Into Asia

We came from Bulgaria into Turkey or tried to. We got to the border at about 11:30am and had some lunch, bought our visas and waited for the truck to be cleared. We then waited and waited and waited…… The Turkish border control would not let our truck through because it was registered in Great Britain so they needed someone from the English consulate to call the Turkish transport authority to say the vehicle was okay to go through. Despite the fact that the Turks had it on computer record that the truck had been through this exact border 3 times already and as recent as April this year. They still denied our big orange truck access.

So it was decided at about 5:30pm (6.5hours since we arrived) that the issue would not be settled that day so we could either sleep over night on the truck or go into Istanbul via taxi/bus with Lucinda who would also go speak to the British consulate the next morning. Majority decided to go with Lu, so Will our driver stayed with the truck. It was a fairly epic journey which consisted of a hair raising taxi ride (160klm in a 70klm zone), a 3 hour bus journey to Istanbul, a shuttle bus and then another cab ride to the hostel. I think we got to our hostel at about 11pm at night!

 

 

 

In Istanbul we picked up another passenger Tony who is a nice German guy. We stayed in a 30 bed dorm here which was pretty good. We spent 3 days in Istanbul. Where we went to the Grand bazaar, enjoyed kebabs, the hustle and bustle of the city, and the heat. Friday afternoon the truck arrived in Istanbul and we went out the Friday evening for Karl’s birthday (South African guy) and cured our hangover the next day with an amazing Turkish bath.

 

 

We then travelled from Istanbul to Gallipolli and did a short tour of the battle field. We stayed at a bar that evening called the boomerang bar and was hosted by the crazy Turkish man who owns it. We literally slept in on the floor of the restaurant in the bar and the next morning at 6:30 am our host was drinking Raki for breakfast….definitely a crazy man.

We then headed to Ephesus where we camped in a camp ground near a beach. We swam in the beach and tried avoid the mossies in the evening. We visited the the ruins of Ephesus and endured the heat. We swam in the beach when we returned.

We then continued our travels. We bush camped at this great place that was part of the Taura mountains. Beautiful scenery and mountains. One of our prettiest campsites yet. We then went to Cappadocia. Where stayed at a campsite with a pool. Here we went hot air ballooning which was amazing and very peaceful. We drove around the area that day exploring the strange landscapes of weird rock formations, cave houses and fairy chimneys.

Our last travels in Turkey continued on into the North where the landscape changed dramatically from arid rocky landscapes to very green mountainous ranges, almost like Austria. Running streams and green pine trees enveloped our next bush camp in this part of Turkey. We visited a monastery built high up in the cliff face, with ancient frescoes. We headed then to what the Lonely planet (or Lying planet in this instance) described as a picturesque blue lake with a mosque by it side nestled between green great mountains. Actually it turned out to be a lake surrounded by tacky tourist shops, restaurants and bars. Nothing like what we had expected. This day finished with another bush camp in a rocky gorge by a fast running river. I and Vanessa and Karl took the opportunity to bathe and wash our hair in the river which was very refreshing and made us feel so much better. We went to bed that night to a choir of frogs, all I can say is thank god for ear plugs.

 

On another note I am writing this in retrospect and although it was such a short time ago, the days begin to blur together and days of the week have become irrelevant to our lives.  It is very strange and we regularly have to ask each other what we did yesterday!

 

Kieran