Birthdays, Bubbles and The Beginning

We last wrote before the trip had started and having not yet met Penelope the truck, hence this is a biggun as we have a lot to catch up on.  We arrived in Greece on the eve of Hels’ birthday, but with plenty to do before setting off, celebrations were postponed and it was straight to work, putting the finishing touches to the truck and shopping for provisions.  When learning the registration number, handy at borders, we found the easiest way was to make it a rhyme, DK55 KBV became “Donkey Kong 55, Kirsten’s Beloved Vegemite”.  After two nights of feta cheese salads we entered Turkey and drove into Istanbul, late in the day to avoid the notorious traffic.  A cold beer on arrival in the early hours went down very well.

Penelope in her Greek winter retreat

You don't need to mop the roof Rogs!

Back to her shiny best

Mega shopping list

Packing it all in

Hels enjoying a birthday beer on the beach

Driving into Istanbul in the dark

The crew managed to fit in a quick bit of sightseeing the day before the trip started.  Visiting the underground cisterns, Blue Mosque and a wander around Taksim Square.

Rogs turns tourist and joins the queue

The Basilica Cisterns

Head of Medusa in the Cisterns

The Blue Mosque

Rogs and Hels inside the Blue Mosque

Grand Bazaar

Taksim tram

Street entertainment

Fishermen crowd the bridge

Hagia Sophia

Inside the Hagia Sophia

It was time to meet the group who will be spending the next 3 months together on this adventure, a small, perfectly formed group of twelve plus two crew.  After negotiating multiple forms of public transport with some of the group to find, eventually, the Uzbekistan Embassy to apply for visas, and getting thoroughly soaked in an unexpected downpour.  We then gathered in the reception of the hotel before walking a few minutes to a nearby roof terrace restaurant with fantastic views of the Hagia Sophia and Bosphorous.  The crew talked a lot and the group introduced themselves before getting to know each other further over a good meal.  The best announcement of the evening was the one vegetarian declaring she was no longer vegetarian!  Not that we can’t cater for veggies but it just makes the logistics of cooking a little easier.  The only duplicate names we have are the David’s, so for ease, one is Big Dave and the other just David or Dave, he’s the one with the impressive beard.

A couple of days later we had a slight false start leaving Istanbul as the night didn’t provide quite enough hours to replace a part in the gearbox and repeatedly bleed the system, a problem that had only become evident at the last moment.  Thankfully only a couple of hours behind schedule we boarded Penelope to join the Istanbul morning traffic and navigate out and across the bridge marking the divide between Europe and Asia.

Burning the midnight oil in the workshop

Rogs and the offending part

Boarding the bus, I mean truck

Colourful Istanbul

Leaving Europe and entering Asia on a rather dreary morning

Moody skies en route

A marathon first day’s drive, worth it to then be able to have a relaxing three nights in Goreme, the heart of Cappadocia.  Arriving in darkness made for a good first challenge setting up camp.  Rather than overloading information on what’s where we’d organized to eat in town and all devoured the traditional Turkish feast of a beef stew served straight out of a clay pot, cracked open in front of you.

Goreme camp set up

Settling in to camp over a bottle of wine

The first day in Goreme, also Tom’s birthday, was spent hopping in and out of a luxury minibus to see various sites including cave churches with beautiful frescoes carved by Byzantine Christians who also hid in underground cities from Islamic armies from the 4^th to the 11^th Centuries.

Typical fairy chimneys

Goreme open air museum

Group visit to a pottery factory

Tom has a go on the potter's wheel

The group had their first taste of camp food and sleeping under canvas.  The tents huddled close together, we predict they will spread as the weeks go on and the snorers are identified.  On the second full day hills were climbed, Rose Valley walked and the open-air museum visited.

The following morning alarm clocks were set for 4.45am, David’s birthday, not for an early celebration but to appreciate the Cappadocian landscape the ultimate way, from above.  In a hot air balloon alongside 99 other balloons filled with tourists from around the world.

Fire up the burners!

Good morning sun

Iain enjoying the ride

Cappadocian landscape

Dave’s birthday began and ended with bubbles.  Starting when our pilot popped the first cork to celebrate an excellent flight and safe landing, nearly directly onto the trailer. 

Our pilot Nejat pops the cork

We then set off in a North Easterly direction towards Trabzon with a plan to stop about half way and camp for the night.  Pausing to pick up some fresh bread for lunch we walked into a small supermarket and found the bread cabinet empty and all the lights off, a power saving measure.  One quick phone call from the friendly owner and bread was apparently “on the way”.  Before we knew it we were then all invited in to the supermarket for tea.  The lady of the shop delighted to host us all for a short time, it was difficult to judge who was more touched, us for receiving such warm hospitality in the most unlikely place or the lady who was given a couple of gifts from the group, an Australian tea towel and a small toy koala.  The bread appeared, hands were shaken and we waved goodbye to a smiling, double hand waving Turkish lady through the window of the shop.

Our first bushcamp was the best we could have hoped for, a stunning lakeside spot.  A quick rain shower on arrival also provided us with a rainbow, most auspicious, followed by warm evening sunshine.  Tom made the most of the facilities and went for a skinny dip in the chilly lake.  Three bottles of bubbly then appeared for a joint celebration of the three Taurean’s birthdays, Hels, Tom and David.  The first camp fire of the trip helped to melt the cheese on top of a delicious pasta bake.

Birthday boy David pot-washing back at camp, don't tell his wife!

Tea in the supermarket, as you do

David's birthday tea party

The shopkeeper with her gifts

Tom, Anita and Sue swinging at a lunch stop

That looks like the perfect spot for a bush camp!

"If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain"

Tom going for a dip

Then the sun came out!

Judy, Iain and Maggie chop chopping

Tom, Jo-Ann, Big Dave, Gary & Ross

David, Tom and Hels popping their corks

David & Tom sharing out the bubbles

Rogs looking happy with his new Australia oven gloves

Now that's cheesy past bake

Breakfast with a view and it was back on the road towards the Black Sea coast.  Twisty mountain roads, tunnels, hillsides dotted with villages and mosques, alpine in places.  Our resting place for the night is Macka, a small town with a comfortable hotel which makes us feel like we’re in a ski chalet, including a three course dinner and breakfast, what a treat.  Sumela Monastery nearby will be worth the hike up in the morning to marvel at, built in Byzantine times, clinging improbably to the cliff face.

Morning yoga for Anita, Maggie & Hels

Breakfast spread

Mosques dotting the hillsides

Spot the truck at a lunch stop in Tirebolu on the Black Sea

Georgia beckons later tomorrow; the trip is well and truly under way.  Turkey has been good to us, and we’ll miss the 4.30am daily call to prayer playing out from the nearest mosque.

Bye bye Turkey!

With thanks to Iain and David for a few photographic contributions.