Cappadocia to grassland flats though a mountain pass and finally it started heating up and getting quite arid towards the Syrian border where the roads deteriorated. This provided some great driving, I’m sure Jeremy Clarkson would have loved to do that stretch in a sports car, there are stretches with hardly another car for hours on end where you could bury the pedal in the carpet as he would say and some nice challenging bends to cap it off. The only down side has been the cost of fuel, Diesel is about £1.35/ltr and petrol is a staggering £1.50/ltr! Looking forward to bit a heat and some desert driving, but really getting itchy feet for the bush, bring on Africa we nearly there!
The day continues on the Syria page ....
