Last update: Monday, September 05, 2005

 Sunset at Kizkalesi.

With the border hassles of Syria still on top of our minds we headed into Turkey again. The 'western' look of Turkey suddenly gazed at us, smooth roads, big cellphone commercials, huge supermarkets and of course the over-taxed diesel price again. But for now we could go on for at least 800 Km without turning in for an expensive fuel stop.
In Iskendrun we stopped at a modern supermarket, refilling our food supplies. The luxury of the place making us feel weird and spoiled. Very contradictory, going there for the bargains and discounts while on the other side not liking one bit of the whole place.
Somehow  we missed the small grocery shops where a shop-owner helped us through the process of buying  the things we where looking for, and most of the unmistakably honest interest in our presence is the shop.
Anyway, with our food storage replenished again we decided to cruise the coastal line in a southern direction hoping to find a place to spend the night. Hotels and restaurants rule here as we noticed after a few kilometres. At Ulucinar, a small tourist resort, we found a public beach where we decided to spend the night. Later in the evening we where treated on a rehearsal of a local singing group practising their skills on the beach. Well apart from the many beers they had it sounded not all that bad. Round 10pm it apparently got too cold for more singing because the group left in a hurry. The remainder of our evening and night was uneventful and quiet, and we slept deep sleeps without being haunted by 'bakshees' dreams.

With an eastern course we drove past Adana, an area with heavy industry and hefty air pollution. No wonder the Turks don't want to return the coastal region of the Iskendrun bay to the Syrians. It has considerable economical power with Gaziantep and Adana as the big transport corridors. On some Syrian maps this region is still drawn as part of Syria. Ataturk took this piece of land from the Syrians just before the outbreak of WWII, a strategic location for exporting oil.

We drove the new E90 4-lane highway towards Mersin, which was completely empty except for our presence. Probably a prelude to an even bigger economical growth or just bad planning. But the emptiness of the road might also be related to the shutdown of the oil pipelines from Iraq since the Gulfwar.
After Mersin we passed a long stretch of deserted and empty concrete flats. A stunning sight, someone undoubtedly must have made piles of money building this while others must have lost big with all these empty concrete structures.
From Erdemli the surroundings became a bit more natural again, and we started looking for a campsite. A shower might be nice and our water supply needed refilling too. At Kizkalesi we found a Mocamp campsite, a bit on the expensive side but catering real hot showers, which is not found real often in november.
And well, the world actually is small, again we ran into Norbert and Irma who found the exact spot a few hours earlier. We decided to stay the weekend there, taking a bit of rest and sit out the picnic avalanche of locals enjoying the outside live during the weekend.

This spot also seemed to be high on the 'place to be' list of pensioners waiting for the European winter to pass. We talked to a dutch couple who 'burned all their ships at home' for a big and luxurious camper. "7 years on the road" they said, "a far more better live then letting time tick away in some depressing pensioners home while waiting for the kids to show-up". All very true; their family gatherings now take place in sunny regions somewhere in Europe. Traditional values change as we noticed. And maybe for the better. These people happily indicated they felt a lot better living this live. "My body hurts a whole lot less over here while keeping myself busy", "At home we would have joined the endless moans and complaints of our age group". Again very true we thought, definitely young spirits keeping their bodies in shape with traveling.

After two days we headed for the Toros mountains, the region just above Selifke. Quite a scenic mountain route with only a few attractions for the package tourists residing in Selifke. With the beginning of November the weather is still really nice, and more important without the presence of truckloads of package tourists. In a small village called 'Uzuncaburc' we stopped for lunch. The place happened to have a few roman temples of course exploited to make a few liras. After stroll over a roman road, where we discovered a few stone sarcofags, we continued our scenic mountain route by car. While trying to find our way outside the village we followed another sign pointing to some rock carvings. The road became a rough track real quick and before we knew it we got ourselves lost in a network of bumpy and narrow farmer roads. We saw exactly one rock carving on the way in. With our GPS we took our best guesses at road juntions and 1,5 hour later we found our way back on the black tar again.

Round 3pm our attention was caught by a sign pointing to a church. Since we drove real close to a mountain range it had to be high up a mountain. A perfect 'spend the night' kind of place. After some seriously steep climbs we came close to a small village but no sign of the church. Having clicked down the kilometres we were well past the signposted church already. While tracing our tracks we encountered a rusty old sign pointed towards a bumpy rock plane with a view over the big valley we were driving through. A nice spot to park and sleep. After some manoeuvring we managed to park out of the path of headlights of cars making the same steep climb to the village near us. With our camper blended with the dark of the night, the view over the valley littered with village lights was breathtaking.

Lost in a farmer roadnet dungeon.                                          The stone-arch we found while looking for
                                                                                                 a place to sleep. Click both for the larger ones!

The next day we headed out for a walk since we suspected the church to be somewhere below the rocky plane we camped on. After 15 minutes it became clear to us all of a sudden, the mountain sides where clustered with houses carved into the rock. A kilometre further we discovered a huge natural stone arch. Incredibly large and almost completely round, an unexpected treasure just near our campsite. After some picture shoots we continued our scenic route through the Toros mountain range.

Later that day we reached Anamur, a package tourist resort, so we headed out quickly along the coastal route. Too quickly we discovered out later, we should have made a fuel stop right there. With 820 Km on the odo-meter while driving a fuel intensive route we suddenly found ourselves trapped in a small beach pocket with the fuel warning light shining very bright. With a custom fuel tank fitted we had no idea how far we could go from here. Asking at a small restaurant nearby confirmed our doubts, next fuel stop 50 Km heading east. So, that means heading back west to Anamur for at least 20 Km. With the sunset approaching we decided to camp at a nearby beach for free. The restaurant owner advertised this spot along the road, hoping for some business at his place.
Unsure how far we could go with the remaining fuel in our tank we decided to have dinner at the restaurant and thus trying to increase our chances to talk our way into acquiring a few litres of diesel from the owner. "No problem" he said, three litres was enough. With having dinner, camping at a nice beach and a three liter diesel ticket back to Anamur, our day was saved.

The next day we drove back to Anamur and filled up for 115 litres of diesel. A close call for sure, but a learning experience we can use for real tight trip planning in the future.
The rest of the day we spend driving. Not because we planned that but near Alanya the world around us slowly became a tourist hell. Hotel after Hotel, package tourist paradise, "are we still in Turkey?" we asked ourselves. So we raced along the coastal stretch from Alanya to Antalya, trying to block the things we saw out of our minds. Beyond Antalya we drove into a strategically planned and managed tourist region. The Turkish government apparently tries to keep this region a bit more authentic and not without success as we concluded. Kemer is an example of a village where hotel concrete doesn't completely dominate the landscape. Near sunset we touched down at a closed camping which suddenly re-opened with our presence. Some young guy stayed there to guard the place, together with a very loud herd of crazy turkeys.
That evening we also discovered that our 3 month multiple entry visa was starting to run out. Completely unaware of the consequences, we decided making an inquiry about visa extensions and possible fines if we overstay our visa. With still one week to go before our visa expired, we thought we where still drifting on the save side of the immigration laws.

The next day we headed for the police station in Antalya. There we got redirected to the administrative government centre of the Antalya province. A brand new modern building occupied with lots of armed men and women in police suits. As weary and dusty travellers we felt like we've entered a Turkish power dome where hefty procedures are inflicted on the unaware citizen, even when necessary with armed force. Without being shot on the spot we found the immigration desk. And to our surprise not the usual concrete & steel wall with a small 'hole' in it, but an open desk with a smiling officer behind it.
The armed immigration officer behind his desk took a peak at our weary travel faces and then at our heavily stamped passports:

- "Expired?" he said.
- "No no" we said. "We need a visa extension". Almost automatically we where subject to an immigration procedure, called the "residence permit application". Ohoh we thought, major-domo time, money and frustration. But well, with our heavily trained bureaucracy frustration-tolerance this should be a piece a cake.
- The immigration officer shot: "4 passport photo's, a typed application form and proof of a 300 US$ cash withdrawal in Turkish lira's each".
- Darn! we thought, this is going to be a long ride. "How long will the application take?" we asked innocently.
- "One day only" the officer said.
- "And 31 million Lira for the residence permit". Duhhh, we thought.
- "And if we don't go through the procedure ?" expecting to be shot instantly only for asking.
- "A 60 million fine each for the 1st day to day 30" the officer grinned while reading this from a huge table listing the exact fines.

We decided to spend the weekend at Kemer on a campsite called "Overland Camping". This site was actually open but again deserted except for three pensioners with huge campervans. The owner of the campsite told us that his campsite business almost collapsed with the war in Yugoslavia during the early 90-ties. Apparently he survived but with the stream of Hotel package tourists it's still a struggle to get any business. The name of the campsite certainly advertised better times when his place was a popular seaside backpackers paradise.
Shopping in Kemer is easy, everything you want is there. On our stroll through the small centre we managed to get our hands on a Dutch Saturday newspaper, not the one we particularly like but well it's something to read. And yes the paper still hasn't changed, exaggerated headlines, gossip talk and loaded with loud heaven promising ad's, apparently everything what makes a newspaper attractive. But well for once it was bearable and we could read the stuff without shame. Strange things happen to you, during such a trip. :-)

After the weekend we started looking for a Nissan dealer since our car badly needed an oil and oilfilter change. At Fethiye a Nissan dealer was listed so we headed there while making a side trip through a mountain area called 'Beydaglari'. Unsure if we could top the mountain range to get into the other valley we reached Elmali, and surprisingly there was a sign pointing to Seki, a place on the other side of the mountain. And yes the drive was incredibly scenic but also very steep and narrow. A 1800 meter rise from sea level but rewarded with a breathtaking view into the next valley. Ofcourse all roads not listed at any of our three maps of Turkey. At Fethiye we located the Nissan dealer but postponed the visit till the next day. Sunset was approaching and we needed a place to stay. In a resort called "Oludeniz" we found a small campsite temporary re-opened for a British overland tour group. With the overland group on a day-tour we quickly raced to the douche area to take a (still) hot shower. Accidentally the campsite had a bar with Internet terminals so we made mental notes for using the Internet connection after our car was serviced.

The next day we were welcomed by the complete staff of the Nissan dealer in Fethiye. We were helped quickly because we were the only customer at that time. The small workshop was nearly big enough to fit our camper where the full crew threw themselves at changing the oilfilter and oil. In a discussion with the sales manager he told us that he barely sold one new car each week. But again a new car is still a huge financial achievement for the average Turk, certainly a far more bigger buy than it is for people in west Europe. More surprisingly our car type is simply 'unsellable' in Turkey because of hefty taxes on turbo charged engines and 4 wheel drive vehicles. For 300 US$ a month the sales manager made his living selling the smaller cars and the popular 2WD pickup truck.
After the service we shook hands with the full crew and looking back in the rear-view mirror we saw the full crew waving at us. A sight we've never seen in the Netherlands :-)

At Oludeniz we cruised the resort and found an even better campsite at a place called the 'blue lagoon'. Well the place really earns this name, a curved sandy beach with trees producing enough shade to hide you from the sun. In high season definitely a place where you have to pay dearly for food and a bed to sleep in. But at this time of year the place is completely deserted with nearly all Hotels closed and one campsite open the whole year. Here we decided to stay for a couple of days, the weather was nice and we needed a break after the driving sessions from the Syrian border.
Here we made new plans for our remaining 2,5 sabbatical months while overlooking the blue lagoon of Oludeniz.