Turkey

The land of the kebab and where woman are second class citizens.

The Bulgarian Turkish border took us 2 hours to cross as we needed a visa and we needed car insurance for bringing in a car and then we needed the car stamped in my passport so that I don't leave the country without it.

It took some adjusting getting used to Turkey map sizes as to me Istanbul looked close to the border but I was used to small countries like Macedonia and Bulgaria it was infact a 5 hour drive so after 3 hours we pulled of the road down a track behind some trees and camped for the night (a great little spot as no mosk for miles so no 4am wake up calls to prey).

Fuel in Turkey was a bit of a shock as it is 3.70 turkish Lira and there are 2.8 to the pound so its about the same as home but with it being a large country we where going to burn some fuel. The next day we found a campsite about 70km outside Istanbul Mocamp Istanbul and it was in the fields and 5km from the seaside. A great little spot for 12 Euro a night. We decided we would leave the car and take public transport so we caught a bus for 45 minutes into town and then took the metro into the centre of Istanbul and I was very impressed with the transport. I love the fact you are sat on a bus dying of thirst and someone gets on selling cold bottles of water and you are hungry and you can buy nuts (awesome). Istanbul was a lovely city and not half as crazy as we had imagined. Lots of history, lots of kebabs and lots of colours.

The next day we got chatting to a lovely couple at our campsite who were from Istanbul but he spoke great English and so we joined them for a large Turkish breakfast (Bread, cheese, tomato, cucumber and olive oil with a cup of Turkish tea) and he helped us organise a place to get our off road tyres sorted but it was in the centre of Istanbul so yes I had to brave driving into Istanbul. We are glad we waited though as we saved a lot of money not getting them in the UK and so now the truck has new wellies ready for Africa. In the evening we met 2 Belgium bikers one travelling to Iran and one was heading to South Africa so spent the night chatting to them.

Sile

So we had seen the black sea coast in Bulgaria and now we were off to see the black sea coast in Turkey. A local Turkish guy had told us it was far more beautiful (maybe a bit bias) and it had great forests as it rained a lot. First mistake we made was heading to the coast out of Istanbul on a weekend as everyone had the same idea so we hit bad traffic. It was entertaining as in Turkey if there are only 2 lanes somehow cars make it 4 if they want to get through. The funniest thing is it poured with rain and all the Turkish drivers pulled over and put there hazard lights on and we in true English style drove on through. We decided to stop at Sile, which has a supper long sandy beach, but wow you could not see sand for people. Jonny and I walked through the water to get along the beach and then got a spot and I went swimming with the rest of them. On the beach you have to have an ice cream but the Turkish ice cream is odd as in it is chewy.

Next day we continued along the black sea coast heading toward Bogazkale to see Hatusas an ancient city but as it was a long drive and some of the roads where slow going we pulled off the road outside Karabuk an industrial steel manufacturing town into the forest and camped by the stream for the night.

Safranbolu

Stopped at a small town which has made the world heritage site with lots of small Ottoman houses, lovely to walk round and bought some hazelnut Turkish delight. The town takes its name from Safron and sells a lot of saffron related products.

At Bogozkale we found a spot to camp in an old orchard yard and it was just us and a german guy so nice and peaceful. The old town of Hutusas took us 3 hours to walk round with some steep hills but stunning to see. We finished the day off in true Turkish style with a good kebab and an apple tea.

Goreme

Ah the Capadocia mountains so different and so beautiful, if you have not seen them google it and its worth a visit (lots of fiery chimneys and mushroom structures). We spent the afternoon walking and climbing around the chimneys and then found a campsite right amongst them all. Apparently a must do is a hot air balloon flight over the mountains which took some deciding as it was not cheap, 100 euros a person for an hour flight but we decided if we were going to do one here was the place and it was very much worth it. We went to visit some of the under ground cities which has 8 floors below ground and very impressive and then decided to camp at a campsite up the hill with a great view over the mountains and a swimming pool (all for just £12 a night for the 2 of us). Next morning instead of being woken by the mosk with calls to prey we were woken by the hot air balloons at 6.30am landing near the camp ground.

Ihlara

A small poor looking village at the end of a very long gorge with old churches built into the rock. We found a small motel/campspot by the river and then headed into the Ihlara valley for the day. It was an extreamly hot day 43 degrees but inside the rock buildings it was supper cool. We walked half way along till the next small town which was about 4 hours and then we had a spot of lunch in a wooden hut sat in the river (see picture).

Anamur

We had now been travelling round Turkey for over a week and we were only half way across (we were putting in the miles eah day as well its just such a large country).

8 hours after leaving Ihlara valley we arrived at Anamur which was down on the Mediterranean coast. We found a camp spot right on the beach front for 25 Turkish Lira so about £7 for the both of us for the night and a great little spot.

Alanya

So now we were going to have a few days driving along the Mediterranean (and its stunning as the road runs right along the coast). Slightly further along we found a camp spot just outside Alanya which is full of tourists on their package holidays but the beaches are lovely so we decided to stay a night. It turned out the camp spot was in the car park of a restaurant on the beach front but it worked out ok for us as we got the sea to ourselves at 7am the next morning.

In Alanya we found a small supermarket to stock up on a few bits, we must have only bought 10 things but the man at the till looked at us blankly and then left the shop saying one minute please. He returned with his wife and apologised for being very drunk and unable to serve us but his wife would help (hilarious).

Termessos

On the way along the coast to the old ruins of Olympos is another ancient city of Termessos which is in the mountains so we decided to stop and explore it. 5 litres of water later 45 degrees of heat but lots of amazing photos and hiking in the mountains. We bumped into a fire watch guy who invited us into his cabin for some water, think he was just pleased to see another human being. Arrived at Olympos at 6pm in the evening only to discover it is a little hippie town where everyone sleeps in tree houses. A slight problem here as we have the tent on top of the car but we found a campsite who offered us the car park, again but for 20 turkish lira no complaints.

Pumukkale

After many extremely hot and humid nights on the Med we decided to head inland for a couple of degrees cooler weather and wanted to visit Pumukkale. Pumukkale is stunning, its were calcareous excretions cause white pools (travertines) in the limestone (check it our online). The ancient city of Heiropolis lies just behind the white rock pools so we spent 2 nights here and did some exploring.

Selcuk and Efesus ruins

Heading towards Izmir on the Aegean coast now as Izmir is where the car would join a cargo ship for transport to Egypt. We decided we were all ancient city ruined out so we did not visit Efesus but found a nice spot to camp in some fruit orchards. Having a weekend to kill before the ship was due we spent it at the beach and reorganising the car ready for its voyage.

Izmir

Izmir is Turkies 3 rd largest city and one most don't bother with but as we were there dealing with customs ect we saw quiet a lot of it and we enjoyed our time in Izmir.

It turned out however that the ship was delayed and that customs where going to charge us a lot of money for taking our car out (yes can you believe that our car out ) of the country.

Well hopefully it is all sorted the car is currently at Izmir docks waiting to Join the ship on Friday the 27th, we are currently at Istanbul airport waiting to fly to Cairo and then in one weeks time we are hoping to pick our car up (yes it is all going to go that smoothly……..not).

We have had 2 and a half weeks travelling round Turkey and have really enjoyed it. It was only suppose to be the week but as with most things on the road plans change.

My next update will be from Egypt

All the best Jonny and Terri