Tasucu

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Sunday, 18th January, 2009.

We started to get up about seven thirty. Another bright start to the day.

We went down to breakfast and enjoyed some of the buffet breakfast.

We went down to reception and checked out. A guy was sent off for the car.

We loaded up and headed off. It was about nine fifteen. Pat had figured a route out via the airport to keep us clear of having to drive through the town.

The drive out of Antalya was uneventful, the traffic was light and as long as you kept your wits about you it was OK. Lane discipline is not a strong point and the slow moving buses picking up people all over the place, have to be watched.

There are numerous traffic lights, but we had figured out their routines.

Next was Alanya, and again this was OK, the roads were good and wide and most of the time better than roads in Italy. This was Hotel and Resort one after another, some of the places were massive and Pat reckons they rivaled Las Vegas.

We stopped at lunchtime to top up with petrol at at Petrol Ofisi again. Good service, they cleaned with a high pressure gun and wouldn't take any money.

We saw three road traffic control check points today, and we did get pulled over, we slowed down and moved off the road. As we got closer to him though, he waved at us to drive on. I guess foreigners are too much bother.

This part of the world is full of proper glass greenhouses and poly tunnels. It would be fair to describe the whole coast as “The Greenhouse of Turkey”.

We spotted roadside items grown at the various locations, Oranges at one place, then Banana's, Honey, in another, and so on.

In the afternoon the drive became very mountainous along the coast and driving up and down and in and out for mile after mile.

At one stage we encountered some road works, with only one road, this means you stop while they tear down the mountain in front of you. We weren't stopped to long, but it was interesting watching, as they simply moved the surplus rock down the side towards the sea.

It gave us a chance to eat some crisps and fruit, while waiting.

We arrived in the area of Tasucu, around four o'clock and then tried to figure out where to go. First we found a Marina area, but not ferries. Then headed out again and ended up going out of the town, I was bout to do a U-Turn, but Pat fortunately spotted a sign for ferries to Kibris (Cyprus), so we followed the sign and ended up at the gate for the Port.

After some attempt at communicating with the guard, we found out we had to by a ticket in the town, but we were in the right place for the ferry, so that was a start.

We arrived back at Tasucu town and parked near the centre. We needed to find a Cash Machine and then a ticket office.

After walking around a little while, I asked a guy in an office, who pointed us in the right direction. There was a bank with a cash machine, and we successfully got some cash.

So, we next needed a ticket office, and we walked back down the road a little, we found a couple of Travel Agents and chose one that we liked the look of. One chap had good English and we bought the tickets. Two people and a car YTL280.

We were booked on the Calypso, operated by Fergun shipping, sailing midnight from Tasucu to Girne, passage approximately 4 - 5 hours.

This had used more of our cash just gotten out of the machine, so we popped back and got a little more just in case.

There wasn't a lot we could do in town, and it was going to be dark soon, so we headed back to the ferry gate.

We killed time until about eight o'clock. There were lorries and a couple of other cars, we were given the sign to move and started the process of boarding.

After going through the Port gate, we stopped and went to an office window, this turned out to be payment of Port Taxes. YTL10 per person and YTL20, for the car, total YTL40. We were glad of our second visit to the cash machine.

Next window, was something to do with Police, we showed the passports and they took they car number and were told to move towards the ferry.

There were four vessels tied up, and we were pointed to a place to park. Advised that we needed to see the Passport Police and Customs. I found customs and they said we had to clear Passport Police first and the should turn up at ten o'clock.

One Port Guard introduced himself to me, name of Aslan, and asked me where we were from, we had a conversation in broken English.

There were other offices around and I had my papers checked and notes made in the passports, but, if I'm honest, I couldn't honestly tell you, what they were all about.

Aslan, found me and told me that the Passport Police were there and were to go.

We joined the queue and at our turn there seemed to be a problem, not so much with us, but something that the Bodrum people had done or not done with the stamps in our passports. They didn't seem to be able to find us on the computer either.

After a lot of communicating amongst themselves and trying to call other people, we were asked to take a seat and they went off. Strangely they left the passports with us.

A short while later the guy came out of the office and took the passports and went to the booth.

After looking at the passports again and playing with the computer, he stamped them.

A not inconsiderable feeling of relief came over both of us.

Next came Customs, who looked at our passports, took the car registration, took us to a man outside who signed our passports, back to the office and we were given a piece of paper, told we were cleared and should await instructions to load.

As we came out a guy stopped us and told us to load. We started moving off and then were told to stop by someone else, then told to go in five minutes, it all worked out in the end, he came back and directed us on to the ship.

We went on and ended being the first on board. We parked the car as directed and then had our tickets checked.

We went up to the lounges and had some Cay (tea)

The ferry is not new and has certainly seen better days. In fact it would be not unreasonable to describe as the worst we have been on.

The overall 500 mile drive ended up being 571. I'm guessing but I would think our average speed today was only 40 mph, with the mountain roads.

7141 miles completed on the car today.

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Photos

Turkish Med coast
Roadworks