Last update: Monday, September 05, 2005

Janine looking at the strangely formed hills in Cappadocia

When I woke up on Saturday morning, September 2nd, all of my muscles were stiff and hurting from the fall yesterday and I had blue spots all over my body. Hmm, those rocks were certainly sharp. And on top of that I had a bad attack of diarrhoea. It was definitely going to be a wonderful day. After breakfast with Ali and his family we went to Arif. He lived in a small but wonderful house and he has a beautiful wife and two children. As an refreshment we got some eau de cologne sprinkled over our hands. After a cup of Turkish tea and some grapes we had to say goodbye to Arif. We're going to miss him, this very kind and modest man.
After saying goodbay to Ali and his family too, we went on, driving to Goreme (Cappadocia). Goreme is a village set in a beautiful moonscaped valley with houses and churches cut in tufa cones. Very surreal. We arrived late that day, so we decided to camp at Goreme camping, next to some tufa cones and explore the site tomorrow.

The last couple of days with Ali were so intense that the next day we were just to tired to explore the complete site extensively. So instead, we just looked arround a bit and enjoyed the surroundings and made lots of pictures.

On Monday, we were heading to Nemrut (near Malatya) but decided to stop at a Nissan garage for some spare parts (the rubber hosing which were checked in Konya). Arno didn't felt really secure about the original ones and wanted the rubber hosing to and from the Intercooler replaced in case the original parts broke down in Iran. After driving for an hour in Kayseri we finally stopped at a Toyota-garage to ask the way. Well, no problem. One of the guys took his car and drove in front of us to show us the way. Ah, no wonder we couldn't find the garage. There is no garage, only a very, very small showroom (with 1 car!!). After explaining the problem they told us we had to go to either Ankara or Adana. Darn, that means a detour of at least 600 km. Well, nothing we can do about that. It was a long and hot drive to Adana and we arrived in the dark, which made it hard to find a place to camp. But we found one. And because it was our second wedding anniversary that day, we had a great diner in the restaurant of the camping place.

After one hour, the next day, we finally found the big Nissan-garage. We were treated as if we were kings. After entering the garage, we were led into the director's room (air-conditioned!) and were served coffee and tea. The director spoke a little German, so we talked about all kind of things. Our car was serviced immediately and unfortunately the rubber hosing of the intercooler were leaking badly, as we already thought they were. The conditions we drive in, loaded to the max, steep hills and blazing heat the original rubber hosing leak air and oil causing loss of turbo pressure and unnecessary oil spills.
It was repaired in a couple of hours. In the meanwhile we were having lunch with the director's assistant and had tea again with the director. He gave us a Turkish phrase-book and a map of Turkey. So very kind!. And when we had to pay for the repairs he told his assistant that the bill should be very small. And very small it was. About 15 US$. We were surprised and overwhelmed by all this hospitality and kindness!

The huge eagle statue in perspective                                       Camping under the top of Nemrut        
                                                                                             Sunset at 5:59am at the top of Nemrut                             

Tuesday morning we enjoyed sunset on Nemrut Dagi after driving the remainder of the day (at 5 am!) and explored the site with its magnificent statues. We camped near the top of the Nemrut which has a small parking space for campers. The road to this spot was steep, really incredibly steep, the last stretch of 12 Km has a percentage of a minimum of 20 % on a road of bumpy granite and slippery blocks mixed with gravel. This means low gear all the way while pointing the nose of the car almost straight to the sky. Specially dangerous when you have to stop on that steep hill, because getting the car going again which such a percentage requires careful and tedious clutch control.
On our way back to Kahta we got a flat tire due to a large nail. And we got it, oh how very convenient, in front of a tire-repair station! Within 2 seconds somebody came to us for help with all the equipment. And within half an hour our tire was fixed and 6 US$ lighter. Luckily we didn't have the flat on the downhill stretch of Nemrut which would be really dangerous, changing wheels is impossible and keep on going would definitely ruin the tire and rim because of the brake forces. Not to think about losing control of the car on that steep stretch.
Well, we safely parked our car in Katha that same day on a small hotel camping near the city centre. And yes, the small village even has an Internet café!

The head of zeus topped of by an earthquake                    Greek statues near a huge and incredibly deep cave