Day 163: Thursday 28 August – Farewell Istanbul, by Ken

After breakfast we tried to have an iChat with Harry and Ella. The picture kept freezing and we also lost sound from time to time. We abandoned the chat and resorted to a good old- fashioned phone conversation instead. We chatted with Harry for about an hour and Ella only briefly as she had to leave for hockey practice. All was good in Wellington except that Chewy is scratching himself and developing bald patches. The vet thinks it could be fleas which can hopefully be cleared up quickly.

After that we packed and then visited some of the small shops around the corner from the hotel to pick up provisions for the next day or so. We settled up with the hotel. Outside Smarty was exactly where we had left her five days ago, completely unscathed although somewhat dirtier thanks to the grime of Istanbul.

We stowed everything in Smarty’s boot and set a course back to Mabel. Initially, we had to fight our way through the chaotic narrow streets of the old city where drivers behaved just as badly and scarily as elsewhere in Turkey, except that it all happened at a slower pace in the congested streets. It didn’t take long to pick up a good dual carriageway that took us out through the western suburbs and then onto the road we had driven on Friday. Not far from Autocamp Istanbul we spotted a roadside fruit stall where we bought a melon and other fruit – dinners at Al’s had given us a real taste for melon.

Istanbul Old City Street Shortly After we Set Off

Heading West Out Of Istanbul

At Autocamp Istanbul Mabel was the only occupant of the camping ground. We were very relieved to find her exactly as we had left her. Except for the fridge, that is, which started beeping every two minutes. Consulting the manual suggested this was because the door wasn’t closed properly and the interior light was on. A check by setting my iPhone to video and shutting it in the fridge confirmed this wasn’t the case. We were soon on the road as most of our gear was already stowed away. The ongoing beeping of the fridge was barely audible above the road noise, but we clearly wouldn’t be able to sleep unless it could be fixed.

We rejoined the tolled motorway at the interchange we had left it on Friday. Unlike Friday when we got a red light passing the toll booth when leaving the motorway, the system showed no interest in us at all giving neither a green light, nor a red.

Truck Facing The Wrong Way On The Hard Shoulder

The trip eastwards was pretty uneventful apart from rutted surfacing and strong crosswinds making handling Mabel a bit of a handful at times. We stopped at a service area for lunch of bread and cheese. Just south of the town of Edirne we came to toll booths which, unlike any others we had seen, had barrier arms (the whole idea of Turkey’s automated tolling system is to avoid delays caused by vehicles stopping to pay tolls). We immediately remembered the red light from nearly a week ago. This time we got a red light and a siren but much to our relief the barrier arm lifted and we drove on. We left the motorway shortly afterwards without passing through another toll station.

From the motorway, it was just a short drive to Ömür Camping. Our guide book warned that it suffered at times from overly officious German-run management. I wouldn’t have described the woman that greeted us as officious, she was German alright with the usual German efficiency and the whole arrival process was conducted in German. We were shown to a grass pitch which we were advised was perfect for seeing the sun rise.

Once we were established Jane visited the laundry to catch up on our washing while I set to seeing if I could stop the fridge beeping. I managed to remove the control panel which contained a circuit board on which was mounted the buzzer. However, there was no way of isolating the buzzer and an attempt to muffle it with a hollowed out wine bottle cork was worse than useless. I emailed Chris at Elite Motorhomes to see if he had a cure that would avoid a sleepless night or warm food in the morning. While waiting for Chris’ response the frequency of beeping diminished and then stopped altogether.

For dinner I cooked a pasta sauce from dried ingredients bought in Sicily with pasta bought in Greece, a multi-national carbohydrate boost, if you like. We sat outside and had a go at the trivia quiz on Stuff NZ. We were OK on general knowledge, but pretty hopeless on current affairs having largely lost touch with what was happening at home.

Today's Trip (187km)
(Bulgarian border is black line just above 'B')