Wednesday, 15 September 2010

Day 12 - into Turkey.

The first thing we noticed was the state of the roads. I thought Greece was bad up in the mountains but these were shocking,literally!
A mile or so down the road from the border we came to a large crossroads controlled by traffic lights,not that many drivers took much notice. It was now make your mind up time. Carry on to Istanbul or turn right to the ferry to Canakkale. " Angie what do you fancy doing" I asked over the intercom". " Oh look Tim a Burger King are you hungry" came the reply. I was starving but took the right turn and headed for the ferry. In the time we had it was the best thing to do. We can always do it next time I thought.
The roads in this part of the world are crap. Sorry but its true. Even on the motorways you had to dodge pot holes, deep worn ruts and tractors going the wrong way or doing U turns. We even passed a Donkey and cart !
After three hours or so we arrived at Eceabat for the ferry crossing to Canakkale.
Now I've not used many ferries so just rode up to the ticket office and asked for a ticket. The guy rattled off a load of Turkish and I gave him 8 lira, not bad I thought. He then pointed at his watch and signed half an hour. We sat watching the world go by when a ferry docked at the next dock. Then I got to thinking that maybe we have a choice ! I tried to ask the ticket seller but we couldn't understand each other. I went and fetched the map to point to the ferry stop we wanted when a guy asked us" where are you going" we explained and pointed to the ferry that had just pulled in " quick " he said so we rode on and in a couple of minutes we sailed. The crossing was smooth and took about 30 mins. We docked and tracked down a ATM then got back on the main road heading for just outside Haveran. I had sorted a couple of camp sites back at home while on the internet and uploaded the co-ordinates to my Garmin. I was running on base maps so only major roads showed, this was going to be fun.
We climbed high into the pine clad mountains to see beautiful views of the coast down below with the sea so inviting in the heat. Descending down to follow the coast road we passed lots of fruit sellers, hard to imagine they could all make a living there were so many. By 5.00 we had found the campsite with out any problems and pitched overlooking the sea.
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