Turkey

Sunday 29th August

We left Allepo and headed to the Syria/Turkey border at Bab al-Hawa. The usual admin nonsense and through in an an hour or so. And straight into the Asi mountains, climbing up and up. We passed through Iskendrun where we could see the Med and through Adana and Tarsus. The mountains were quite stunning, a bit like the Dolomites, i guess, on a smaller scale. Turkey is more modern than i expected; exellent motorways make a change from Syria. We mainly saw trucks crawling up the hills, each driver in a white wife-beater singlet. Took a while to find a bushcamping spot. The first place we tried turned out to be a smelly rubbish tip, but just before dark we found a layby. Either side of the road were fields and hills in distance. A good spot.


Monday 30th August


Packed up and drove an hour into the Cappadocia region, of which Goreme is the main attraction. Here are the fairy chimneys, created by volcanoes millenia ago and formed from flooding and wind and rain. Very picturesque as we came down the hill. We stopped at the viewing point overlooking the rocks and the town of Goreme, accompanied by mellow Turkish music from the souvenir stands. Lovely! Camping among the rock, near the centre of Goreme.