Greece to Turkey, up to 12th Dec.

We finally left Alexandroupolis last Tuesday – having made good friends with Rachel and John who are cycling from London to Istanbul on a tandem! - and drove straight to the Turkish border. Our first border crossing for real – all the others have been within the EU and have been plain sailing. It was rather chaotic and lots of little booths with men feeling terribly important and all wanting different pieces of information from us. A sure sign we were leaving the familiar and heading deeper into the unknown – we made big efforts not to get frustrated as it is only going to get worse from here.
3 hours later we had the right documents, with the right stamps, in the right order, shown to the right people and were on our way. We decided to drive as much as we could and took the southern route from the border – not to Istanbul, but south down to Gallipoli. Much to my amazement Pieter had never heard of the Gallipoli campaign and we had a brief history lesson in the car (don’t think my history was perfect, it’s just that I hold the book) – this made me realise that much as Brits of our generation don’t seem to be taught the Boer War, South Africans don’t seem to learn about Gallipoli (antipodeans would be horrified). We made it to the ferry to cross the tiny stretch of the Sea of Marmara, already dark by this time, and made peace with our position as point of interest for everyone else on board (no tourists this time of year). Mara is getting better with public toilets and much more able to take them in her stride – she was the toilet monitor for a long time, refusing to wee in anywhere dirty, without a lock, no loo roll etc. She has relaxed however and even managed to go in the long drop on the ferry – which was on the car deck, without a lock, or glass in the shoulder high window and with about 12 Korean ladies queuing right outside the door. Progress!
From the ferry we drove on south down the coast and had picked out a tiny village off the main road to camp at. Incredibly picturesque spot – a tiny hamlet of Assos, about 6 ancient stone building converted into hotels and restaurants. We squeezed down the tiny wee lanes and had no idea what we might find round each corner – we were hoping to find a panysion (cheap guest house) which reportedly allowed camping . We found it – closed up for the season but with the friendliest man and his pregnant dog. He was insistent there was “no problem” and we could camp in the dusty area right outside his restaurant (also closed). We only set up the roof top tent on the car and decided we’d all squeeze in as it was only for one night. We had a basic toilet, a cold shower and a very crap night’s sleep – but we were 1.5m from the seashore and it was beautiful. Next morning he gave us some boiling water to make coffee and we hit the road and made it as far as Selcuk (pronounced Shelook) where we found an open campsite. We arrived late and felt a bit ripped off by their charges and the fact the electricity didn’t work and she’d turned off the hot water as there was no-one else there...however Pieter found the fuse box and sneakily turned on the water for the next morning, they finally fixed the power and all was well. Next day was our 10year anniversary, spent at Ephesus – the most amazing ruins we have seen yet; even the kids were impressed and managed NOT to say “not more stones”. Then we wandered in Selcuk – kids first experience of pide (pita) pizzas, round the market, an old man joined us for a cay (tea) while we sat and ate – turned out he’d been in catering for the Royal Guard in London for 35years. That night our anniversary was celebrated with a bottle of bubbly crap from Lidl and a movie!!
On the advice from one other camper on our 2nd night we changed our route for getting through Turkey. We are looking for the shortest route to try and make up time. So, we drove inland to Pamukkale – which was indeed as we had been warned – a very sad old tourist trap. 10years ago it had amazing naturally occurring thermal springs cascading down the white travertine terraces. Now the water has dried up and it has the feel of a place trying to grab every last penny out of you before it closes shop. I did take the kids for an explore on foot while Pieter set up the tent and we had an illegal clamber on the white travertine rocks – interesting but not worth the £20each to see more of the next day. We all slept in the roof top tent again (getting the hand of 5 in a 2 man tent), in the car park of a motel. To our joy there was one other lot of people there – an Australian family with 3 kids who are travelling Europe for 18months in their caravan. Our kids were beside themselves and we all stayed up late chatting and letting the kids enjoy other company.
Next day we drove to Antalya where we knew we had a villa booked – heavenly bliss and the same price as camping! Actually even better when you consider this villa as a washing machine included and campsites charge about £5 a wash (if indeed they have a machine at all). Ah, it’s the small things – Mara was thrilled to discover we had an oven (craving pizza), the boys gasped to see they had a bed, and I was so happy with the washing machine and bath. Pieter was in love with the dishwasher as it seems to fall to him on campsites to deal with this chore (although Mara is learning). While we are hot footing it through Turkey as fast as possible we knew we needed to get the car serviced and it made sense to do it here while we could also relax a bit. We also had our Carnet to collect at the nearby DHL office. Thank God we were in a villa, I got the mother of all stomach bugs for 5 days, which Mara and Euan got their own versions of. For every moment I felt miserable, or was trying to deal with a child’s vomit while holding back my own, I kept thinking “at least we are not in a tent”.
We have become Master sneaks at getting wi fi. The villa didn’t have any so we took to carrying the laptop with us wherever we went and I would have it on in the car and yell when I saw an unsecured wi fi signal. Then Pieter would pull over and we’d send and receive to our hearts content! ON the day the car was being serviced I couldn’t face another day in the villa, so despite everyone feeling a bit ropey we all went to drop the car and then spent 5 hours in a nearby shopping mall. We haven’t seen a shopping centre since leaving home – nor have we seen Burger King or Starbucks since August either! Wow, I couldn’t eat or drink from either but Pieter enjoyed it all!
Now our Christmas time checker (Mara) reminds us that there is only 15 days till Christmas and we are to be in Egypt. Had to stay an extra day in the villa to recover from the bugs, so lots of time to make up and a lot of ground to cover.

Thoughts on Turkey??????
1. People are exceptionally friendly outside of the main tourist hubs (where they seem to want to fleece you) – one day we pulled over at a petrol station just to picnic at the back of the car. The garage attendant walked over to us with 2 free cups of tea, no other hidden agenda. At the villa an old man walked down the path every day to feed a dog which was tied to the fence. The 2nd day he appeared at our door with a bag bursting with home grown peppers, chillies, tomatoes and mandarins.
2. Once again it is the women who seem to run the businesses – campsites, pensions, etc – the men are the public face but it is the women who take the money, drive a hard bargain etc.
3. The street food is as great as the Lonely Planet said it would be (although I haven’t had much chance to try it yet, being sick most of the time)
4. Turkey has immense poverty, much like Greece but we think a shade worse. Bread at least is only 35Kurus a loaf here (about 17p) – whereas in Greece it was Euros 0.90.
5. We hear the Mosque wherever we are which bears witness to the fact it is a 98% Muslim country, however there seems to be quite open views – beer is readily available and there are huge billboards of raunchy bikini clad women all over the show.
6. We have absolutely not seen enough, but will come back.


PS: Just made it to Antakya last night (11th Dec) – we drove from Antalya to Antakya (confusing eh?) in one day – about 790kms which took 11hours and horrific conditions. At some points the road just stopped as they appear to be building a new one, but in the meantime you must just hit the mud and drive around the dumper trucks. Not so very awful if it was dry and sunny – like the other 10 months of the year – but we are in RAINY season and have had 48hours of thunder and lightning and torrential rain. Repeatedly we thanked our lucky stars for a 4x4 and we made it through. We arrived generally buggered, into a busy Eastern influenced town, at 9.30pm. By sheer luck we found the Lonely Planet’s recommended hotel – a jaded French colonial building converted a long time ago into a jaded hotel. Friendly though and next door to a huge restaurant which was packed with locals and had a kid’s play area (with a lady to LOOK AFTER THEM!!!!!) and we ate pide, kebap, drank Efes beer, unwound and collapsed into bed at a ridiculously late hour..........
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