Day 156: Thursday 21 August – Göreme to Gerede, by Ken

Land Rover Parked Next To Us Overnight At Kaya Camping With Interesting Sleeping Compartment
(Note: New Zealand is missing from map)

With more than 400km to drive today to get us within striking distance of Istanbul on Friday we planned to get on the road early. A number of things conspired against that and it was 9:45 when we drove out the gates of Kaya Camping. Our first distraction was email from Harry saying he had the flu necessitating a phone call to see how he was. He seemed to be over the worst. Then I got into conversation with an Austrian couple in a small camper van parked next to us. They were very much into historic sights and were heading for eastern Turkey. They had put their camper on a train from Austria to Turkey to avoid the drive. They arrived refreshed but wrote off two tires driving off the train. After that we only had to fill the drinking water tank and we were off. Jane started to fill the tank and I set off to pay Yasar, I hadn’t got far when Jane called me back, there was a deep sink hole next to Mabel. It looked as though a leaking water pipe was the cause and a camper van parked there earlier must have caused the surface to cave in. I reported the problem to Yasir who was very concerned and came back with me to have a look. My Austrian neighbour joined us joking that must be where Yasar had buried a German visitor he had fallen out with a year or so ago.

Yasar & Camping Ground Staff Member Inspect Sink Hole Next To Mabel

Our Austrian Neighbour Gathering Evidence On German's Grave

We decided to split driving into easily manageable quarters. While our destination was well to the north of Göreme we initially headed south west passing through Nevsehir and Aksaray before finally turning north. Driving was easy on good dual carriageways that took us through hill country. We were never below 1,000 metres above sea level and got up to 1,500 metres at one point. North of Aksaray we drove along the east shore of Lake Tuz, an enormous salt water lake that provides more than 60% of the salt consumed in Turkey.

Lake Tuz

Nuts For Sale At The Roadside

At the half way point we stopped for lunch of bread and cheese. Jane was driving her second leg when we got to Ankara where satnav decided the best route was through the centre of the city. With a population of 4.4 million (slightly more than the entire population of New Zealand) the roads were very busy and the driving no better than anywhere else in Turkey. Jane decided it wasn’t for her and pulled over leaving me to drive the remainder of the way to Gerede.

Traffic Was Getting Busy As We Drove Into Ankara

For a short while north of Ankara we drove on a motorway but didn’t pass through a toll station. After that we were on a badly rutted dual carriageway. Some areas of the surfacing had been milled, presumably to improve skid resistance. Unforttunately, the milling wasn’t parallel to the lane and that cause Mabel to snake violently.

At 17:00 we arrived at a practically deserted Camping Yayla set in a pine forest. The owner came out to greet us, he had no English but sign language got us a grass pitch by a stream. We seemed to be the only people staying, timber lodges and a number of caravans scattered among the trees looked to be unoccupied. We only set up a couple of chairs and a small table outside as we planned to be on the road to Istanbul first thing.

A Land Rover equipped for desert driving arrived just after we set up camp. A German couple from the Black Forest and their son had just arrived in Turkey, They had bought the Land Rover for a trip to Morocco a few years ago. They were now building their own four-wheel drive on a Mercedes truck chassis. They had bought the box to go on the back and the husband was going to fit it out. He said it was easy, as long as you had somewhere for cooking, somewhere for water and somewhere for sh***ing, that’s all you need! I really admire people that can be funny in a language that’s not their first.

We visited the camping ground’s restaurant which was the only place with wi-fi reception. Not having heard anything from Koray’s travel agent friend, we had emailed Koray earlier in the week. There was still nothing from the agent and we weren't sure we would have wi-fi tomorrow night. So we moved to Plan B and booked ourselves 5 nights at the Elfida Suites Hotel in the centre of old Istanbul through Booking.com. Our plan was to stay at a camping ground west of Istanbul on Friday night, leave Mabel there and drive Smarty into Istanbul for our five night stay. The hotel had free parking according to the Booking.com website, but when the booking confirmation arrived it stated there was no parking!. We emailed the hotel asking if they could sort something out for us.

While I was waiting for my email to hook up to get the booking confirmation Jane ordered a box of chocolates on line to be sent to Harry as a get well present. Our hotel confirmation arrived followed shortly after with one from Koray’s friend with a voucher for the Hotel Pianoforte!

We ate the remainder of the chicken korma for dinner. As usual with a curry, it tasted even better having sat for a while, For the first time in ages it was too cool to sit outside, but then we were 1450 metres above sea level.

Today's Trip (420km)
B = Arksary