Some of the group walk up to see the misty sunrise on Nemrut Dagi once more and enjoyed the sunrise celebrations with the locals. The truck still causes astir with others who had to have photos with us as we ate our breakfast. Then off we move to our next bush camp near lake Van. We travel down the mountains and use a local ferry to cross a lake, this will not have to be done soon, as they are building a bridge across it because of tourism, which will be a shame as this part of Turkey is still very traditional its way of life, after the ferry crossing we travel some very bumpy roads through a large plain area, how the locals scrape a
Living as the ground is very rocky, you see herders of cattle or shepherds everywhere, some living in small blockhouses and others in tents, we reach a very large city called Diyabakir which is completely at odds with the area surrounding it, it has all the trappings of home, building is on a huge scale. We park near a shopping mall and have to take turns guarding the truck from the local kids, who try to get money from us. I eventually get sweets of them, so does that make me as bad as them?.
We move through another plain, then into more mountainous landscape, with unmade roads and an increase of military bases, the lookouts always waving to us as we pass by, the pass we travel through is green and lush with flowing rivers and waterfalls, but, there is constant industry, mainly cement factories or road building. Adam our driver has to work hard to drive the truck round a mixture of heavy lorries, tractors and cattle wandering in the road, Turkey really is a mixture of old and new but wonderful for it. We pass through a modern tunnel and come out the other side into another town being rebuilt, the leave the old buildings empty on the opposite side of the road, which makes it look like a ghost town, very eerie!
We eventually make our bush camp on the shores of Lake Van, we have snow covered mountains around us sun and a beautiful lake, the only downer is the rubbish, still like the local people we ignore it. I start the open fire as Jackie is cook group tonight, we eat wholesome spag bol and watch the sunset, a couple even decide to sleep outside. We get a briefing from Polly our group leader about Iran, which is only a couple of days away.