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We knew this was going to be a long day but...I wasn't expecting it to be 6 hours driving!
We started off with a stop at an onyx shop we'd seen on the outskirts of town the night before. They had some smashing stuff & loads of it. One of the family came up & introduced himself in fine English, Ahmet – he'd lived in East London for 5 years. He thought his boat had come in because Cathy bought 4 pieces, one piece alone was 60 Euros, about £42....bargain. Then Ahmet gave us his card, his number, his email address, his Whatsapp name & said any problems, ring me. How nice – he has a friend also in the Turkish Embassy in London – he must have been well impressed with Cathy's spending. I think he'd have thrown in his mother for another £20...
At least we didn't see IKEA & though Cathy hadn't forgot, she kept quiet!
The road down was again mixed with beautiful views & olive & fig groves for miles & miles. We used a few miles of toll motorway which didn't have pay machines nor people, just ANPR cameras...when we came through
the last toll booths I thought I'd best stop & ask the local traffic cop, who aswell as the standard revolver was also carrying a rifle. Cut a long story short & 2 visits to the office 150m away, we bought a tag, about £12. If we hadn't we'd have been stopped or been harassed at the border – maybe that's why he carried the rifle?
Izmir went on for miles & miles too, but got through unscathed. We had 3 cars slowed down as they overtook us to give waves & big smiles. We approached some mountains & guessed from the sky ahead it was going to rain; it was 30* at this point. Then the Dyson said turn right up this nice road...which then turned into the road from Hades across a mountain range, shake & rattle for an hour & a half. Cathy was scared as it was so bad, it was lashing with rain & you couldn't hold a camera still - lightning was cracking off everywhere & the thunder made me jump! I thought it was a great experience! Once again, Dyson then took a short cut through a little village where I had
to drive the wrong way up a one way street as I couldn't get through the proper way – no one batted an eyelid. A kind driver reversed back to let me through, grinning. Maybe it was his form of entertainment as there are no bacon slicers to watch. The scenery, what we could see of it, was like Scotland, acres of pine, rugged rocks – some on the road. We both thought that the Dyson was having us on – there can't be a campsite down here. By now up here ,the temperature had dropped to 11* which is cold for round here.
Then we came down the other side – well, if the weather had been nicer it would have been spectacular, it was pretty awesome anyway despite the low cloud & non stop rain (it has been raining for 4 hours so far). From the top of the mountain it looked like some tropical coastline. (Hopefully tomorrow will be fine so photos will do the place justice) The road had a U bend every 200 m & we finally arrived – in a car park, which is also the camp site. There is no electricity but
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Better roads towards the road from Hades & these were bad enough... the nice chap let us hook up to his cafe! I got a flat 'no' for the wifi though, they must pay by the minute or something but I was surprised the laptop picked anything up as this is the back of beyond. Of course, the shale & gravel car park has massive puddles but we don't need to go out until morning.
We hadn't seen a foreign plated car all day – then 5 minutes after we parked up, a Dutch van pulled in. They've parked right next to the beach so that their door is 2 m away from the sea – a bit like an indoor Shirley Valentine.
We may stay here a couple nights because we can, again. It's now 6 o'clock & it's still persisting down, so may change our mind.
Teaser for you. On the toilets are signs for men & women. The men's is Bay, you'll never guess what the one for women is....
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