TURKEY LEFTOVERS

We’re heading into Iran now where internet access may not be easy and we really wanted to complete our record of the Turkey tour, but don't know when we'll be able to publish this.

Up Up and Away

Cappadocia was our last port of call on the West Turkey “tourist trail”. What an amazing place topped off with our Hot Air Balloon ride, a 50th Birthday Present for Terry from folks back home. It was a beautiful sunny morning and as if being in a hot air balloon wasn’t exciting enough (especially for Terry with all those cylinders valves and functions) the geology below us was breathtaking. We were lucky enough to have an English pilot and so received a running commentary on what was what, and there was a lot of it. An hour later and it was all over apart from the celebratory champagne of course (and not forgetting to thank Paul McKenna for “curing” me of my fear of heights! It really does work)

Striking Out East

Our journey up to this point had followed a well trodden tourist trail, which in turn meant that we’d meet up with fellow travellers we’d previously met in other places which made it all the more fun; but now it was time to strike out on our own and go East to Van from where we needed to work out the best way of crossing into Iran.

A 21hr overnight bus journey (blah) to Van was the first step. Lake Van and all of South East Turkey is a Kurdish area and very different from West Turkey. In the West the locals couldn’t really understand why we wanted to visit the East and warned us that the roads would be blocked with snow and that nobody spoke English.

It was an eventful journey that kept us entertained with crashes into a rock-fall (we spent 40 minutes ripping off a side panel that had been damaged) and later a break down. (It looked suspiciously like we had just simply run out of fuel - but hey). As ever, the people were really friendly and everyone mucked in offering advice on how to get us going again. The route took us through the snow capped Taurus Mountains and military check points but with temperatures in the mid 20s thankfully, no snow blocked roads as warned.

We spent two days in Van (a town on Lake Van, an enormous inland, high altitude salt lake) waiting for a train to Tehran, which was scheduled for approximately 7 pm on the Tuesday evening. Two excited Phillips’ arrived at the station to find the train had been delayed, probably until 4 am. Hhmph.

Back to the Hotel and booked a bus for 8am next morning to Oromiyhe, a town somewhere in West Iran and from which we reckoned we would somehow be able to get to Tehran. Not ideal, but better than a 10 hr wait for a 24hr train ride.

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