Our last few days in Turkey have been relaxing and enjoyable. We left Kas early and there was hardly any traffic on the road and none of the traffic lights were working. We put this down to the fact that maybe they only use them on busy days, even when they were working people just drive straight through if they feel like it. Today we were on a motorway which was a toll road and there were cars driving down the hardsholder on the wrong side of the road, coaches dropping people off at the side of the road and one guy passed the turnoff to the services and just turned around on the hard shoulder and went up the slip road in the wrong direction...I think I'll try that on the M62 when I get back!!

Weekend saw the end of Ramadan and there were fireworks to mark the occasion with lots of families out picnicing at beauty spots, much like a Bankk Holiday weekend in the U.K. During Ramadan just before dawn every morning a vehicle would drive around each town with someone on the back bangng a huge drum which we have since found out was to wake people up so that they could eat before sunrise.

We stayed at a coastal resort called Manavaget and another beautiful campsite at Kizkalesi which again we had to ourselves which was right at the side of the sea. The most enjoyable part of the last few days has been the scenic driving hugging the coast. The road climbed high into the forest and wound round and around and around both up and down, it took us 8 and a half hours to travel 198 miles so it was slow going. Also we had to go down some of the steep hills in second gear so that the brakes didn't overheat. All along the pine clad road for several hours cars were pulled into the side of the road whilst people were standing outside being sick. The road was so windy, and the drivers were probably going to fast so the passengers were being flung about all over the place, and some of these cars don't look roadworthy anyway so all this would't make for smooth ride.

We are staying in a hotel tonight in Gaziantep before crossing the border to Syria tomorrow to begin the next leg of our adventure. We are way off the normal tourist route now and in fact even though this is a large town we drew many stares from the locals. Even at the service station on the motorway we had to keep shaking hands with people coming up to us looking at the truck and asking where we were from. We are now in a region inhabited by Kurds some of the men wearing turban type headscarves but they are all very friendly.

From tomorrow we don't know how often we will find internet access but we aim to try and update the website once a week if possible...hope you keep following our route as things get more interesting!!