A load of updates in one

Finally found some internet access so here's the last update which should have been done a few days ago, since I wrote this on the laptop then we've spent a few days in Georgia which has been fantastic, but I need to write all about that yet, so here's some more about Turkey...


Since the last proper update we’ve left Hungary, gone through Bulgaria (much the same as Hungary but you start to notice a more olde-worlde feel to the place) and entered Turkey, a task which took about 4 hours as they’ve changed the rules about entry for large groups. We parked up and had lunch inbetween borders whilst Pete worked out how to get us through with the border people. Had to empty all our bags out and show them all the food boxes etc. as it was May Day and there has been trouble with people setting off rockets and stuff before. Luckily there was none of that this time!

Istanbul was great, saw most of the sights, stayed up drinking one night with the barman to see the sunrise, then found that it was cloudy! Turkish baths were great, even if the translation was rather difficult whilst we tried to work out what we had paid for.

Our stop on the black sea was slightly marred by rain, I’m sure it’s a lot more attractive in the sunshine, but it was a good chance to have a relaxing 2 nights with little to do other than catch up with diary writing and wander into the sleepy town. Highlight was buying and ice cream and the smiley chap behind the counter saying “Eenglish?”, me saying yes and then him shaking my hand vigourously and introducing himself as Akmahd I think, after telling him my name we ran out of conversation so I left to eat my ice cream, but it put a smile on my face. People are getting friendlier and friendlier all the time now, today we stopped to collect wood and a chap in a truck stopped on the other side of the road. We were wondering if we were nicking his wood from the side of the river but it turns out he was offering us a hand to chop it up. With 8 of us already doing it we declined, but it was a nice offer. We’ve just stopped to buy some meat from a shop and were invited into a café for tea, so about 20 of us went in for tea, coffee and orange tea (tastes lovely, like hot fanta) and they refused to let us pay for it – brilliant!

From the black sea we headed inland for Goreme, a very touristy place but when you get there you start to see why – it’s a cross between the Grand Canyon and the desert set from Star Wars. Our campsite was at the top of a hill and we had a great sunset after dinner. It also had hot showers and nice proper toilets – becoming a rarer sight now as “squatters” become the norm. The majority of us stayed in the caves here as they had mattresses and there was a fire in the room next door. Also, being underground we could have music on and drink all night without waking anyone up! We met another overland group (EOE I think) on a huge 6 wheel drive Mercedes truck with space for about 35 people, who are actually going all the way to Sidney on an 8 month trip, though on a different route to us. After initially suffering some “truck envy” at the size of theirs, we soon came to find that we had the better truck (in my opinion) with a younger group who are much more up for a drink and a laugh (and of course, proper chairs). They even had 2 kids with them in their group of 25 who had been told that alcohol was evil – where’s the fun in that!

The next day we did a local tour, going to see all the funny shaped rocks, ancient cave villages dug into the sides of valleys and an underground village with space for 3000 people to live down there on 6 levels – all carved out of the soft rock. There are 6 caves like this in one town but they think that at one point there could have been up to 1000 large cave settlements in the area, they just haven’t been excavated yet. Also went to a pottery museum to see how they make plates and things, then were encouraged to buy stuff from their shop. Unfortunately I don’t think anyone did, but we got a free apple tea out of it!

Wandered into town the next day with a few people and ended up having lunch and a few drinks with an American girl on holiday who we met on the walk down. Not much to do in town when it’s raining, but found a couple of quad biking places and booked up for the next day.

That evening we went to a traditional Turkish night along with a load of other tourists – for 35 turkeys (less than 15 quid) we got taken there in minibuses, all the food we could eat, entertainment and best of all – all the drink we could drink! Sounded like a challenge…
Had the choice of Wine, Beer, Raki (local Sambuca-like drink), Vodka and soft drinks, and when a bottle was finished they just replaced it with another one – amazing! Saw Whirling Dervishes, religious people who get closer to God by spinning round in circles which was quite impressive (though would have been more impressive after a few Rakis), then traditional Turkish dancers who were fantastic. One dance involved finding a woman a husband, with different people showing off different dances. She then went for the one with the biggest beard and then he was shaved in the middle of the room. Later when we all joined in the dancing Mike was dragged out to do the same and although he put a good effort in with press ups and a show of his muscles, the silly cow chose someone else. Then it was the turn of the belly dancer who was brilliant, after a bit of a show she then got people out of the audience and Kirsten was coerced into having a go, then Terry (who took much less coercing, in fact he ran up there when she asked for volunteers) had a go, which was hilarious! Video of that one to follow…
Went back to the cave for more drinking with some of the EOE group, somehow managed to get through 1½ bottles of Vodka between a couple of us and ended up in bed at 4 - luckily it was only in the next room. What a brilliant night!

Next morning was spent in bed, then into town about 1:30 for food before quad biking at 3. Had over 2 hours, 8 quads with 3 guides and only 55 turkeys each (about 20 quid). Could get the bikes upto 50-60km/h, slide them all over the place and do donuts in the dust on the tracks – absolutely brilliant fun, and we even saw some sights along the way, though for most of those we just said no lets carry on driving. Andrew managed to flip his by sliding into a ditch at 40km/h but luckily no damage was done to the bike or himself! Quiet night as we had an early start planned…

Next morning we were up by 5 and met at 5:30 to go down to the Hot Air Balloon launch site, where there were already 6 balloons being inflated. 12 of us went in one and it slowly took off. Unfortunately there wasn’t much wind so it took a while to get anywhere, then we went down and round some of the rock formations before heading up towards our campsite in a zig-zag fashion, eventually close enough to wake people in tents up by shouting at them! Shame there was a tree in the way as we could have got a good photo of Penelope from the air. Landed just outside, had champagne and walked back in. Great place to do it because of the rock formations and the sheer number of balloons that go up – there were at least 25 up with us gently drifting about.

Headed off about 10 that morning and had a days driving through varying countryside – from the rocks and warmth of Cappadocia to green valleys and high mountain passes as we headed north again. Camped out in the middle of nowhere, the only lights we could see were that of a car that went up the other side of the valley that evening. Had really nice chicken done on the fire and had an early night.

8:30 leave this morning and up some more mountain passes, even had some snow falling at 2200m and still some left on the floor – certainly not shorts weather yet!