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Our first stop on our world tour took us to Istanbul where we were to meet our fellow travellers and Frosty, our truck, for the next 5 weeks. There are 14 people mainly Australian and New Zealanders, plus our driver and tour guide (Brendan & Justin) plus a trainee crew who will be with us until Aleppo (Caz & Paul).
The truck has no discernable suspension with sports bra's being advised for the back seat. As for driving here, lanes are optional and the horn is I am sure linked to either the brake or the accelerator as it is in continuous use.
Gallipoli More for the Aussies and Kiwis than the Brits although interesting. First night together and I (carla) have to share a room with 6 blokes (yuck). To top it all the trainee driver, who we thought was the 8th Dwarf, "Snorey" as he kept us awake throughout the entire night.
Troy We visited Troy, the real thing Honestly :-P
Quite funny to see this wooden horse mockup, which like children we all climbed and stuck our heads out of the openings. No grown ups on this tour, not even the over fifties, which
makes for a good laugh. The two eldest members of the group were the parents of the Driver and probably the biggest bad influence on the group. Our home for the night was a little place in the middle of nowhere. Lovely place with a pool and a bar. The festivities when on until about 2am just after someone fell into the pool. The late night revellers were revealed in the morning, Janet (Brendan the drivers mom) and Aileen (Cheryls mom) both struggled to get on the truck, prefering the sanctity of their bathrooms.
Ephesus This is an Ionic city which later became Roman. Partially ruined, the most striking building is the library, except for the men who were very interested in the brothel and many houses of pleasure dotted around the city.
Kas From Ephesus we drove to the sleepy town of Kas on the Mediteranean coast. The drive along small mountain roads in a truck that weighs 19 tonnes was a little hair raising at times but it was very beautiful. Our hotel was small but we had a balcony with views over the bay looking out onto one of the Greek islands, not bad on
a budget tour. The town was very picturesque with many alleyways leading off a central square. Topping that, the next day we spent on a Gullet, a small wooden sailing ship, crusing the Med whilst snorkelling, watching a turtle idling around the boat, looking at the sunken city (Kekova) and best of all watching the driver and one of the passengers showing off on a jet ski and falling off in a spectacular manner much to the delight of the rest of the group. Just before docking we were boarded by some very scary people with guns from a coast guard vessel. We hid four of the passengers in the toilets as the boat was only supposed to have 12 passengers, an entertaining end to the day.
Olympos We were here two days - it was a place to chill out, drink cheap beer in the surrounding hotel gardens and one evening took a bumpy drive in the boot of a 4x4 with no lights and a driver who needed directions from a motorcyclist into the hills to see the "Chimera" which is natural gas flame seeping out from the hillside. By day we walked through the ruins (Turkey
has '00s of them) to get to the beach and walked the nearby dry river bed where we saw snake and terrapins.
Cappadocia For all you film buffs, we camped in a place called Goreme, but the area of Cappadocia was where the first Star Wars was filmed - Luke Skywalker's home. In fact the cave dwellings have been used for hundreds of years and some still are. Beneath the ground, there is a subterranean town which is thought to run for miles. Not good if you are claustrophobic.
Our accomodation for the 3 nights we were here was a communal cave of our own, complete with log fire and beer supply.
I (Andy) went for a Turkish bath with some of the group and can honestly say it was a pleasant experience - hearing one's back click with a grown man stood on it is not as bad as it sounds....
We finished with a traditional Turkish night, and this is how it works. For what seems like hours and hours there is lots of Turkish dancing, some good, some bad, some indifferent.
Free alcohol flows like water from a stream, some of the
guests, the Tour Guide and Trainee Driver in particular took full advantage and drank obscene amounts of vodka in less time than it takes to say "the belly dancer looks a bit rough" and retire for the evening. Raki tastes like Pernod and in turn you all end up doing the conga, shaking your ass and your belly and generally having a good time.
From here we headed for Syria but unfortunately we ran out of fuel before we could reach the border. Fuel in Syria is a fraction of the price it is in Turkey but visions of the guide going for fuel on the back of a tractor will stay with us for a very long time. Brendan the driver copped some stick, particularly from his father. The excuse we got was, no working fuel gauge....
It took 4 hours to cross the border, a mere trifle compared to the amount of time required to enter Egypt later on this tour, but bloody mind-numbing nonetheless. Football in no-man's land was the only solution to pass the time....
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