Last update: Monday, September 05, 2005

At the blue lagoon in Oludeniz November life is real quiet. Off-season not only means the absence of tourists, but also the caretakers and owners of hotels and restaurants seem to have vanished. The scenery we found when descending the steep road leading to the bay was one of a ghost town. Only dogs cruised the place and a few guards at the seaside military station stared at us with bored faces. The only open campsite was 'Bambus camping' at the end of the lagoon, a small place with a few (very) small summerhouses and a "restaurant". After some haggling with the caretaker of the site we could stay as long as we liked for 1 million Turkish lira a day (1,5 US$).

The campsite bathed in the warm November sun from a clear blue sky. Temperatures reached 26 degrees Celsius in the shade, but sitting in the sun was bearable and didn't cause sunburns. For us it was a perfect spot to go through the events of the past 3,5 month and think about our lives in the future.

We shared our campsite with a retired German painter (who called himself 'Indiana Jones') and the campsite owner with his family and the obligatory dogs and herd of cats. In the five days we stayed at Oludeniz each day resembled the previous, somehow life became very predictable. The campsite owner fished from dawn to dust while staring motionless over the blue lagoon. The German retired painter filled his day and veins with large amounts of Raki (like Greek Ouzo). This while floating over the blue lagoon in his Canadian canoe called, how surprisingly 'Indiana Jones'. And we?
We read heaps of books, went through our pile of maps and made plans for the coming 2,5 months and beyond. Both the fisher and the painter must have thought we had somehow lost our minds in the desert. Fishing and Raki are undoubtedly far more interesting than staring at piles of books and maps.

During the days we created a few scenario's for continuing our journey through the Middle-East. Time and money limited a few but most of them where still quite realistic. Destinations like Cairo, Muscat (Oman), Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and Sana'a (Yemen) were most likely to be reached within time and budget. However in the days at Oludeniz we couldn't reach a decision and decided to let either of the destinations linger on in our heads. One destination was already set, the city of Istanbul split by the Bosporus, the line between Europe and Asia.

The evenings were cool (17 degrees Celsius) and with the clear constellations above our heads we couldn't get enough of looking at them. Our evening walks through the pitch-dark ghost town caused an avalanche of dogs running and barking around us. One evening we were accompanied by at least 10 dogs all staying at the numerous deserted tourist places, somehow happy with our company and a bit of life in the place.

On 18 November we left Oludeniz to get ourselves to Istanbul, a trip with a steady northern course, traversing the high planes of Anatolia. We both knew that the nice weather we had at this place could be the last for at least a few weeks.
During the day we enjoyed the countryside in warm autumn colours, something we saw for the first time this year. Many people we encountered were dressed in thick winter clothes, busy with harvesting the autumn crops like cotton and sugarbeet. In nearly every valley we saw huge lines of tractors and trucks parked in front of the storage sheds. The roads almost white with either cotton or brown and slippery with dirt coming from the sugarbeets.
Our destination that day was Pamukkale, a place we've camped before on our trip to Iran. Late that afternoon we reached the deserted tourist place, while looking for a spot where we could park for the night without having to pay for a campsite. In our search we decided to take a dirt road hoping to get ourselves on a high spot overlooking the white rocks of Pamukkale.

Quickly the dirt road became steep and bumpy. During an incredibly steep ascent on loose gravel we encountered a huge bump in the road at which we lost all of our speed. The bump rocked our heads hard to the ceiling and at the moment we stopped, our camper slowly started sliding backwards with the brakes fully applied. The next few seconds seemed to last for hours, the sound of tires scratching on gravel, the hollow sound of stones popping away under the tires , the uncontrolled backward movement of the car, certainly not the most happy moments of our life. That moment we realised how steep the dirt road actually was!! After having slided slowly backwards for a meter we finally stood still, actually balancing at unstable gravel accumulated behind our wheels, looking at eachother with sheet-white faces.
Going forward from this position wasn't an option, leaving a backwards decent as the only sensible thing to do. With our gears still in 2WD-high, Arno quickly shifted to 4WD-low hoping the engine had enough resistance to help us out of this situation. While slowely lowering brake pressure and simultaneously trying to 'catch' the car in low gear, the uncontrolled sliding started again. This time not only backwards but also turning slightly on this steep hill. Again we re-experienced the same frightful seconds, with faces already sheet-white there wasn't anything more to do than waiting for the sliding to stop and hoping we would not tilt.
And again we stopped! But now we stood there with a slight tilt to the right. Quickly Arno tried the same again, but this time the engine catched the backwards motion of the car gaining control again over the direction of the backwards movement. Slowly traversing backwards in low gear we reached a level spot of the gravel road where we could stop and asses our situation.

Walking around the car we both saw a big white flood of fluid streaming from underneath our camper door. The scene we saw when opening the camper door was a completely empty fridge, it's contents scattered all over the floor. We had bumped so hard the security pin of the fridge was forced open. Eggs smashed on the floor, yoghurt all over the place, cheese swimming in 'Tang' and milk dripping on our feet from the camper door. A huge mess! Still with milk-white faces we looked at each other and back to the mess. Somehow we didn't really care about the mess, we survived this ordeal in one piece.

Looking back at the steep gravel 'road' we couldn't believe what just happened, we've had our share of steep and bumpy roads in our trip but not on loose gravel. Surely with enough speed we could have made the ascent, but with 900 Kg in the back speed is not what you want under these conditions.
After cleaning the mess for a bit we turned the car on the narrow road and headed for Pamukkale again. This time we needed a spot to clean the remaining mess with 1,5 hour of daylight still left. At the edge of the town we found a closed campsite. Suprisingly there was a guard with his dogs and after some negotiating we could park at the site for the night for free. After cleaning, dinner and some reading we turned in for a quiet and cold night.

The next day we left Pamukkale at dawn heading for the mountains, avoiding the big transport roads towards Khutaya and Bursa. With a few important junctions marked with our GPS we spend the whole morning navigating on small roads and passing unsignposted villages. Loosing our way a few times being surprised by unmapped junctions, we ended up at a closed road. A 'critical path' on our route since there wasn't an alternative, other than backtracking taking the big transport routes. Luckily a local managed to explain to us that there was an alternative gravel road used by loggers going to the next town. With the events of the previous day in our minds we had a slight doubt about traversing such a road again. But well with the other alternative many hours behind us, we decided to go for the gravel wood-loggers road. And luckely the road wasn't that bad at all. Immensely dusty and a bit steep at a few parts we reached the next town without new thrilling events. Although we amazed a few locals with a huge dust plume behind us, asking themselves what the heck these tourists are doing here.
The remainder of the day we spend with navigating ourselves to an archaeological site at Aizanoi (Çavdarhisar) hoping to find a place to park and sleep. The site itself was impressive, a temple with a huge cellar! The guard showed us around practising his Dutch on us. When we asked about staying overnight he pointed out that we couldn't stay near the archaeological site, but there was no problem if stayed at the edge of the city. Since sunset was approaching we quickly cruised the city surroundings hoping to find a suitable place. Just 5 Km outside town we found a small area normally used for teaching people how to drive a car. A perfect spot, we parked behind the 'classroom' out of road sight and were quite happy we could find such a quiet spot so quickly.
That night we used the heater for the first time, the heated air smelled dusty at first but it kept us warm. Again an uneventful and extremely quiet night. No calls for prayer and no dogs barking, are we still in Turkey?

After a night with some frost we left Çavdarhisar heading for Kuthaya for shopping and maybe adventuring into some of the ceramic galleries for which the region is famous. When entering the valley of Kuthaya we drowned in a thick clogging coal and wood fire smog. We had to turn on the lights to actually see the road. Here we were quickly reminded again about the fact that most houses in Turkey don't have central gas heating. The results are devastating, air pollution must certainly be one of the biggest enemies threatening this city.
The ceramic galleries in fact were dominating the city, reminding us about the undoubtedly huge crowd of tourists being dropped off here in the summer. After one gallery we had enough already and quickly did our shopping at a huge supermarket at the outskirts of the town. Next we continued our journey to Bursa with plans to camp at Uludag miliparki, a nature site near the mountain Uludag. At Bursa we saw some of the remainders of the huge earthquake which shook this part of Turkey a few years ago. Construction was going on nearly everywhere causing huge traffic jams in this industrial area of Turkey. Uludag miliparki was a huge disappointment, the road to the park was littered with restaurants and picnic area's. The whole place had become quite an 'eye-sore' kind of place. At the gates of the park we were asked for a considerable fee making us turn around quickly, not our cup of tea. Quickly rethinking our route with only two hours of daylight left we headed for Iznik. A place on the shore of a big lake in the middle of an area where olive trees rule the local way of living. Navigating our way through the narrow roads filled with tractors carrying freshly picked olives and weary olive picking crews we found Iznik. Unfortunately a real busy place leaving camping in the free a bit difficult. Luckily we found a small Hotel-restaurant with a parking behind the place. After a bit of haggling we could stay at the place for free, completely out of road sight promising a quiet night. And well it actually was, however the call for prayer made us realise that we were located near the city centre.

With only a few hours driving ahead before reaching Istanbul we left Iznik at dawn in the middle of olive picking crews being transported to the olive trees for a full day of work. This area was the first place where we noticed the very green surroundings of the area. Actually seeing green hills after all the dry land we've driven through was quite a revelation. We thought about the Bedouin people who talked about their dreams of green wet lands, something which they certainly do not have. What a thrilling experience it must be for a Bedouin seeing a piece of green moist grassland! It might be the same thrill as we had while driving through the desert.
The highways around Istanbul quickly threw us back to the reality of the modern world. Without to much agony we found the right bridge transporting us over the Bosporus to Europe. The view on the bridge was awesome and the moment was also a bit emotional. After such a long trip returning to Europe, it made us think about the thrills and horrors we went through the past months.
We found the big campsite in Atakoy along the shores of the sea without a fuzz. Although a bit on the expensive side, the campsite has real hot showers, is guarded round the clock and is a good starting point for seeing Istanbul. After a hot shower and dinner we turned in for the night early.

The next morning we walked to the Bakirkoy train station in 20 minutes and took the train to the heart of Istanbul. In the next three days we visited Istanbul using this train. In less than one hour we walked the old city centre of Istanbul for 1 US$ and a few cents. In these days we saw the Topkapi palace including the famous Harem, the Aya Sofaya church and the Egyptian Bazaar. These 3 days were exhausting, lot's of walking, sight seeing and going up and down from the camping to the city centre.
The Topkapi palace is undoubtedly worthwhile, we only spend one day here, but without hesitation we can say that you can easily spend 2 days to see most of it. We were lucky to visit the palace at quiet times, in high season the place must be crowded without doubt. The Harem should not be missed and is guided, limiting the stay to no more than 20 minutes. It's intriguing to see the wealth of this woman's prison, a place exclusively owned by the Sultan and ruled over by his mother. And not to forget a place where the next Sultans to be, feared for their live, since being the Sultans mother comes with lots of power.
The Aya Sofaya church is very impressive. The church, converted to a mosk by the Sultans and later declared a monument by Ataturk, has many interesting features. The many columns in the church are littered with ancient gravity with some of them quite readable.
The bazaar (or covered market) can be divided in the tourist part and the part where the locals do their shopping. The latter is undoubtedly the Egyptian bazaar near the sea shore. The tourist bazaar, after seeing the souqs of Damascus and Allepo didn't really interest us. The Egyptian bazaar however is still quite authentic and immensely crowded with locals. As a fresh western tourist propelled into Istanbul this part of the covered market can be quite unsettling. We can imagine most tourists preferring to walk the tourist bazaar, since it's more clean, it's guarded and not so immensely crowded. But for us the Egyptian part was the place to be. The smells of the spices, the many kebab shops and the odd things you can buy is simply mind boggling. The best way to find the Egyptian Bazaar is to walk straight from the trainstation along the shoreline turning left when reaching the first bridge leading to Asian Istanbul. Crowds of locals will reveal the entrance of the Egyptian bazaar.
After three days we were waisted and decided that another day would certainly make us walk on our eyebrows.

The next day we left the campsite heading towards Greece taking the bigger Kipi border station which is open 24 hours a day. This in contrary to the other borderpost near Edirne, which is closed from early afternoon till the next morning. After some shopping we arrived at the border station which was quite small compared to the one at Dogubayazit (Iran) and Bab al Hawa (Syria). Knowing the routine rather well we went through the paperwork quite smoothly. Our Turkish residence permits were checked with a very shallow look, like we didn't really needed them. Our Turkish visa's were already stamped black en red far beyond recognition, but actually stamped again at this border post. When we crossed the bridge to the greek side we where seriously thinking about skipping the residence visa sherade the next time. With that many stamps on our visa's you can hardly see whether the visa is expired or not.
At the end of the bridge we drove into Greece and the European Union again. The latter was accompanied with a desinfection procedure by driving through a huge car shower with our camper. Boy, did we feel clean after that. At the Greek side we were greeted with suspicious looks and had to show the inside of our camper while being fired at with questions about running drugs from Iran. Well with our heavily trained poker faces we could quickly convince the customs officer that this was not the case. Unpacking the whole lot was the last thing we were waiting for at this time. But well we could go without a firm check and before we knew it Greece was gazing at us. It felt like we were only 5 minutes away from home, something we refused to think about. Going home was certainly not what we were waiting for. December will sure be the month to materialise our plans for the coming two months.