CROATIA
DUBROVNIK
Our next stop Dubrovnik on the Adriatic Coast of Croatia is only a couple of hours drive from Mostar. The topography is incredibly diverse, plains and high mountain ranges, give way to the rugged Adriatic Coast.
We had met a nice young couple from Belgium, Aline and Jan camping at Blagaj. Both Archaeological students they have been back packing through Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina during their holidays. We find out that they are heading to Dubrovnik and offer to give them a ride with us, they accept and we drop them at the same campground in Dubrovnik as we are staying
The drive south along the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia is beautiful, the road follows the line of the coast, past many small un-spoilt fishing villages with scenic coves. There are over 1100 islands many un-inhabited, off this coast, some accessible by a land bridge, but most by vehicle and regular ferries.
This area also suffered damage during the war, although not a significant as their Bosnian neighbours.
DUBROVNIK, called ‘the pearl of the Adriatic’ by Lord Byron is not an overstatement. A magnificent two-kilometre curtain of stonewalls surround marble streets and buildings unchanged for centuries. In the evening, the luminosity from the moon and the old street lamps off the marble cobbles give the area a ‘pearly glow’. The Placa, the main pedestrian through-fare is lined with a melange of shops and restaurants, and leads to the harbour where many of the water taxis and island cruises leave from. We find a lovely café-bar, have a glass of surprisingly good Croatian red wine, enjoying the ambiance, and watch the people passing by
There is also a large port here, and during our stay here cruise ships seemed to come and go daily. The most extraordinary was one large cruise ship that passed between the town walls and the small island right opposite the city. It must have only been meters away from both, and we don’t envy the job of that captain.
We see Aline and Jan a couple of times during our stay at Solitude Camping in Dudrovnik, and the night before we are leaving, they drop to wish us well on our journey, and to give us a nice bottle of Croatian wine.
SPLIT-TROJIR
From busy Dubrovnik we travel a few hours north to stay on the beautiful Dalmatian Coast at Trogir, a medieval town surrounded by water with only a small pedestrian bridge to reach it.
We have the most spectacular terraced campsite overlooking the Adriatic Sea and it’s many islands, and the weather is just perfect. Warm sunny days and with nights that cool just enough for a great nights sleep.
We learn about a water taxi that runs every hour into the medieval town of Trogir, and plan our evening to start with a sunset cruise, then nice glass of wine overlooking the harbour and later to cruise back for a late supper, day’s don’t get much better than this.
Once in town we hear music playing and to our delight see folk dancers filling the square. The men and women dance in traditional costume, doing intricate moves winding around and under arms, and the crowd applauds in appreciation. This evenings presentation has to do with the grape harvest, and the local vineyards have free tastings of their wines, it just keeps getting better.
It is such a lovely spot we stay an extra couple of days and enjoy the great weather and scenery. Our friendly neighbours have told us about two National Parks with waterfalls and lakes that are worth seeing. Although it takes us away from the picturesque Croatian coast, we decide to head east and to KRKA and PLITVICE LAKES National Parks.
PLITVICE LAKES NATIONAL PARK
This is Croatia’s largest National Park, just under 300 sq km. It was made a UNESCO World heritage Site due to the calcium carbonate in the water forming barriers and sills that make the many waterfalls. There is also a dense beech-fir forest with lovely wild flowers, butterflies and orchids throughout. Brown bears have also been spotted here, but luckily none by us today.
We leave lovely Croatia and turn towards Hungary, spending a couple of days this time at a lake, the largest in Hungary, Lake Balaton before we reach Budapest.
BULGARIA
Bulgaria lies in the heart of the Balkan Peninsula in South Eastern Europe with Turkey to it’s South East and Greece to the South, Romania to the North and Serbia and Macedonia to it’s West.
Settled in the 6th century by the Slavs, and then the Ottomans where it flourished until the early 1900’s when it became a Republic. Invaded by the Russians in the 1944 and came under Communist rule until 1989. Most towns still have visible reminders of the Soviet occupation, factories and buildings sit empty, once munitions, steel works, clothing and other manufacturing, now mostly abandoned and in ruins. Massive stone statues to the people are everywhere, and another reminder of it’s Communist past. Only recently admitted into the EU, money is now being used to build and repair the roads and to put other long over due infrastructure into place.
Bulgaria has a contrasting geography from large plains to high mountains with steep valleys and gorges, to it’s sunny beaches along the Black Sea coast and small villages, many now abandoned except for the sheep and goats now grazing on the lush green fields.
The alphabet in Bulgaria is Cyrillic and we see words such as-Чјожуњюсп and just don’t have a clue what they mean. Another interesting thing they do here is to nod their head for No, and shake for Yes, talk about us being confused!
WILF AND EDDY
We have come to Bulgaria for a month, to pet/house sit for Val and Terry and to look after Wilf and Eddy, their two large, but very lovable dogs.
Val and Terry have moved here from the UK, and just recently finished renovating their farmhouse in the quiet and peaceful village of Stoyanoutzi. There are only about a dozen houses here and most of the residents don’t have cars. We hear the sounds of the birds signing, and the bleating of the sheep and goats when Maria our next-door neighbour takes them out of her yard and up the road to the grassy paddock. At night the howl of the jackals in the surrounding forests, have our ‘boys’, as well as the many other dogs around unsettled and barking. There are still deer, wild goats and even bears living in the hills and national parks across Bulgaria
It’s nice to be able to sit and relax on the sunny balcony off our bedroom, read and watch the boys, Wilf and Eddy chase each other around the yard.
Tryavna or in Cyrillic, Трявңа our closest town and where we go to the supermarket, bread shop etc. It also has a few nice cafes and restaurants, several museums and a section of the ‘old town’, with a fabulous clock tower, and where revival era homes have been renovated, and are now gift shops, art gallery’s and B & B’s. It is well known for it’s craftsmen, especially the wood carvers, and many fine examples of their work can be seen throughout the town.
Before Val and Terry left for the UK, they kindly introduced us to many of their friends, so we have been regularly invited to meet for coffee and dinner with them. We have met some lovely people here, and with any luck, will be able to keep in contact once we leave Bulgaria.
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We take a day trip to Veliko Tarnovo on an ancient old train (the highlight of the day) to see the mammoth Tsarevets Fortress, a walled citadel, once occupied by the Thracians, Romans and Byzantines, when Veliko was the medieval capital of Bulgaria. It also has older section of town where the tourist shops are and we ran into a large group of Aussies, also here on a day trip from their cruise ship, waiting for them on the Danube. It has been a while since we’ve heard an Australian accent, and it was nice to chat with them.
Once Val and Terry arrive back in Bulgaria we spend one more day in Tryavna, then hit the road and head for the border town of Vidin, situated on the River Danube, but not a place you would want to spend any time. This will be the last we see of Bulgaria, our next stop is Belgrade, Serbia.
TURKEY
Turkey’s landscape is dotted with battlefields, ruined castles and palaces of the great empires. It also sits in a very strategic position, and acts as a bridge between Europe and Asia. In fact only 3% of Turkey sits in Europe, the other 97% in Asia, something neither of us had realized before.
Silhouettes of villages, accentuated by slim minarets, dot the hillsides along modern highways,and beyond the sun, sea and ancient ruins lies the working landscape, the market gardens busting with tomatoes and squash, the dairy farms and orchards of peaches, apricots, pears and citrus trees.
Turkeys landscape is vast, from rugged snow capped mountains,to the dry steppe with rolling hills and the endless plains of wheat fields. The hot south coastal region of the Med and the magical land of fairy chimneys, then the lush humid Black Sea region, with endless it’s winding roads, and forests of pine and beech as far as the eye can see.
It is only a short one hour ferry ride from Lesvos to Dikli, on the north west coast, our entry port into Turkey.
We don’t waste any time here, just long enough to visit the Tourist Info booth and pick up a couple of maps, necessary for us here in Turkey as our GPS only has limited mapping.
We spend the first two nights camping at a campground in a National Park at Ayvalik, and have our first real contact with the Turkish people. They are welcoming and go out of their way to try to help. We have had difficulty in filling our LPG tank (used for cooking and running our fridge when we have no electrical connection), and Brian got talking to our neighbour at the campsite about this problem. No sooner had he mentioned it, Tom was on his phone and had found someone local that could ‘probably’ find a solution, he made an appointment for us for the next day and offered to come in with us to help with the language and directions to the garage.. Within one hour we had a new adapter made for the tank, paying only a small amount in Turkish Lire. It this is what the rest of Turkey is like we may stay here a while!
GALLIPOLI-
What we know as the Gallipoli Campaign the Turks know as Çanakkale 1914-1916 and it’s as important to them as it is to us. For them it was not only about fighting off the Allies and winning a battle at great sacrifice, it’s because this battle was a significant step in the making of a modern Turkey from the shambles of the Ottoman Empire. Mustafa Kemal the commander of the Turkish forces went on to became their first President, and under his rule the Turks won independence from Greece and founded a new Turkish Republic
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For us Australian and New Zealanders the Battle for the Dardanelles represents one of the most poignant moments in our history. We all know the story of the ANZAC’s, and how on April 25th, 1915 they landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula hoping for a quick victory against the Turkish defences, and thereby capturing the Dardanelles, the narrow strait of water that separates the northern European coast and the southern Asian mainland of Turkey. It leads through the Sea of Marmara to Istanbul then to the Black Sea and would give the Allied Forces a much needed relief route to Russia.
However after strategic blunders turned the operation into a stalemate, and after 9 months of horrendous casualties, the Allied Forces withdrew. The most successful operation of the campaign was the evacuation of the troops on 19–20 December under cover of a comprehensive deception operation. As a result, the Turks were unable to inflict more than a very few casualties on the retreating forces. The whole Gallipoli operation, however, cost 26,111 Australians wounded and 8,700 deaths.
We decide to take a guided bus tour of the area, luckily we had a experienced Turkish guide who had lived in this area all his life with a grandfather who had fought here. The air-conditioned bus was an added bonus!
There are 31 cemeteries at Gallipoli, of which 23 contain Australian burials. Of more than 22,000 Commonwealth burials only 9000 have been identified. In most cases men were buried where they fell, many more died on the way to hospital ships and were then buried at sea. As you wander through the many cemeteries you can’t help but feel overcome by the words on some headstones, ‘An Anzac that died that others might live’ ’Another hero’s part is done, another soul gone West’ and ‘Goodbye Cobber, God Bless you’. And their ages, young men in their early twenties, some only still teenagers. What must they have thought, when they landed here in this hellhole.
The Lone Pine Memorial is our memorial to the missing at Gallipoli, a beautiful white stone engraved with the words ‘THEIR NAME LIVETH FOREVER MORE’. It was here that some of the worst fighting took place in August 1915. It names 4223 Australians and 709 New Zealanders, who have no known graves, much like the memorial at Villiers-Bretonneux in France, where soldiers like Brian’s Uncle Ernest, killed in action, but with no known grave can be remembered.
We visit an area where the front line was only as wide as the single lane road running through it now, tunnels dug by the Turks gave them the advantage here, where hand grenades where thrown from one side, caught and sent back if possible. Trenches dug by both sides run all through this area, peaceful now amongst the Pines, have been preserved so you may walk in the footsteps of the Anzacs
At Anzac Cove you can walk the beach where the landings took place, some swimmers snorkelling around while we were there had found a handful of old and rusty bullets embedded in the sand. Turning inland you see The Sphinx and the rugged hillsides that faced the Anzacs as they left the landing ships. The landscape has changed little since 1915, it feels as if time has stood still. This whole area has been named a National Park and the monuments and cemeteries are well looked after by crews of gardeners.
After visiting Gallipoli we both came away feeling a mixture of emotions, nationalism, sadness, nostalgia and some anger for the many young lives needlessly lost here,. It was interesting to be guided by a local Turk with a link to this place through his grandfather, and to hear the other side of the story.
Australians are welcomed all over Turkey, especially in this area. The Commander of the Turkish Army Mustafa Kemal, renamed Attaturk after his rise to President of Turkey made a statement in 1934 regarding the courage and valour of our Anzacs, this has been inscribed in white stone on the beach at Anzac Cove, it reads…..
‘Those heroes that have shed their blood and lost their lives
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us
where they lie side by side here in this country of ours,
You, the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries,
wipe your tears, your sons are now lying in our bosom,
and are in peace
After having lost their lives on this land,
they have become our sons as well.
Next Anzac Day most likely we will be at the Dawn Service on the headland at Kings Beach, in Caloundra, Queensland. Each year we attend the service but it will certainly have much more meaning to us after visiting the WW1 battlefields of Gallipoli in Turkey, and the Somme in France.
TROY
From the battlefields of Gallipoli it’s only a short drive to Troy. Immortalised in the epic story, “The Iliad” by the famous bard Homer who incidentally comes from this area, we had to have a look. In hind sight we could have saved 30Lira and walking about in the very hot sun for a couple of hours, looking at just OK ruins and a bad wooden model of the Trojan Horse but here is the story anyway.
According to legend (yes again), hunky King Priam of Troy, was judging the worlds first beauty contest (and looking for a wife) with Athena, Aphrodite and Hera (of course) as the contestants. Seeing Helen wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, he instantly fell in love with her, as she did with him. They eloped for Troy. Menelaus thinking Helen abducted set off to Troy to bring her back with thousands of soldiers. This caused the Trojan War, it went on for 10 years, but Troy could not be captured. Odysseus realized that it was impossible to breach the thick walls of the city, so devised a plan to build a large wooden horse that would be left at the gates of the city and be thought to be a votive offering or a gift to their Gods. We all know the rest, inside was filled with Greek soldiers who once it was dark came out from the horse, opened the gates to more warriors who then captured Troy. The story, or one of them goes that Helen just as Menelaus raised his sword to kill her, saved her life by dropping her robe and dazzled him with her beauty, she was then taken back to Sparta, and there my story ends.
EPHESUS
The ruins at Ephesus are probably some of the best we have seen, although bus loads of tourists seem to be getting in our way all the time. In fact while I was trying to get a photo of my sweetie trying out the toilet for size, a swarthy European man yelled at us, telling us to move along so he might take his picture. Meanwhile there must have been at least 10 more, exactly the same not a metre away. We’ve had it good for so long, travelling out of season meant no queue’s but now the hordes have descended, bus loads full of Spanish, English and Italians. Their tours come complete with a guide and sometimes if the tour is in English we tag along for a while picking up a little more info, we have found if we drop a few words in French or Italian they don’t get too suspicious and we get to hear more.
Ephesus has witnessed many historic events including by the efforts of St Paul, the spread of Christianity. The Egyptian Queen Cleopatra and the Roman Emperor Mark Anthony visited here and it is also said to be where the Virgin Mary spent her last days. There is a beautiful church built on the location she died.
The weather has been stifling hot, 40 C and not getting much cooler even at night. Just to give you an idea of how hot it is here, today we passed a truck where they were shovelling out by hand onto the melting blacktop road surface, sand and stones to try to preserve the road from the heat as much as possible.
We are following the west coast in a southerly direction and heading to an area called the Turquoise Coast, where we are going to take a cruise on ‘The Mediterranean’.
FETHIYE
The Mediterranean town of Fethiye is where we embark on our ‘Blue Cruise’.
We heard about these cruises from our Kiwi friends, Janet and Philip. We met them while both doing house/pet sitting in France over the winter, and luckily have been able to keep in contact, and trade off a little info on interesting places we have both been.
The cruise is on a vessel called a gullet, a hand made traditional wooden charter yacht. We choose the 8 day-7night cruise that will take us sailing along the Mediterranean Coast to Kekova,
BLUE CRUISE
We set sail on the Durmaz 2, a 36 metre gullet, leaving the hot, dry mainland behind. Our crew of three are Turkish, and only the captain has a little English. The other passengers are 2 Turkish couples, one with a 4 year old little girl, 2 Italian couples, one with 2 sons 10 and 12, and a young English couple, Michelle and Paul. The gullet has large open decks with couches and loads of lounges for catching the sun, so even with the number of people on board you don’t find it cramped. Our cabin is reasonably large with an en-suite, something we haven’t had for a while, but the nights are very warm so most night we sleep on the deck, looking at the stars, and catching the cool evening breeze. All meals are included, and it’s lovely fresh fruit, fish and vege that is picked up in the small villages we stop at along the way. Our days are spent reading, snorkelling and swimming in the warm turquoise water, or going ashore visiting ancient ruins or small fishing villages that can only be reached by sea. We also are able to see a sunken city, from the Lycian period, but due to it’s protected status can only view as we cruise past on our gullet.
Michelle and Paul are a great couple, and most nights after dinner we pulled up a few chairs on deck to chat and watch the masses of stars visible in the Med’s clear sky’s, and share our smuggled aboard wine
All too soon we are heading back to port, for our new English friends back to work, and for us the next stop in ‘Our Big Adventure’.
CAPPADOCIA
We are heading North East towards Cappadocia, with some of natures most bizarre wonders we have ever seen.
Millions of years ago lava began to flow from three active volcanoes in this area. A plateau of tuff, a mixture of lava, ash and mud formed and with several more eruptions, it was altered and added too. Erosion by wind and rain tore away the softer volcanic rock exposing harder varieties, creating what we see here today, a surrealistic landscape of‘ Fairy Chimneys’, conical, pointed, mushroom shaped, and even some that looks like they are wearing hats. And with colours of warm reds and golds to cool greens and greys, the sun-sets are just spectacular
Troglodytes started living in these caves around 4000 BC, leaving wall paintings as evidence, although it was the Hittites, Romans and Byzantine civilisations that left more of an imprint of their presence here.
Cappadocia sits in a strategic location with the Silk Road, crossing through it east to west, and north to south, which bought a complex web of wealth religion and culture. The areas trade and resources were tempting prizes, and the inhabitants of this area started living in the caves and caverns and, eventually these became multi-storied cities with temples, wineries, water sources and food storage areas and rock tombs.
Christians seeking refuge from the Romans fled here and there are more than a thousand churches and chapels here. To this day many of the chimneys are still inhabited by families while some have been made into Restaurants, gift shops and even guest houses.
We drive the back roads and discover tiny villages tucked up against the tuff hills, some had been carved out for the cattle and sheep to shelter in, other held an old tractor or truck, the most bizarre sheds and garages we have ever seen
SULTANHAN AND THE SILK ROAD
From Cappadocia the very road we travel was once the mighty Silk Road, connecting the East to the West. Towns have sprung up around the Caravanseri’s, beautiful secure compounds built approximately 40 kms apart, as apparently that is how far a camel can travel without a rest. Travellers along the Silk Road were able to stop three days for free, to rest the animals and re-stock supplies. We visit the caravanseri at Sultanhan built by the Seljuk Sultan Alaeddin Keykubat in the 13th century. These buildings had all a traveller would need including a Hammam or Turkish style bath house, bedrooms and stables. After we had finished our tour we walked out the massive gates and heard music and laughter, so we followed the sound to find about 25 young men, dancing together, laughing and having a great time. We stood and watched for a while a bit puzzled then walked back over towards the camper, I saw postcards at a gift/tea shop and went over to buy a couple. Two Turkish men asked Brian and I where we where from, then invited us to sit down for tea with them and told us what was going on with the dancers. Apparently these young men were about to go into the Army. Every male once he reaches 20 years of age must do 2 years of national service in the Turkish Army, and those young guys were having their ‘last fling’ too bad no females were present, but it didn’t seem to worry the guys. Our new Turkish friends had both taken English lessons, one owned the gift/tea shop here and the other a carpet repair business, apparently this particular town has a splendid reputation world wide for carpet restoration and repair, in fact, he told us his factory had done repairs on many rugs from Buckingham Palace.
Our camping spot here in Sultanhan was a lovely shaded area behind a guest house, we are finding this type of accommodation more prevalent here in Turkey, and it is also usually very reasonably priced and often the wife cooks, so you get a good local meal as well. As soon as we pulled up the owner was there welcoming us and showing us around the spotless showers and toilets, he also allowed me to do a couple of loads of washing for free. But the best thing about this camp was the pet chicken who arrived not long after we were set up, she was wandered in, clucking away, jumped up inside the camper to check it out even had a lttle nap at our feet, she was so funy and just seemed to like company.
We’re sorry to leave Sultanhan so soon, but our route north to the Black Sea awaits us.
ÇORUM
We decide to take the long way round to reach the Black Sea, primarily because there are so many interesting historic sites to see in this region, the only problem is, a distinct lack of camping facilities.
While looking at pottery we have seen so much from the Hittite period, and we know so little about them. This area was where the first Hittite settlement was in about 1600 BC, so we think a good place to start. We visit two major Hittite centres, Yazilikaya where massive carved stone reliefs to the Gods have been found, and Alacahŏyük where the remains of a 13th century BC city complete with massive Eagle-Sphinx gates at the entrance to the temple. The Hittites had many Gods, including a Sun and Tempest god. Also the very first written peace treaty between the Hittites and the Egyptians lead by Pharaoh Ramsess 11 in 1274 BC was signed here The original written on silver has been lost, although copies on clay found, and are now on display at the UN Building in New York.
After spending most of the day looking at these ancient settlements we head to Çorum, a reasonably sized city hoping for a campsite. Pulling into town we see no sign of a Tourist Info, so on seeing a new and impressive Museum we try there, hoping at least someone speaks English. No luck at the Museum on either count but we see directly across the road a building that looks to be a Municipal Office, the door has armed guards but we manage to get past those and inside, and then the fun starts. No-one here speaks English either, but we have about 10 people, including an elderly lady waiting here for some reason, all smiling at us trying to help. We sit down and are given tea, while they try work out what we are saying so they can help. We are getting pretty good at charades and drawing pictures to get questions across, but are not having any luck here. While drinking our tea more customers arrive and finally a young woman who has a little English comes over to help us. Now knowing what we are looking for, just a camp site for the night, they send us down to a new 5 star hotel, accompanied by one of the armed guards to get us past security, hoping that someone there would speak English and maybe a solution. At reception the manager is summoned and we are offered tea or coffee, (accepting coffee this time for a change), we sit with the manager while he tries to come up with something. No campsites are anywhere near here and he suggests that we move our camper to the secure parking area behind his hotel, it is right across from the Police station and would be safe. Next morning on our way out of town we drive past the Municipal Office we see one of the guards and he smiles and waves to us. Although at no time in Turkey have we felt threatened or nervous, and have found the Turkish people to be friendly and helpful, as you can see by all the trouble that many busy people went through today, just to try to help us.
THE BLACK SEA COAST – SINOP to ISTANBUL
We wind through valley’s of rice fields and grain and over some of the roughest roads we have seen here in Turkey. Roads are under construction everywhere, but they seem to start a few hundred metres then do nothing for kilometres, you also realize that a stick poking up from the road, or a small stack of rocks generally means there a huge hole there or the road has sunk away.
In Sinop we do find camping and right on the beach as well, we spend a couple of days here, catch the bus into town one day, we wander along the harbour front watching the brightly coloured fishing boats bobbing in the water, and stop for a great lunch at one of the fresh fish cafes. Brian has picked up a cold along the way and is not feeling to well, so we head back to the camper with a load of medicine to help him feel a bit better.
Heading now west along the Black Sea coast towards Istanbul I read in our travel guide about a small town called Devrek that is famous for it’s hand carved wooden walking sticks, and has impressive waterfalls nearby. We should have realized that in the height of a long, hot and dry summer the waterfalls wouldn’t be quiet as spectacular, in fact of the 26 said to be here, we find only 2 rather small ones, but by the number of locals here picnicking the Turks must think there grand. Our camping guide, issued by the Turkish Government shows that there is a small area for camping not far from town, we stop at a garage and ask directions. Unable to explain to us where to go, he jumps in his car and tells us to follow him. He drives about 5km, stops and gestures for us to continue up this road, then he’s off, back to the service station. About 10 k up the track we find a park full of picnickers and figure this must be the place, we park and a Guardian quickly comes over, again he speaks no English, we use our little Turkish to tell him we need to camp the night, but first we must have tea with him. While the water boils he walks around and tells a few families that we are from Australia, they all look over at us and smile. Finally after charades we find out that we can’t stay overnight and must leave by 8pm, it’s now about 5 o’clock. Waving good bye we head back towards town and pass a Restaurant with lots of space for parking and go ask if we can park there for the night, again no English spoken by the staff, but one of the guests hearing us comes over with an offer to help. We cant talk them into allowing us to camp in the parking lot for the night so jump back into Fatima and are sitting looking at our map when the helpful diner pulls up and says “follow me”, he’s thought of a way to help. We follow him back into town and we pull up behind him as a woman comes over to meet his car, he has called her to meet us to see if they can help. She tells us about a couple of hotels in town but no camping, the poor woman really felt bad and kept saying, ‘What else can we do to help” but all we needed was camp site and it’s getting later and later. Brian remembered seeing a couple of quiet spots along the road to the picnic area and we head back there, we will just wild camp for the night. We stop for fresh water at a natural spring, then head for our spot alongside the river for the night. We had barely been there 5 minutes when a guy drives up and tries to tell us we can’t stay here, why we ask??? He starts growling and holds his arms high in the air, saying danger, and growling some more. We figure either he’s nuts or he’s trying to tell us there’s something in the woods, he didn’t look to mad and finally realize he’s saying bears in the woods and it’s not safe to camp. After all we have gone through today and knowing we wanted to be close to town to look at the walking sticks tomorrow, and that there are no campsites around, we say we’ll take our chances with the bears. But he wasn’t about to let us do that, so he jumps in his car and gestures for us to follow him, yes again! So back into town again we go, we can see him on his mobile talking, we go through town and out the other side wondering where he’s taking us, by now it’s dark and after 10k Brian’s say’s ‘I’m going to pull over if he doesn’t stop soon. Finally after 14k pull into a small Restaurant, by the side of the river, he knows the owner, and has arranged for us to spend the night there in the car park. We have dinner with our new friend, all chatting away although he spoke no English and we no Turkish, we gave us his business card in case we needed more help, and drove away. At the restaurant they left the toilets open for us to use overnight as well as leaving a light on.
We were up and on our way early the next morning and back into town where Brian bought a beautiful hand carved walking stick, what a great memento that will be of Devrek for us.
ISTANBUL
Istanbul is the only city I know off that sits in two continents, Asia and Europe. The Bosphorus strait, between the Black sea and the Marmara Sea divide European Istanbul from it’s Asian side.
Being the former capital of three successive empires, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Istanbul has a many palaces, churches, museums and mosques. The Blue Mosque, called that because of the 20,000 magnificent blue tiles decorating the interior, and right opposite the Basilica of Hagia Sophia, built was Constantine the Great and now known as the Aya Sofya, built in the 532 AD to be the grandest church in the world, and for 1000 years was the largest Christian place of worship. To complete this historical square are obelisks and columns and a hippodrome where chariot races were once held.
The Grand Bazaar, a labyrinthine shopping mall also known as the Covered Market, and a place we spend a few hours. It has 4500 shops and apparently 22 entrances but after our baptism by fire in the markets of Morocco, these are a piece of cake. We pick up a couple of souvenirs then head to the Bosporus for a boat cruise, the best way to see the palaces and other stately river front homes of Istanbul. We board the local ferry, passing by the tour boats charging 15 Lire each for a 2 hr cruise, pay our 2 Lire each and spend a lovely couple of hours cruising from the Asian to European side of the Bosporus, before heading back to the city and our tram back to our camp site.
CAMPING AT THE SERVICE STATION
We knew camping in Istanbul would be difficult, but we had met a German family in Cappadocia that had told us of a place to camp only a short tram ride from the heart of the city, ‘not great’ he said, but convenient.
With much difficulty we find the campsite, just off the motorway, near the airport and behind a service station, and only 200m from the tram stop. No real camp sites here, you pull alongside a driveway, a short cut to the motorway in fact, it did have electricity, in the form of an extension cord with a number of power boards connected, Brian cringed at that. We wondered what would happen if the four other campers staying here all used power at the same time. But what really topped it off were the indoor soccer fields next to us, all day there were about 100 kids there at soccer camp, then after they went home, the adult men played their comp till 12.30am, leaving around 1am to the sounds of car horns and squealing tires, just a treat. We spent 2 nights there while we visited Istanbul, the one consolation was the showers, they were hot and like the toilets kept clean.
We’re glad to have been able to visit Turkey, the geography being very different from what we both had pictured. From the scorching heat of the desert like plains and coast of southern Anatolia, to the high mountains and sub tropical rainforests near the Black Sea, it is diverse.
Anzac Day will never be the same for us either, after our visit to the battlefields of Gallipoli, seeing Anzac Cove and the memorials, and hearing the Turkish perspective on that war. As well the people here have been warm, friendly and helpful, it’s a very family orientated country with people still finding pleasure in the simple things, like family, food and music.
