Musings on travel, road trips and off to sea!



 Hi everyone


Well, our life over the past few weeks has been extremely busy.  We never seem to have a spare moment.  To all those people who ask us 'what do you do all day?' I would like to testify that we somehow manage to fill all the hours at our disposal.


Lately I have been doing some musing over the question of travel......  I have some educated friends who think a lot about their blogs.  One friend is focusing this year on how travel is changing him, another constructs her blog creatively around sketches that she does on her travels, while I just potter along blabbering about what we have been up to (if you want to read some of these more educated blogs, let me know and I will forward you the link).


To me travel is an individual affair.  Each to his own as they say......  and we have come across all sorts of travellers on our journeys thus far.  One thing that perplexes me is that some people pay a lot of money to hop on an aeroplane to be propelled across the globe and then seem to expect it to be just like home only with sunshine, or snow, or whatever.  There seems to be a proportion of travellers who still want the same food, beer, TV shows etc that they get at home and can't seem to manage without them.  Whilst I miss my home comforts and family and friends dreadfully, one thing that I love to soak up is the 'differentness' of every new environment.  In my opinion, you also have to leave a certain part of your value system at home.  For example, in my experience a 'zebra crossing' means that traffic stops to let you cross the road.  Over here I am sure that they are just there to keep someone in a job and to decorate the road surface a little.  Crossing a road means taking your life in your hands and playing a type of frogger as you try to leap across.  The best bet is to follow a woman with a baby in a pram as they seem to have more respect for them than an old hag like me...

The other thing you have to leave at home is your recipe book.  I quickly learned that you have to construct your menus around what is available rather than what you want.  I recently had a comment from a family member that she doesn't like to go to the supermarket when she is overseas.  To be honest, if we didn't do that we would starve!  We would also have to go without boat parts, repairs, maintenance, hotel rooms, etc, but more about that later......


Also of note (just to belittle my character a little more!) is that I am terrible at remembering details of dates of battles, who conquered who, who ruled from this era to that era and so on and so forth.  I sidle up to information signs at museums and try to look interested as my eyes glaze over after the first few lines.  I am much happier clambering about ruins and trying to use my imagination to picture what went on in the area.  I actually get frustrated as I want it all to come to life in front of my eyes.  Although some reconstructions can be a little tacky at least they give me some idea of what life was like for the locals in 'ancient' times. 


We like to think of ourselves as 'immersion' travellers of a sort.  We are not actually living in an environment for long, however we have to deal with the locals and a lot of places that we visit are fairly remote with no-one around who speaks much English.  To be frank, this is the sort of place that we prefer. 


With this in mind, we have tucked a few road miles under our belts over the past few weeks.  We had booked a trip to northern Turkey from the 14th to the 21st of April and were tossing up what to do in between.  To while away the time we decided to head east down towards Finike, mainly to try to catch up with a friend who had lost her husband and also to see the area in between.  What an amazing part of the world this is!  We pottered along through Fethiye to Kalkan where we had booked a hotel for three nights.  When we arrived, there was a note in Turkish asking us to phone a local number.  The lady who answered the phone spoke even less English than I do Turkish but between us we managed to ascertain that she was expecting us and that she was coming.  What followed over the next few days was a lovely pantomime of communication between us.  We managed to be fed and watered however and our room was delightful......  what more can you ask for!


Our travels took us to Kekova Roads (famous for its sunken city on Kekova Adasi), Kas (pronounced 'Cash'), Saklikent Gorge, Finike and various ancient sites such as Xanthos and Patara.  We also came across an amazing sandy beach at Patara which is the best we have seen in the Mediterranean. What surprised us the most was the amount of farming which is carried out in this area.  Valleys are filled as far as the eye can see with the Turkish version of glass houses which are actually 'plastic' houses.  Many seem to have heating built in, presumably to facilitate nurturing of plants during the harsh winters.  The people watching was fantastic.  I plucked up the courage to ask a few people if I could take their photograph rather than my usual furtive dash behind a tree trying to look inconspicuous.  A few refused but I got more nods of approval than I expected.  One old shepherd let me take his photo then dragged me behind a bush!  I wondered what was going on until I realised that he was insisting that I take a photograph of his sheep too!  We stopped in a few villages for market day and bought some local produce at what were obviously 'yabanci' prices, but we didn't mind as they are still ridiculously low compared to what we pay at home and most things are organic.

There is no such thing as covering you load here!

'Plastic houses' as far as the eye can see

Looking out over Kas with Kastellorenzion (a Greek island) in the background

My friendly shepherd and his mate.......



.......and his sheep!



Sarcophagi line the shore line at Kekova Roads

The sunken city at Kekova Island



Sunset on day one. One of the nicest road trips that I have ever done.



Saklikent Gorge

The beach at Patara

Xanthos...... spot the local wildlife!

On our return to the marina, I started rehearsals for my proud debut with the 'Abdominal Spasm Band and Bits On The Side'.  I think I was a bit on the side, but we had a real fun night performing in the marina restaurant and sang a few good old classics such as Waltzing Matilda and The Pub With No Beer.  One of our English friends even had a didgeridoo to accompany us.  What a great night!  The same evening I did a short presentation on first aid at the weekly marina 'Skippers De-Stress' meeting which was well attended and (I think) well appreciated.  The local pharmacy did brisk business with us all updating our first aid boxes.  Medical supplies and pharmacy items are extremely cheap and many drugs which require a prescription in Australia are available over the counter at ridiculously low prices, so it is a good place to stock up.

David from Milliways and I doing our impressive rendition of a pub with no beer

Our planned trip to northern Turkey soon came around.  This was another surprising, amazing part of this country of contrasts.  We flew to Ankara (the capital of Turkey) after a short bus trip to Bodrum and had a few days there.  The contrast between the country areas and cities in Turkey seems much more magnified than it does in Australia and the UK.  There are even a few American Embassies in Ankara (Starbucks!) and that good old famous Scottish restaurant, McDonalds, to make you feel at home.  In Ankara we visited Ataturk's Mausoleum, the old castle area, a few museums (including a modern industrial museum) and had some free time to potter about the shops.



A corridor at the Ataturk Memorial site in Ankara



The changing of the guard

Me and Ataturk

Ataturk's mausoleum

A street scene in the old part of the town near the castle

From Ankara we drove to Amasya. We visited Bogazkale (Hattusas National Park) on the way which is the modern name for the ancient Hittite capital city of Hattusas which dates from 1600BC.  It is pretty awesome (even for me!) to be in areas that were established so long ago and the remnants of the civilisation make you realise that we didn't invent everything in this day and age. 

Me on some font of knowledge or something at the Hittite city......  it didn't work!

Our group at the Lion's gate

Our group trying to emulate the rock carving on the wall

Amasya itself is a fairly large city stretched along the banks of a river between almost vertical mountain ranges. There are tombs which were built for the Pontic Kings carved into the limestone cliffs and a castle perched on the hilltop which was the original Hittite fortress.  The highlight for me in this area was our visit to the Large-Doored Seminary dating from 1488 where Koranic students (boys of 14 years upwards) undergo the same rigorous training that has been carried out for two or three centuries.  I was amazed that we were permitted to wander amongst the boys and photograph them while they were studying.  Also of great personal interest to me was a visit to one of the first ever mental asylums where music and water therapy was carried out to calm disturbed patients.  The origins of the asylum date from 1308. 

The happy students at the theological school in Amasya

Deep in thought!

In the mental asylum!

Beautiful Amasya

And some more........

The Pontic tombs above the town

Our hotel was perched on the opposite cliff to the tombs and the view was breathtaking.  We seemed to be the only foreign tourists in the town and one of our group, Phil (an Australian with a white beard and a big bush hat), was constantly being approached to have his photo taking with young, giggling, teenage Turkish girls.  He hated this of course!!  The Canadians in our group were particularly infamous for their loose connection to Justin Bieber.  The Turkish females seem to be avid fans.

The view from our hotel window

Phil with some Turkish girls who asked to be photographed with him

We dragged ourselves reluctantly from Amasya to head to Sinop on the Black Sea via Samsun where we visited an old ship and got some more Starbucks coffee!  Sinop is a coastal town and seemed to be a fairly bustling, happening sort of place.  The hotel we stayed at was magical.  We were right on the beach in a sleepy, bordering on tacky, little suburb of the city itself but the location was picture postcard perfect and the sea didn't look very black to me. The sort of place you could curl up in for a week with a good book, but the next morning saw us taking off to explore the local prison which was one of those places with a chequered history that goes back for centuries and was used up until the 1970's.  It was used to house pirates, political prisoners, dissidents and poets and even had a children's wing!  Bit of a morbid place but everything looks better with the sun shining......

Sinop. The view from our hotel

Our tour guide, Tas, in chains at the prison in Sinop

Edward waiting for a visitor!

The abandoned cells

Dragging ourselves once again from this magical spot we headed towards Safronbolu.  As the name suggests this area is of note for it's abundance of saffron.  We headed initially to an old town outside of the city where we were greeted by peasant women peddling the usual dried herbs, gourds, fresh produce etc.  The homes were of Ottoman origin and were constructed of wood and plaster.  We were shown through an original dwelling by one of the locals whose family owned the house.  This is the sort of history I like best!  Followed by a foray through the tacky tourist stalls we escaped to make our way to the labyrinth of streets that make up the market town of Safronbolu itself.  What a great place.  If we didn't have luggage limits on planes I could have gone nuts in the shops here......  After lunch we headed to some local caves and then to an area of basalt columns where we pottered around taking happy snaps.  With muddy shoes and grubby clothing we came to our last nightly stop at Bolu.  To be honest there isn't much to say about Bolu.  It just seemed to be a convenient place to spend the night and the hotel was pretty awful to say the least.

Our hostess for morning tea in the old town of Safronbolu

The Ottoman style houses, Safronbolu

Just in case you wanted to know, this is where you tie your horse up!

The old communal laundry

Inside a renovated home in old Safronbolu

Outside the mosque, Safronbolu

Street scene, Safronbolu market place

Some colourful gourds. I want one!!!

Glass blowing, Safronbolu market place

We pottered homewards the next day via the Turkish version of the Lake District and apart from a few tacky tourist traps the scenery was nice and the waffles in the café were to die for!  After our return flight to Bodrum from Ankara we arrived back on board Shirley Valentine very late at night, exhausted and all museumed out, but with many pleasant memories.

Mesut (our driver), Phil, Tas, Maria and Craig at the Turkish Lake District

A beautiful holiday home on the side of the lake

We finally left the marina in the middle of the morning on Wednesday ready for this year's sailing season and the adventures to come.  We holed up in our favourite spot in Deep Water Bay near Gocek for a night to catch our breath and are now on anchor at Fethiye waiting to pick up our first guests for the year tomorrow morning.  Watch this space........